An extraterritorial arrest does not violate the search and seizure provision of the state constitution, like it doesn’t under the Fourth Amendment. The remedies for statutory violations aren’t in the exclusionary rule. State v. Satterfield, 2025 Ida. App. LEXIS 37 (Aug. 26, 2025).
Officers had reasonable suspicion to stop and detain defendant about a mile from the scene of the robbery they were investigating. United States v. Whiting, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 165259 (E.D. Pa. Aug. 26, 2025).*
Where there is probable cause, the good faith exception doesn’t need to be decided. State v. Brown, 2025 Wisc. App. LEXIS 777 (Aug. 26, 2025) (unpublished).*
There were two search warrants for cell phones. The first is void under the good faith exception because there was at best a hunch evidence would be found. The second is valid because it was based on an independent showing of probable cause. United States v. Dove, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 163089 (W.D.N.C. Aug. 22, 2025).
A tip from a foreign law enforcement agency about a Massachusetts IP address trading in CSAM could be credited for probable cause. United States v. Shacar, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 165584 (D. Mass. Aug. 26, 2025).
Because the CI’s role was so limited in the drug buy that led to the warrant, the defense doesn’t get discovery of the CI. Defendant’s not charged with the drug deal. State v. Manzella, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 6583 (Tex. App. – Houston (14th Dist.) Aug. 26, 2025).*
Under this warrant, once things (like safes) were seized from the house, the officers could search without another warrant. United States v. Kipling, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 165267 (E.D. Ky. Aug. 26, 2025).*
Posted inInformant hearsay, Scope of search|Comments Off on D.Mass.: Foreign law enforcement agency could be credited as informant
The state violated no reasonable expectation of privacy by entering the public area of a business. Tucker v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 6617 (Tex. App. – Ft. Worth Aug. 26, 2025).
Exigency not required for automobile exception search on probable cause. Hernandez v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 6613 (Tex. App. – Ft. Worth Aug. 26, 2025).*
Failing to drive fully within one’s lane can justify a stop. Rivera v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 6548 (Tex. App. – Amarillo Aug. 25, 2025).*
Plaintiff’s claim that a housing ordinance that requires a search warrant for inspections fails where it alleged warrants were issued without probable cause but gives no facts that that ever happened. 903 W. Wash. LLC v. City of Jackson, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 164573 (E.D. Mich. Aug. 25, 2025).*
The government’s evidence was so weak that it decided to drop the case after Moore challenged the seizure in federal court. Moore got his money back, but he was still out thousands of dollars in legal fees until last week, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled that he was entitled to compensation for those expenses.
Unlike criminal defendants, civil forfeiture targets have no right to court-appointed counsel, which helps explain why they usually give up without a fight. According to one estimate, more than nine out of 10 federal civil forfeiture cases are resolved without judicial involvement.
Challenging a forfeiture is a complicated and daunting process that is very difficult to navigate without a lawyer. But the cost of hiring one typically exceeds the value of the seized property, meaning forfeiture targets can lose even when they win.
Congress tried to address that problem by passing the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act (CAFRA), a 2000 law that says “the United States shall be liable for reasonable attorney fees” whenever a property owner “substantially prevails” in a federal forfeiture case. But when Moore got his money back and sought $15,000 to pay his lawyers, U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. ruled that he was not entitled to compensation under CAFRA because he had not met that standard.
Posted inImmigration arrests, Stop and frisk|Comments Off on ATL: a “search so obviously unconstitutional that a ‘high school student’ would know it’s illegal”
It was a reasonable conclusion that defendant’s cell phone would have information about this shooting incident. It was reasonable to believe that he had his phone when driving. The time period was also reasonably limited. People v. Terrell, 2025 IL App (3d) 240567, 2025 Ill. App. LEXIS 1042 (Aug. 22, 2025):
The Harris drug dog reliability case applies only to warrantless searches. Here, Postal Inspectors used a drug dog on a suspicious package at the Cleveland sorting center, and then got warrant when the dog alerted. Harris is not an exception to the four-corner rule. United States v. McCarley-Connin, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 21566 (6th Cir. Aug. 22, 2025).
