Category Archives: Neutral and detached magistrate

MT: Lawyer suspended for telling client to refuse to cooperate in execution of a SW

A lawyer telling his girlfriend-client to refuse to cooperate in DUI blood draw by search warrant is suspended for 30 days. Multiple officers were ultimately involved with a restraint chair brought in before she relented. The lawyer was also convicted … Continue reading

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UT: Material change in circumstances found before warrant served should go back to magistrate, but this wasn’t material

Defendant was suspected of attempted video voyeurism, and a search warrant was issued for his gray cell phone. Shortly thereafter, it was discovered that was the wrong phone because it was a white one. Under plain error review, the warrant … Continue reading

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SC permits SW issuing judges to testify to PC. But why? It’s a question of law.

Search warrant issuing judges can testify in South Carolina to why they found probable cause. [Why? Probable cause is a question of law everywhere else in the United States.] The omission of some information didn’t change the probable cause analysis, … Continue reading

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WV: Family court judge can’t conduct searches for marital property; search and seizure is an executive function

In a judicial discipline case, a family court judge who had a 20 year practice of searching parties’ homes for marital property is censured. Search and seizure is an executive function, not a judicial one. This is just inappropriate. In … Continue reading

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PA: No REP in data moving back and forth over a (nearly) public wifi connection where user agreement told users that

Defendant connected to the wifi at his college, and he was aware of the computing access policy that said that he had no Fourth Amendment reasonable expectation of privacy in the information that moved back and forth over his connection. … Continue reading

Posted in Cell site location information, Computer and cloud searches, Digital privacy, Neutral and detached magistrate, Reasonable expectation of privacy | Comments Off on PA: No REP in data moving back and forth over a (nearly) public wifi connection where user agreement told users that

CA1: Burden on “neutral and detached magistrate” is on defense, and here the showing was speculative

The search warrant issuing magistrate’s husband was a doctor and a potential victim of a DoS cyberattack at a children’s hospital in Boston, allegedly perpetrated for personal reasons. The claim the USMJ was not neutral and detached is speculative. “But … Continue reading

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NY3: Issuing magistrate misstating his judicial position not reason to suppress

The issuing magistrate’s misnaming his judicial position (city judge v. acting county judge) didn’t make the search warrant void. People v. Mayhew, 2021 NY Slip Op 01807, 2021 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1924 (3d Dept. Mar. 25, 2021). A “Tag … Continue reading

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CA6: Judge issuing SW isn’t barred from conducting trial

The Michigan state courts’ conclusion that the judge who issued a search warrant was not barred from hearing the trial was based on precedent, the judge didn’t remember the search warrant, and it is not an unreasonable application of existing … Continue reading

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D.S.D.: Issuing magistrate shown not to be neutral and detached in issuing SW wholly lacking in PC

A tribal judge was not a neutral and detached magistrate, and the good faith exception did not apply. The application for the search warrant was technically deficient in both form (lacking a prosecutor’s signature) and substance (completely lacking probable cause), … Continue reading

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CA11: Under GA law, court clerk qualified as “neutral and detached magistrate” for arrest warrants

Plaintiff “raised a section 1983 claim under the Fourth Amendment alleging that McCord did not have legal authority to issue the warrant. The district court concluded that Georgia law authorized McCord to issue warrants. Applying the Supreme Court’s two-part test … Continue reading

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CA6: No 4A right to recording testimony that supplements affidavit, but there’s got to be a record

The state judge who issued the search warrant was a neutral and detached magistrate under the Fourth Amendment. Whether the magistrate had state law jurisdiction is a kind of circular argument under state law, but the Fourth Amendment only requires … Continue reading

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AZ: Challenging neutral and detached magistrate requires showing “systemic or patent partiality”

“In the appeal, Macias argued against the application of the good-faith exception, claiming that the magistrate’s conduct showed he had abandoned impartiality or was unable to act in a neutral and detached manner. … However, to warrant exclusion of the … Continue reading

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OH5: Trial judge signing SW wasn’t ground to recuse

The trial judge having signed a search warrant wasn’t grounds to recuse at trial. Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not raising it. The validity of the search wasn’t even an issue. State v. Ray, 2020-Ohio-1265, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 1197 … Continue reading

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S.D.N.Y.: Govt satisfied § 2705(b) nondisclosure requirements; NDO didn’t violate 1A

The government showed a justifiable basis for a nondisclosure order (NDO) under 18 U.S.C. § 2705(b) of the order directed to Google for six email accounts. Assuming strict scrutiny applied, the government showed it because nondisclosure could prevent compromising an … Continue reading

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CA11: Pro se litigant doesn’t sufficiently allege issuing magistrate wasn’t “neutral and detached”

Pro se prisoner’s complaint against the search warrant process in Georgia fails for a multitude of reasons and is legally frivolous. State law on search warrant does not conflict with federal law and he doesn’t sufficiently allege that the issuing … Continue reading

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D.Haw.: USMJ’s prior civil case involving defendant didn’t make him not “neutral and detached”

The USMJ was involved in a prior qui tam civil case by defendant. Defendant in a later criminal case argues that the USMJ should have been disqualified from considering a search warrant affidavit for her property that led to the … Continue reading

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N.D.Fla.: Unsupported allegation state judge signing SW was “under investigation” doesn’t warrant dismissal of indictment

Defendant’s unsupported claim that the state judge who signed off on his search warrant that led to a federal indictment was under some unspecified investigation doesn’t warrant dismissal of the indictment. United States v. Hamda, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 163199 … Continue reading

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DC: Affidavit’s complete failure to show nexus is a lack of PC and good faith

Without something to go on, the court declines to ascribe a supposed error in an address as a mere typo. Moreover, the affidavit fails to provide any nexus to defendant and the place to be searched, and the good faith … Continue reading

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D.N.D.: The fact the state judge issuing the SW represented a potential witness named in the affidavit didn’t make him not “neutral and detached”

The search warrant issuing state judge was not a neutral and detached magistrate just because he previously represented a potential witness in the case whose name was in the affidavit. There certainly was probable cause. Besides, the good faith exception … Continue reading

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N.D.W.Va.: Factual mistakes in the affidavit for SW didn’t undermine the factual showing; the GFE also applies

There were factual mistakes in the affidavit for search warrant, but it doesn’t undermine the probable cause showing. In any event, the mistakes are in good faith and the good faith exception applies. United States v. Naum, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading

Posted in Good faith exception, Neutral and detached magistrate, Seizure | Comments Off on N.D.W.Va.: Factual mistakes in the affidavit for SW didn’t undermine the factual showing; the GFE also applies