Fourth Amendment: Criminal Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Criminal Law

Fourth Amendment

Case updates with news and views on the law of search and seizure and arrest and detention, including the Fourth Amendment and state law.
By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Post Frequency: 41.7/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 08:26:14

Blog: Grits for Breakfast: Search warrants for polygamist compound may be invalid

Posted on April 09, 2008
Today on the blog Grits for Breakfast: Search warrants for polygamist compound may be invalid. The blog links to the Salt Lake Tribune: FLDS retorts: Raid violated the sect's rights. The pdf of the petition that led to the raid is here. A hearing was set for today...

A mere visitor to a hotel room has no standing, but facts here indicated defendant might have standing

Posted on April 08, 2008
Mere visitor to a hotel room, as opposed to a guest of a guest, has no standing to challenge a search. Here, whether defendant was going to be a guest where another rented two rooms was disputed, so the court assumes that he has standing and rules against him on consent...

Defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in a closed bag while he was visiting another, and she had no apparent authority to consent to a search of it

Posted on April 08, 2008
Defendant had an expectation of privacy in a closed bag hidden in the closet of a house he was visiting. The owner had apparent authority over common areas to consent to a search, but not the bag. By closing the bag, the defendant exhibited a reasonable expectation of privacy from government intrusion...

Plaintiff permitted expert to testify to defendant officers' violation of "The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics"

Posted on April 08, 2008
In a civil case, the plaintiff was tenatively permitted to call an expert witness to testify that the execution of a search warrant violated "The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics." Cvicker v. Meyer, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27397 (E.D. Wis. April 4, 2008): Contrary to Meyer's assertion, Waller is not merely reciting Krueger's declaration, but rather is opining whether Meyer's alleged conduct was in violation of "The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

IL: Franks challenge actually succeeds on alibi

Posted on April 07, 2008
Defendant's alibi affidavits from himself and two witnesses that he was not home and could not have sold drugs to the CI was sufficient to require a Franks hearing and the evidence at the hearing supported the trial court's suppression order under Franks...

AL: Ultraviolet photography of hands not a search

Posted on April 07, 2008
The use of ultraviolet photography on defendant's hands that revealed a he had been sprayed with something during an alleged assault on a police officer was not a search. Williams v. State, 2008 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 69 (April 4, 2008). Defendant's request for an officer to retrieve a film cannister from his pocket after arrest impliedly included permission to open it...

UT: Detaining passengers was unreasonable because there was no reasonable suspicion or probable cause as to them

Posted on April 07, 2008
Detaining the passengers was unlawful under Brendlin. There was cause to detain the driver, but not the passengers, and the officer would not let them leave. State v. Baker, 2008 UT App 115, 2008 Utah App. LEXIS 125 (April 3, 2008): Moreover, the desire to check the vehicle for controlled substances did not require the presence of the passengers, 4 yet Officer Robertson admitted that the passengers were not free to leave while the K-9 unit was en route...

FL: First investigatory stop showed nothing wrong, so second stop was without justification

Posted on April 07, 2008
First encounter with the defendant produced no evidence of wrongdoing, so the second was unjustified. Greider v. State, 2008 Fla. App. LEXIS 4818 (2d DCA April 4, 2008): In sum, a proper analysis of the case at bar requires partitioning the encounter continuum described by Officer Perna into two police-citizen encounters...

There was RS for defendant's stop based on victims' robbery report

Posted on April 07, 2008
Trial court erred in suppressing stop of defendant's vehicle on victims' report of a robbery. State v. Green, 2008 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 71 (April 4, 2008): Here, it appears that the robbery occurred mere minutes before Officer Ferguson stopped Green's vehicle...

Exigent circumstances permitted taking of GSR off hands

Posted on April 07, 2008
Exigent circumstances required the taking of GSR off defendant's hands, and it was not an unreasonable search. United States v. Simmons, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27301 (N.D. W.Va. April 3, 2008).* Defendant probationer's arrest for possession of marijuana in his car justified probation search of his house for more, and the gun found there was admissible...