The plaintiffs here ran a HVAC business with multiple employees out of their residence garage, and it was business premises when the city showed up. Jasionowski v. Town of Whitestown, 2025 Ind. App. LEXIS 272 (Aug. 21, 2025).
A guilty plea is a waiver of defendant’s Fourth Amendment claims. United States v. Thompson, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 21554 (4th Cir. Aug. 22, 2025).*
WSJ: Florida Cops Turn Traffic Stops Into Deportations by Arian Campo-Flores, Scott Calvert & Elizabeth Lindell (“A ride-along shows how the state’s police force has become integrated into federal government’s enforcement efforts; ‘You’re here illegally.’”):
Defendant was involved in two connected murders, 13½ months apart, one likely retaliation for the other. The state showed probable cause for the warrant for his cell phone and social media accounts. While part was a close call, the requirement warrants be sustained if possible requires that this one be upheld. Flippins v. State, 2025 Ind. App. LEXIS 271 (Aug. 21, 2025). Defendant’s social media supported probable cause:
Defendant’s Fourth Amendment claim about ALPR requires he show standing in the vehicle he was driving, and here he did not. Even if he had standing, Carpenter provides him no relief. “As an initial matter, the court notes that no reasonable expectation of privacy existed in either the license plate or the vehicle’s movements on public streets.” United States v. Acosta, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 163286 (N.D. Okla. Aug. 22, 2025).
While Missouri is a carry state, “Officer Sheets explained that it was the combination of the defendant pointing/aiming a gun [with a drum magazine] across the street in a residential area and then concealing it once he realized he was being watched by law enforcement that first raised his suspicion that criminal activity may be afoot. The officers’ suspicion was further informed by their familiarity with the area and their knowledge that the neighborhood was known for violence, including homicides, gang activity, and drug trafficking, and their familiarity with the vacant house as location where criminal activity had occurred in the past.” United States v. Conner, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 163547 (E.D. Mo. Aug. 22, 2025).*
Defendant’s feeling around apparently for a firearm (“security check”) in a high crime area, where the officer could see the magazine, was reasonable suspicion. While it could have been for a cell phone, in the abstract, here defendant’s phone was visible in his hand. United States v. Reams, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 163372 (D.N.J. Aug. 22, 2025).*
Although defendant was handcuffed, they aren’t “fail safe” and a search incident of the bag he was holding was reasonable under the circumstances. (His general lack of cooperation was also a factor.) United States v. Collier, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 163195 (D. Neb. Aug. 22, 2025):
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in license plate information. Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not raising that. Williams v. United States, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 21583 (6th Cir. Aug. 22, 2025).
While a sexual assault examination of a child is a Fourth Amendment search by the medical professional, that doesn’t mean the officers bringing her in for it can be sued. They had no participation. Doe v. S.C. Dep’t of Soc. Servs., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 163579 (D.S.C. Aug. 22, 2025).*
“Petitioner merely states a violation of [Fourth Amendment] rights [too] without articulating any reasons for the claim. This is insufficient to demonstrate the conviction and sentence were invalid. ‘Conclusory allegations unsupported by particularized facts are “subject to summary dismissal, as are contentions that in the face of the record are wholly incredible.” Blackledge v. Allision, 431 U.S. 63, 74 (1977); …” Lee v. United States, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 163560 (E.D. Mo. Aug. 22, 2025).*
There is no ineffective assistance of counsel claim for not pursuing a Fourth Amendment claim where the product of the search was not used at trial. State v. Finney, 2025 Del. Super. LEXIS 404 (Aug. 18, 2025).
