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Mary worked for a national company that was hosting a conference for her job at a hotel in a city 500 miles from her home.

Mary worked for a national company that was hosting a conference for her job at a hotel in a city 500 miles from her home.  She had to stay at the hotel for the days of the conference because she lived too far away to commute to the conference from her home.  Per her company's rules, since she was not attending the conference with anyone from her job's location, she had to share a room with someone else attending the conference from another location of the same national company.  When Mary checked in to the hotel and conference, she learned her roommate would be Nancy.  Mary did not personally know Nancy, but she had heard of her name from being on conference calls together in the past.  Mary and Nancy each had a key to the hotel room.  They each had their own bed, but had to share the TV, dressers, closet, and bathroom.  The police received a tip that someone was dealing drugs out of the hotel.  The police thought they would knock on all the doors of the hotel and see if any of the guests would consent to have their hotel room searched for drugs or related paraphernalia.  When the police knocked on the door to Mary and Nancy's room, Mary answered the door.  The police explained to her what was going on and Mary consented to having the room searched because she was not into drugs and had nothing to hide.  Upon searching the room, police found bags of white powder in the bathroom.  After conducting a quick field test, it was revealed that the white powder in the bags was cocaine.  The police asked Mary if the drugs were hers and she denied that they were hers.  Mary she was sharing the hotel room with Nancy while attending the conference, alluding that the drugs could be Nancy's.  While this was going on, Nancy happened to come back to the room.  The police asked Nancy if the drugs were hers and she denied that they were.  The police checked the criminal records of both Mary and Nancy and realized Mary had a clean record and that Nancy had multiple arrests for drug related offenses in the past.  The police also found Nancy's fingerprints on the bags and that Mary's fingerprints were not on them.  Based on this and their experience and intuition, the police arrested Nancy for possession of cocaine.  Later, Nancy contended she was unlawfully arrested claiming the police illegally searched and seized items from her hotel room and that the evidence against her must be suppressed. 


 Was there a reasonable search, seizure, and/or arrest in this scenario? Explain and describe any exceptions that may apply.

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Answer i Mary voluntarily consented to the police search of the hotel room Since Mary had authority ... blur-text-image

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