CA9: SEC investigation led to valid consent that led to a criminal investigation

Posted on April 07, 2008
Consent obtained during an SEC investigation by the SEC was not involuntary because the targets we well aware of the potential for a criminal investigation arising out of it. United States v. Stringer, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 7267 (9th Cir. April 4, 2008): In this case, the SEC made no affirmative misrepresentations...

Search of premises for a person includes a search of anywhere the person could hide, including a closet

Posted on April 06, 2008
Stating the obvious, which it apparently was not for one party, consent to search a house for a person includes any place where that person could be hiding. So, a closet could be searched. A previous protective sweep of the room does not mean that the officers cannot return to the room to look again...

"Behaviorial targeting" and privacy?

Posted on April 06, 2008
Today's NTTimes's has this: The Already Big Thing on the Internet: Spying on Users, by Adam Cohen. The article is about how cookies on our hard drive report us to the Internet sites we visit and how the Internet companies use that information, maybe to our great embarrassment and definitely at a cost of our privacy...

Choice of law: TN law on visibility of license plate applied to OH car

Posted on April 05, 2008
A license plate violation for how it is attached is governed by the law of where the vehicle is located and not where it is licensed. Here, the way the license was attached to this car from Ohio violated Tennessee law because it was not "clearly legible," [a universal requirement,] and that justified the stop...

Welfare check and warrantless entry into defendant's home was justified by his being missing

Posted on April 05, 2008
Welfare check on defendant and entry into his house was justified because he hadn't been heard from at work and he wasn't answering his telephone. State v. Junk, 2008 Ohio 1564, 2008 Ohio App. LEXIS 1335 (6th Dist. March 31, 2008): [*P25] Appellant also argues that an emergency exception did not apply because the police officers entered the residence pursuant to a "welfare check" instead of in response to an emergency...

NM: Mall security guards were governed by the Fourth Amendment in their arrest of defendant as performing a police function

Posted on April 05, 2008
Mall security gaurds were considered state actors for the purposes of the Fourth Amendment for their arrest of the defendant. State v. Santiago, 2008 NMCA 41, 2008 N.M. App. LEXIS 12 (January 31, 2008), certiorari granted, No. 30,953, March 19, 2008: [*17] The mall security guards exceeded their private duties or authorization...

Massive document search of business was quite particular and not excessive, considering the offense under investigation

Posted on April 05, 2008
Massive document and computer search of sub S business was justified. The affidavit detailed allegations of embezzlement by the owner of the company from the employee benefit plan. United States v. Dougherty, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26919 (E.D. Pa. April 2, 2008): The warrant in this case is markedly different from the warrant in Leary...

Officer was justified in shooting plaintiff while he viciously beat two officers

Posted on April 05, 2008
In a rapidly developing fight where the plaintiff hit two cops within seconds and one officer saw the other officer's eyes roll back, he shot the plaintiff, and it was reasonable under the circumstances. Davenport v. Causey, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 7150, 2008 FED App...

Scope of consent issue did not need to be reached because officer had PC when touching packages of cocaine

Posted on April 05, 2008
Consent was validly obtained. While the defendant likely did not think that consent to search the trunk of his car would lead to searching sealed packages, the trained officer at least had probable cause to believe that picking up the package at issue gave him probable cause to believe that the package contained cocaine, and that justified the further search without regard to scope of consent...

NY Times: "Surreptitious sampling" of DNA

Posted on April 05, 2008
NY Times, April 3d, on "surreptitious sampling" of police sneaking around to seize abandoned DNA, like on cigarette butts: Lawyers Fight DNA Samples Gained on Sly.

Impoundment of car did not disspate exigency for search under automobile exception

Posted on April 05, 2008
Police possession of a car for impoundment did not dissipate the initial exigency for an automobile search. The trial court's suppression order is reversed. State v. Ruiz, 2008 Ore. App. LEXIS 429 (April 2, 2008).* Malfunctioning taillight led to one occupants admission she was in possession of Xanax, so that justified a search incident...

