Defendant’s stop for being involved in a shooting which was based on nothing more than an unsubstantiated rumor from an unsupported CI and the victim that he was involved was without reasonable suspicion. United States v. Cobbs, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 124074 (N.D. Iowa May 26, 2023) (rumor is my word, not the court’s).
There was probable cause for the search of the vehicle under the automobile exception. Therefore, the standing question doesn’t even have to be decided. Commonwealth v. Hudson, 2023 Va. App. LEXIS 460 (July 18, 2023).*
There was probable cause to believe defendant and his car were involved in delivering prostitutes, and that justified a stop and search. United States v. Thomas, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 123207 (N.D. Okla. July 18, 2023).*
“As discussed above, the Court has concluded that the alleged omissions or falsehoods were either immaterial to the finding of probable cause, not supported by the record, or mere conclusory allegations.” Morgan v. Wilson, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 123545 (W.D.Ark. June 23, 2023).*
1/6 defendants didn’t object to Facebook materials obtained by search warrant. In their motion for new trial they’re concerned with one entry in 14,000 pages that the government must have exceeded the warrant. “Even if these underdeveloped allegations held water, no miscarriage of justice would have occurred.” United States v. Ballenger, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122992 (D.D.C. July 18, 2023).*
Plaintiff’s actions in criticizing the police he was observing led to his takedown. He stated a First and Fourth Amendment claim for retaliation and excessive force. Jordan v. Adams Cnty. Sheriff’s Office, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 18164 (10th Cir. July 18, 2023).*
Defendant’s stop for overtinted windows was reasonable. The ten minutes of the stop for ordinary incidences of the stop was reasonable. United States v. Davis, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 18180 (7th Cir. July 18, 2023).*
Defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim that defense counsel didn’t investigate a search and seizure claim was insufficient. Tate v. State, 2023 Miss. App. LEXIS 266 (July 18, 2023).*
“Even if we assume that Deputy Johnson had an investigatory motive, we still hold that the inventory search was reasonable. Indeed, after Deputy Johnson arrested Nielsen on an active felony-drug warrant, SCSD policy required Deputy Johnson to have Nielsen’s vehicle towed. Although the policy provided a limited exception in which Deputy Johnson could have allowed Moran to pick up the vehicle, Deputy Johnson reasonably exercised his discretion in refusing to do so given that he knew Moran lived approximately 25-30 minutes away.” United States v. Nielsen, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 18136 (8th Cir. July 18, 2023).
Petitioner “presents no evidence showing a defect in the search warrant and fails to otherwise establish a meritorious Fourth Amendment claim. Consequently, he cannot establish his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel for not filing a motion to suppress.” Maldonado v. Sec’y, Dep’t of Corr., 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122733 n.4 (M.D. Fla. July 17, 2023).*
Defendant’s post-conviction ineffective assistance of counsel claim fails because he can’t show that he’d prevail on the Fourth Amendment claim. United States v. Galletta, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122268 (E.D. Pa. July 17, 2023).*
The CBP officer had reasonable suspicion of smuggling undocumented people three miles from the border on a local road. United States v. Jaramillo, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122829 (D.Ariz. July 17, 2023).*
The warrant was particular when it showed a picture of the premises with the address. The photograph showed the detached garage on the curtilage. That was covered by the warrant, too. When the government raised standing in response to defendant’s motion to suppress, he at least addressed it in his reply brief asserting that he’d been there for the previous year as a guest. That was enough. United States v. Harrison, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122822 (N.D. Ohio July 17, 2023).