Crime victims are entitled to more credibility than informants in search warrant affidavits. Here in this fraud case, probable cause was shown, and the warrant was hardly stale. This was a fake trading card fraud, and the Franks attack on probable cause fails because it’s an attack on guilt, not probable cause. Even with the omissions included, there still is probable cause. United States v. Curcio, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 162848 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 21, 2025).*
Another law enforcement officer is not a “party to the transaction” to be a notary or witness on an affidavit for warrant. Gonzalez v. State, 2025 Fla. App. LEXIS 6433 (Fla. 6th DCA Aug. 22, 2025).*
The search of defendant’s vehicle was valid both under the automobile exception and inventory. United States v. Ware, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161649 (E.D. Mo. Aug. 19, 2025).*
“Finally, the Court also agrees with [USM] Judge Dueker’s finding that Defendant abandoned the firearm and controlled substances he threw out of the vehicle while fleeing from the police, thus forfeiting any reasonable expectation of privacy in those items.” United States v. Carter, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161652 (E.D. Mo. Aug. 20, 2025).*
Officers do not get qualified immunity for entering his garage to talk to him about a knock-and-talk. Case law says the front door, but it doesn’t say not the garage where he was standing. Theis v. Van der Stad, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161334 (D. Minn. Aug. 20, 2025).*
The motion for return of the target’s laptop for violating the Fourth Amendment is denied because he doesn’t plead how the Fourth Amendment was violated. Commodities Future Trading Commission v. Alexandre, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 160456 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 19, 2025).
An attempt to stop is not a stop. United States v. Rose, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161729 (N.D. Ga. July 14, 2025).*
Defendant doesn’t get a 38.23 state jury instruction for lack of a fact dispute for the jury to decide. Bell v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 6407 (Tex. App. – Houston (14th Dist.) Aug. 21, 2025).*
Defendant waived appellate review of his cell phone search warrant claim by failing to include the warrant papers in the record for appeal. Journet v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 6397 (Tex. App. – Houston (1st Dist.) Aug. 21, 2025).*
This started with a CI for a search warrant, but the hearing on the motion to suppress revealed there were actually three others. That information was outside the “four corners” but it cemented the probable cause. Guam v. Guerrero, 2025 Guam Trial Order LEXIS 162 (Aug. 13, 2025).
Plaintiff was arrested and handcuffed but fled on foot. She fell face first onto the pavement. She claims she was pushed by the officer, but he gets qualified immunity. Sealey v. Mancias, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 21223 (5th Cir. Aug. 19, 2025).*
2254 petitioner’s Fourth Amendment claim is barred on habeas under Stone. Allen v. Stange, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 160681 (E.D. Mo. Aug. 18, 2025).*
There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop, and he consented to the subsequent search. United States v. Smith, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 160674 (E.D. Mo. Aug. 19, 2025).*
Defendant was a suspect in thefts. Police seized his briefcase and found electronic devices inside. The search warrant for the electronic devices produced a video of defendant having sex with his incapacitated girlfriend a decade earlier, which led to his prosecution for that. The warrant was overbroad in permitting a search beyond evidence of theft. This became a general warrant. State v. Hampton, 2025 Wash. App. LEXIS 1656 (Aug. 19, 2025):
Officer seeing defendant enter cell phone passcode violated no reasonable expectation of privacy or Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. State v. Ellison, 2025 N.J. Super. LEXIS 60 (Aug. 19, 2025). Update: NJ Panel Upholds Use Of Phone Passcode Seen By Police – Law360
State wrongful death action was not pled as a Fourth Amendment violation and couldn’t be removed. The fact a prior claim under 1983 was nonsuited didn’t make this a federal claim. Perkins v. Frye, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 21090 (8th Cir. Aug. 19, 2025).*
Defendant’s parole stop did not comply with state law, but it was still reasonable for Fourth Amendment purposes. There was reasonable suspicion defendant committed two parole violations. United States v. Doster, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 159733 (D. Mont. Aug. 18, 2025).
Defendant was a Greyhound passenger from LA to KC, and a dog got a whiff of his fanny pack and alerted. He admitted marijuana was in the bag. Then a gun, which led to a struggle when he wouldn’t keep his hands away from it. Then a search produced fentanyl. The search was still by consent. United States v. Rhodes, 24-2829 (8th Cir. Aug. 19, 2025)*:
"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.
