Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

4th Cir.: Sending 50 officers to an adminstrative search states a claim for unreasonableness of conduct of administrative search, an issue for remand

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

In a regulatory search case where 50 officers showed up for the search, the Fourth Circuit holds that the record showed that there was a sufficient showing of a regulatory purpose in the search to support it as a regulatory and not criminal search. The court also held that a search of the office was permitted under the statute even though alcohol was not sold from there because that was an unnecessarily narrow reading of the statute. As to unreasonable execution of the administrative warrant, the plaintiff stated a claim for relief, but the court offered guidance [perhaps unnecessarily] to the district court. Ruttenberg v. Jones, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 12907 (4th Cir. June 17, 2008) (unpublished): Based on the facts alleged in the complaint, we do not believe the administrative search of RNR was "employed solely as an instrument of criminal law enforcement...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on June 20, 2008 (boomark / email).