Defendant sought to enforce a non-prosecution agreement after a small quantity of drugs was found in a search. It was not by a motion to suppress. Defendant stated enough to get a hearing. Not a Fourth Amendment case. United States v. Bailey, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 18073 (4th Cir. July 17, 2023).*
Plaintiff executor stated a claim for excessive force. Remanded. M.A.R. v. City of Los Angeles, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 18078 (9th Cir. July 17, 2023).*
“But an officer’s request for a warrant is inherently an assertion that probable cause exists. Mr. Clark has not identified any basis—and the Court is not aware of one—for finding that an officer violates the Fourth Amendment by including the phrase ‘probable cause’ in his affidavit. His attorneys were not deficient because they did not cite this as grounds for invalidating the warrant.” Clark v. United States, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122228 (S.D. Ind. July 17, 2023).*
Asking a stopped motorist about whether there were illegal drugs in the car was a question of officer safety because of fentanyl. “The questions here primarily involved the presence of weapons, although Officer Ragusa very briefly mentioned ‘illegal narcotics.’ The officer’s mere reference to ‘illegal narcotics’ is insufficient to change the outcome here. First, the question about illegal narcotics is also related to officer safety since exposure to certain narcotics may present a risk to officers, including potential adverse health effects.” United States v. Green, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122740 (M.D. Fla. July 17, 2023).
Plaintiff’s patdown in the jail was intrusive and even involved touching her breast, but it wasn’t unreasonable. “ To the extent that Plaintiff intended to allege that this pat-down search violated the Fourth Amendment, as explained below, Plaintiff has failed to state a claim. Plaintiff’s allegations suggest that the pat-down was conducted while Plaintiff was clothed, and a pat-down search is necessarily intrusive, even sexually intrusive.” Spoors v. Kent Cnty. Corr. Facility, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121842 (W.D. Mich. July 14, 2023).*
The officer knew that an owner of the vehicle had warrants. When he saw the driver, the operator was close enough by description to the owner to justify the stop. When defendant got out of the car, marijuana was seen on his person. United States v. Heard, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121861 (E.D. N.C. July 14, 2023).*
Posted inPrison and jail searches, Reasonable suspicion|Comments Off on M.D.Fla.: Briefly asking about “illegal narcotics” during a traffic stop not unreasonable because of fentanyl
While one can have a reasonable expectation of privacy in something he doesn’t own (as in bailment or contract), here it was a video recorded by another of him possessing firearms. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the video. United States v. Gaulden, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 17995 (5th Cir. July 14, 2023).
There was a factual dispute whether plaintiff consented to the entry into the home, and that precluded summary judgment and qualified immunity. Plaintiff stated a Fourth Amendment claim. Smith v. Lee, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 17997 (5th Cir. July 14, 2023).*
Defendant’s Franks motion fails for lack of an offer of proof of falsity or materiality. United States v. Salas-Nieves, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121790 (D.P.R. July 14, 2023).*
The stop of defendant’s car for lack of a front license plate was valid, but the search lacked probable cause. Suppressed. People v. Sweeney, 2023 VI SUPER 40U, 2023 V.I. LEXIS 27 (July 11, 2023).*
Defendant’s claim that the officer exaggerated some facts in the affidavit for warrant didn’t state a Franks challenge without an allegation it was done to mislead. United States v. Delgado, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121793 (E.D.Mich. July 14, 2023).