Computer search warrant read too narrowly by motions court by ignoring technological realities; suppression reversed

Posted on April 04, 2008
The state showed probable cause and nexus to the places to be searched within the four corners of the affidavit to search for child porn. The motion court's reading was too narrow. Commonwealth v. Anthony, 2008 Mass. LEXIS 208 (April 2, 2008): Contrary to the defendant's assertion, the Commonwealth is not asking this court to loosen the standard for finding the requisite nexus between the criminal activity described in the affidavit and the place to be searched where computer-based crimes are involved...

Video surveillance of school teachers' locker rooms was potentially unreasonable

Posted on April 03, 2008
Teachers showed that they had a reasonable expectation of privacy protecting them from video surveillance in their athletic office and locker room area. One was suspected of theft, but videotaping all of them was potentially unreasonable, at least at the motion to dismiss stage...

Landlord lacks standing in the names of his tenants

Posted on April 03, 2008
A landlord could not claim a privacy interest in the requirements of a local ordinance that required disclosure of the names of tenants. Lopez v. City of Oil City, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25684 (W.D. Pa. March 31, 2008).* Defendant lacked standing to challenge physical manipulation and search of the duffle bags in the van that defendant did not claim...

Sexually violent predators subject to strip and body cavity searches while incarcerated

Posted on April 03, 2008
Sexually violent predator is subject to strip and body cavity searches while incarcerated under Bell v. Wolfish. Sundquist v. Philp, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25560 (N.D. Cal. March 28, 2008).* Mere visitor who was not spending the night who was a guest of a guest that violated the owner's explicit instructions to not invite others over had no standing to challege a search of the apartment he was found in...

N.-M. Ct. App. en banc reverses Weston; husband's objection to consent at CID office did not prevent CID from asking wife without telling her

Posted on April 03, 2008
The Navy-Marines Court of Appeals en banc reverses United States v. Weston, 65 M.J. 774 (N.-M. Ct. App. 2007), [somehow] distinguishing Randolph on its facts, recognizing that its narrow interpretation is part of a split in the Circuits. Husband's objection to consent at CID office did not prevent CID from asking his wife without telling her that he refused...

UT: Subpoena for medical records requires notice, so records suppressed

Posted on April 02, 2008
Utah requires that subpoenas for privileged information be issued on notice under its Civil Rule 45(b) which applies in criminal cases. Here, the prosecutor made a showing of probable cause for judicial authorization of the subpoena, but even that violated the rule because of lack of notice to the person whose privileged records were subpoenaed...

Consent to enter to talk was exceeded by officer looking in bathroom

Posted on April 02, 2008
Consent to enter to talk to the defendant was voluntary, but an officer walking to the bathroom to look around exceeded the scope of consent. State v. Hetrick, 2008 Ohio 1455, 2008 Ohio App. LEXIS 1283 (9th Dist. March 31, 2008). Being in a high-crime area is not reasonable suspicion...

TX: Facts supported warrantless entry for missing woman

Posted on April 01, 2008
Officers objectively had reason to believe that a missing woman might be in appellant's apartment, and that was an exigency for an entry. One officer's subjective belief they did not have enough was irrelevant. Pitonyak v. State, 2008 Tex. App. LEXIS 2244 (Tex...

KS: Failure to specify DNA profile in John Doe arrest warrant was error

Posted on April 01, 2008
Failure to specifically identify a known DNA profile in a John Doe arrest warrant was sufficient to toll the statute of limitations in rape cases. State v. Belt, 2008 Kan. LEXIS 77 (March 28, 2008): Neither the United States Supreme Court nor this court has yet had occasion to address whether a description of DNA characteristics can fulfill a warrant particularity requirement...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

SCOTUS Eminent Domain: 5th Amendment and fighting government retaliation in Wilkie v. Robbins
It’s hard to imagine what else property rights might mean, o...

Eminent Domain, Fifth Amendment Property Rights, and Government Retaliation
On June 25, 2007, the Supreme Court of the United States dec...

British Employment Discrimination Amendment About To Become Effective
An amendment to the definition of "religion or belief" in Britain'...

Equal Rights Amendment
Federal and state lawmakers have launched a new drive to pass the ...