TN: Entry into backyard under pretext of using back door to knock-and-talk violated curtilage

The backyard and back porch of defendant’s house was clearly curtilage, and it violated the Fourth Amendment to do a knock-and-talk at the backdoor. It was 200′ from the road and nothing back there could be seen from the front. Just because the officer had been to that house before and was invited in through the backdoor doesn’t make the backdoor the primary entrance. State v. Womack, 2014 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 1125 (December 5, 2014).

A search warrant was required for defendant’s blood draw, and the state’s justification for not getting a search warrant fails. Cole v. State, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 13498 (Tex. App.–Texarkana December 18, 2014).*

Factual questions on the reasonableness of force precluded summary judgment. Sweat v. Shelton, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 24074 (6th Cir. December 15, 2014).*