“The affidavit in this case contained a minimally sufficient nexus between James’s drug dealing and his residence at 1698 Coventry. It explained his back-and-forth travel to a large-scale marijuana and THC enterprise in Michigan and his ongoing role in manufacturing marijuana and THC products and regularly distributing them in Northern Ohio in the months leading up to the search. Additionally, the affidavit noted several instances of suspected drug trafficking behavior at or near James’s residence.” United States v. James, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 17967 (6th Cir. July 13, 2023).*
“Sanders argues that there were no exigent circumstances allowing for the warrantless seizure of his dogs. But we have held that animals facing imminent danger from heat, lack of water, lack of nutrients, and living amongst squalor such as feces, bugs, and dirty water create an exigent circumstance allowing for the warrantless seizure of the animals. … And the conditions in which Sanders’s dogs were found certainly align with those we have found endanger the lives of animals and indicate exigent circumstances exist.” Sanders v. Genesee Cnty., 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 17975 (6th Cir. July 14, 2023).*
Posted inEmergency / exigency, Nexus|Comments Off on E.D.Mich.: Claim of exaggerated facts doesn’t state Franks violation without showing intent to mislead
The fact the CI related information that was publicly known doesn’t support the story. “Although the Court concludes that the Apple/iCloud warrant was not supported by probable cause, the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule applies.” The case was a pay to play scheme of bribery, and the affidavit shows nexus to defendant’s iPhone and iCloud account. The phone was used in furtherance of the scheme. Searching the entire iCloud account was sufficiently limited by specifying the crime that limited it. There is a time limitation because the crime didn’t start until 2015. United States v. Sollars, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121792 (E.D. Mich. July 14, 2023).*
Defendant’s location and actions driving in a rural area near Nogales gave reasonable suspicion for an immigration stop. United States v. Taylor, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120967 (D. Ariz. June 21, 2023).*
There was no motion to suppress, but there were no grounds to suppress. People v. Youngblood, 2023 Mich. App. LEXIS 4938 (July 13, 2023);* People v. Martin, 2023 Mich. App. LEXIS 4933 (July 13, 2023).*
Just because some information in the application for the warrant was in footnotes, the court won’t assume the issuing magistrate didn’t read them. United States v. Oladipo, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121268 (D. Mass. July 14, 2023).*
A typo in the date on a GPS tracking warrant was a technical irregularity that did not substantively prejudice him. State v. Campbell, 2023 Kan. LEXIS 49 (July 14, 2023).
The fact defendant’s statement to the police that formed the partial basis for the search warrant for his place was not recorded did not make it unreliable or undermine the probable cause showing. State v. Hair, 2023-Ohio-2422 (6th Dist. July 14, 2023).*
Appellant’s Fourth Amendment argument admittedly was foreclosed by a 2001 case, and this panel, of course, can’t overrule it. United States v. Baca, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 17904 (10the Cir. July 14, 2023).*
The officer had reasonable suspicion from two people in a rented Ford Expedition where the contents were hidden by blankets and the answers to rudimentary questions were vague and uncertain. Defendant’s state constitutional argument wasn’t sufficiently developed to show why it should be different than the Fourth Amendment analysis. Ramirez v. State, 2023 WY 70, 2023 Wyo. LEXIS 71 (July 14, 2023).*
Police using an Apple iPhone camera to see through a car’s window tinting did not violate any reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Poller, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121262 (D. Conn. July 14, 2023):
Posted inReasonable expectation of privacy|Comments Off on D.Conn.: Police using an iPhone camera to see through a car’s window tinting did not violate any REP
This started as a lawful traffic stop, but the officer promptly detoured to a drug investigation and used a drug dog when defendant refused consent, and Rodriguez was violated. People v. Gyorgy, 2023 Cal. App. LEXIS 536 (4th Dist. July 14, 2023):
The officer told defendant he’d get a telephonic warrant for a blood draw, and defendant responded with threats to follow him home. They were admissible at trial. State v. Hardin, 2023 MT 132, 2023 Mont. LEXIS 701 (July 11, 2023).
Defendant’s motion for return of property fails for not being able to show a possessory interest in it. United States v. Hatter, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117920 (N.D. Ala. May 24, 2023),* adopted, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116836 (N.D. Ala. July 7, 2023).*
Defendant raised discovery of exculpatory material for the search warrant affidavit in discovery. He should file a motion to suppress instead. United States v. Githens, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117906 n.1 (E.D.Cal. July 10, 2023).*
“[A] petitioner may obtain habeas review of Fourth Amendment claims only if he establishes either that ‘“the state has provided no corrective procedures at all to redress the alleged fourth amendment violations,” or, “if the state has provided a corrective mechanism,” that the petitioner “was precluded from using that mechanism because of an unconscionable breakdown in the underlying process.”’” He fails on his Fourth Amendment habeas claim. Fuertes v. Gerbing, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117978 (E.D.N.Y. July 10, 2023).*
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on MT: Threats to officer after saying he’d get a SW admissible at trial
Search incident of defendant’s suitcase that came to the police station with him was reasonable when he was arrested at a motel he hadn’t checked into yet. The police didn’t know what was in there, and safety was also a concern. Moraga v. State, 2023 Tex. App. LEXIS 5110 (Tex. App. – Austin July 14, 2023).
