Daily Archives: February 10, 2015

National Journal: Judge Upholds Legality of NSA Internet Surveillance

National Journal: Judge Upholds Legality of NSA Internet Surveillance by Dustin Volz: A California district judge found that “the Plaintiffs’ version of the significant operational details of the Upstream collection process is substantially inaccurate.” TechDirt: Court Rejects EFF’s Arguments Over … Continue reading

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Washington Examiner: 2015 can be the year of criminal justice reform

Washington Examiner: 2015 can be the year of criminal justice reform by Timothy Lynch: Criminal justice reform appears to be one of the hot topics this year. Unlike most other policy areas, where President Obama and Republicans remain at loggerheads, … Continue reading

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Connecticut Law Tribune: Detective Who Didn’t Want to Provide DNA Sample Settles Lawsuit

Connecticut Law Tribune: Detective Who Didn’t Want to Provide DNA Sample Settles Lawsuit by AP: Detective Christopher Burns accused his superiors of telling him and other detectives in January 2009 that they had to give DNA samples or they may … Continue reading

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Recorder: Prosecutors Skeptical of Bill to Require Warrants for Data Searches

Recorder: Prosecutors Skeptical of Bill to Require Warrants for Data Searches by Cheryl Miller: SB 178, which seeks to extend the U.S. Supreme Court’s logic on cellphone searches, has backing from Big Tech, but law enforcement will push back.

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GA: Generalized, boilerplate statements about drug dealers for a no-knock SW don’t satisfy the Fourth Amendment

Generalized, boilerplate statements about drug dealers for a no-knock search warrant don’t satisfy the Fourth Amendment, and the trial court did not err in suppressing the search for lack of announcement. In addition, the product of a search doesn’t justify … Continue reading

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Police One: How cops are catching grow ops with AM radios

Police One: How cops are catching grow ops with AM radios by Keith Graves Many ham operators can locate a grow simply by taking a radio and portable antennae out into their neighborhood and using the radio to triangulate the … Continue reading

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D.Ore.: Second cell phone search warrant 29 mo after first was not unreasonable

The first search warrant for defendant’s phones was valid, and the government could have still used the phones as evidence. But, 29 months later, the government sought a second search warrant to look at the phone again, and found more … Continue reading

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CO statute on advice of right to refuse consent applied under totality standard

Under Colorado’s statute requiring consent searches be preceded by a warning of a right to refuse consent, this consent was valid on the totality of circumstances. He was warned of the right to refuse orally and in writing in English … Continue reading

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W.D.N.Y.: Declining to go as far as the S.D.N.Y., court orders hearing on whether def knew of AOL’s TOS that it reports child porn

AOL’s TOS is a waiver of a reasonable expectation of privacy in images transmitted through AOL. They have the right to look at them and report suspected child pornography to NCMEC. United States v. Heleniak, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15354 … Continue reading

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S.D.Ill.: 9 day delay in getting SW for phone seized on exigent circumstances not unreasonable

A nine day wait to get a search warrant for a cell phone admittedly seized on exigent circumstances was not unreasonable, particularly where the defendant didn’t ask for it back. United States v. Winn, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15240 (S.D. … Continue reading

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S.D.Ill.: Arrest warrant for one person and consent entry didn’t authorize entry into separate apartment in house [excellent discussion of arrest v. search warrants]

Officers had an arrest warrant for Herman Smith at a particular address in Madison, Illinois. They obtained entry by consent. Once inside, they learned that what they thought was a single family residence was really three. They entered defendant’s separate … Continue reading

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