Finding defendant at the scene of a burglary with probable cause he was involved justified a search incident of his truck. United States v. Shaffar, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120647 (E.D. Mo. July 5, 2023).
This anticipatory warrant was valid. “[B]ased on the information in the search warrant affidavit, an objectively reasonable officer would have likely concluded that the marijuana would be delivered to the mobile home as the result of a prearranged controlled delivery and surveillance would confirm that the marijuana would be found there prior to execution of the warrant. … Because the executing officers did not execute the warrant until they confirmed that Lyons had not removed the marijuana from the mobile home, an objectively reasonable officer could also conclude that the triggering condition had been satisfied prior to the search. … [T]he district court did not err in concluding that Lyons failed to establish that the good faith exception did not apply, ….” United States v. Lyons, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 17837 (5th Cir. July 13, 2023).*
No reasonable expectation of privacy [standing] in a stolen car. United States v. Burkhalter, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120556 (W.D. Mo. July 13, 2023).
On a probation search, “Applying these principles, the Court finds that Brooks has failed to meet his burden to show the evidence at issue was seized through harassment. As an initial matter, the Court rejects Brooks’s argument that Dep. Consentino’s asserted basis for initiating the traffic stop—‘a cracked windshield’—necessarily constitutes harassment.” Harassment suggests a pattern. United States v. Brooks, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120317 (W.D. Tex. July 13, 2023).*
The state constitutional law of consent is fixed by the state supreme court, and this court can’t change it. State v. Bankson, 2023 Iowa App. LEXIS 548 (July 13, 2023).*
“[T]he Fourth Amendment protects liberty interests only until trial, and the Fourteenth Amendment protects against unlawful seizures ‘through and after trial.’” Mervilus v. Union Cnty., 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 17760 (3d Cir. July 13, 2023).*
Seizure at the threshold of a home on reasonable suspicion violates the Fourth Amendment which requires probable cause. State v. Cundy, 2023 Wisc. App. LEXIS 761 (July 13, 2023):
The police had no information even suggesting that another person was in the premises, and a protective sweep after defendant was arrested was unjustified. People v. Hadlock, 2023 NY Slip Op 03819, 2023 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3839 (3d Dept. July 13, 2023).
Plaintiff’s prison strip search on moving from a secure housing unit was not conducted unreasonably, even if female staff members happened to see it. Ansley v. Wetzel, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119227 (M.D. Pa. July 11, 2023).*
The warrant was issued on probable cause, so the [potentially thorny] standing question doesn’t have to be decided. The omissions from the affidavit don’t undermine the probable cause finding. United States v. Juneau, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 17735 (8th Cir. July 13, 2023).*
Pro se motion to suppress for a Franks violation is denied as untimely. On the merits, it fails for lack of a showing of no probable cause. “Finally, assuming arguendo that these statements were false, Browner has also failed to demonstrate that the ‘inclusion of the omitted facts’—that a cellphone, firearm, and ammunition had previously been confiscated—in the affidavit would have precluded a finding of probable cause.” United States v. Browner, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120030 (M.D. Ala. July 12, 2023).*
“Therefore, to extend the stop past this point to deploy his K9 partner, Frizko, even by mere minutes, Trooper Rauenhorst would have needed an additional, separate reasonably articulable factual basis upon which to believe a different offense was in need of further investigation. See Rodriguez, 575 U.S. at 353. [¶] No such separate reasonable, articulable suspicion existed here—even considered in their totality.” United States v. Calixtro-Loya, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119700 (D. Minn. May 22, 2023),* adopted, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119306 (D. Minn. July 12, 2023).*
Defendant consented to the dog sniff on the totality. “Defendants are adults, and no one suggests that they were under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the stop. Trooper Rauenhorst asked in a cordial and relaxed manner about the K-9 search. He did not display his weapon, raise his voice, place restraints on Defendants, or promise them anything before receiving Pacheco-Rivera’s consent. Defendants were seated in the car and not under arrest when Pacheco-Rivera consented to the K-9 search, and Trooper Rauenhorst did not ask Defendants to exit the Corolla until after Pacheco-Rivera consented.” United States v. Calixtro-Loya, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119306 (D. Minn. July 12, 2023).*
Officers had probable cause defendant lived where he was found as an absconder. Therefore, standing doesn’t have to be decided. United States v. Mitchell, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119570 (D. Nev. July 12, 2023).*
"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't." —Me
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well." –Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw), Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things (1868) (erroneously attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, among others)
“I am still learning.” —Domenico Giuntalodi (but misattributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (common phrase throughout 1500's)).
"Love work; hate mastery over others; and avoid intimacy with the government."
—Shemaya, in the Thalmud
"It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
—Charles Dickens, “The Old Curiosity Shop ... With a Frontispiece. From a Painting by Geo. Cattermole, Etc.” 255 (1848)
"A system of law that not only makes certain conduct criminal, but also lays down rules for the conduct of the authorities, often becomes complex in its application to individual cases, and will from time to time produce imperfect results, especially if one's attention is confined to the particular case at bar. Some criminals do go free because of the necessity of keeping government and its servants in their place. That is one of the costs of having and enforcing a Bill of Rights. This country is built on the assumption that the cost is worth paying, and that in the long run we are all both freer and safer if the Constitution is strictly enforced." —Williams v. Nix, 700 F. 2d 1164, 1173 (8th Cir. 1983) (Richard Sheppard Arnold, J.), rev'd Nix v. Williams, 467 US. 431 (1984).
"The criminal goes free, if he must, but it is the law that sets him free. Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence." —Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659 (1961).
"Any costs the exclusionary rule are costs imposed directly by the Fourth Amendment."
—Yale Kamisar, 86 Mich.L.Rev. 1, 36 n. 151 (1987).
"There have been powerful hydraulic pressures throughout our history that bear heavily on the Court to water down constitutional guarantees and give the police the upper hand. That hydraulic pressure has probably never been greater than it is today." — Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 39 (1968) (Douglas, J., dissenting).
"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property." —Entick v. Carrington, 19 How.St.Tr. 1029, 1066, 95 Eng. Rep. 807 (C.P. 1765)
"It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. And so, while we are concerned here with a shabby defrauder, we must deal with his case in the context of what are really the great themes expressed by the Fourth Amendment." —United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting)
"The course of true law pertaining to searches and seizures, as enunciated here, has not–to put it mildly–run smooth." —Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 618 (1961) (Frankfurter, J., concurring).
"A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable." —Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 325 (1987)
"For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. ... But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected." —Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967)
“Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.” —United States v. Olmstead, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1925) (Brandeis, J., dissenting)
“Liberty—the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government—is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs too well as by those whose purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.” —United States v. $124,570, 873 F.2d 1240, 1246 (9th Cir. 1989)
"You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes / You just might find / You get what you need." —Mick Jagger & Keith Richards, Let it Bleed (album, 1969)
"In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me–and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
—Martin Niemöller (1945) [he served seven years in a concentration camp]
“Children grow up thinking the adult world is ordered, rational, fit for purpose. It’s crap. Becoming a man is realising that it’s all rotten. Realising how to celebrate that rottenness, that’s freedom.” – John le Carré, The Night Manager (1993), line by Richard Roper
"The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime." —Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948)
The book was dedicated in the first (1982) and sixth (2025) editions to Justin William Hall (1975-2025). He was three when this project started in 1978.
