Being diverted at the border to a secondary inspection area is not custody for Miranda purposes. United States v. Sanchez-Avitia, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103233 (D. Ariz. March 26, 2014).
Since there was no violation of the Fifth Amendment during this traffic stop, the consent was voluntary and not tainted by that. United States v. Cortez, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102792 (S.D. Mich. July 29, 2014).*
The affidavit for the search warrant showed plenty of nexus to the premises to be searched because of the activities recounted there. United States v. DeJournett, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103271 (N.D. Ohio July 29, 2014).*
Posted inBorder search, Consent, Nexus|Comments Off on D.Ariz.: Being diverted at the border to a secondary inspection area is not custody for Miranda purposes
A prominent senator unveiled legislation Tuesday that would end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of all telephone metadata—a package that still provides the nation’s spooks limited access to the data of every phone call made to and from the US. And the probable-cause standard under the Fourth Amendment is not present.
Conceding the realpolitik, civil rights groups and others are backing the proposal from Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, even though the NSA may acquire the data absent constitutional protections.
Posted inFISA|Comments Off on Ars Technica: Analysis: Bill banning phone metadata collection gives NSA access to it
There’s little question that driving while holding your phone is incredibly dangerous. In the UK alone, some 500 people are estimated to be seriously injured or killed each year because of car and truck drivers using their phones behind the wheel – a staggering figure that is leading British authorities to take controversial action.
The UK’s Association of Chief Police Officers has issued guidelines to law enforcement officials to confiscate the phones of anyone involved in a traffic accident so that police can determine if they were using their mobile devices when the accident took place. If a driver is found to have been using his or her phone and caused a serious crash, that driver could be sentenced to up to 14 years in prison.
Posted inCell phones|Comments Off on AOL Autoblog: UK police move to seize mobile phones after all accidents
On July 28, 2014, Reason TV released “Do You Have It Up Your Ass?”: Drug Warriors in New Mexico Go Too Far. Incorporating footage from cameras on the dashboards and lapels of New Mexico law enforcement officers, the program tells the story of Timothy Young, a man who was pulled over in Lordsburg, New Mexico, for a traffic violation in October 2012.
Hidalgo County deputies looking for drugs searched Young’s truck for more than two hours. After a K9 deputy claimed that his dog Leo alerted on the driver’s seat of Young’s truck, deputies obtained a search warrant to search Young’s body. Deputies then drove Young to the Gila Regional Medical Center, located an hour north in Silver City, New Mexico. Young was X-rayed and, while still in handcuffs, subjected to a digital search of his anal cavity. No drugs were found.
Posted inStrip search|Comments Off on Reason TV: The Drug War, the Fourth Amendment, and anal cavity searches in New Mexico
This case is also at the center of the DOJ’s on-again, off-again metadata destruction plans, which ultimately resulted in the FISA court backing up the district court’s preservation order preventing the destruction of relevant aged-off Section 702 data. The DOJ said one thing and did another, in the end destroying evidence and claiming the NSA’s was ‘too complex’ to separate relevant data from the rest of the collection.
Posted inFISA|Comments Off on TechDirt: EFF Asks Court To Declare NSA’s ‘Internet Backbone’ Collections Unconstitutional
A 7 year old girl went missing that defendant knew and visited his house, and he was questioned, but not as a suspect. [Later somebody with no connection to defendant was arrested.] When questioned, he admitted to visiting child pornography sites and that the children had used the computer, too, and the investigator looked at those sites for clues, finding the LimeWire program. The officer at first disclaimed concern about the child pornography for any investigative purpose, just what happened to the missing girl. Later, the investigator got full consent to search the computers from defendant and his wife. Defendant later withdrew his consent, and a search warrant was obtained, too. That later consent was valid, as was his wife’s, as was the search warrant. United States v. Watkins, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 14261 (11th Cir. July 28, 2014).
When the government responds to a motion to suppress that it will not use the evidence, the motion becomes moot. United States v. Martin, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102636 (D. Minn. July 9, 2014).*
Posted inComputer and cloud searches, Consent|Comments Off on CA11: Defendant consented to a search of his computer for CP in investigation of a missing 7 year old
Defendant was unlawfully detained when he gave consent to search a backpack. The officer involved often casually talked to people on his beat. When he encountered defendant, he struck up a conversation but finally told him to have a seat on the curb. He asked about his backpack. Other officers showed up, and the questioning got more intrusive. A person in defendant’s position would not have felt free to leave, so it was an unreasonable detention without any cause. In re J.G., 2014 Cal. App. LEXIS 673 (1st Dist. July 25, 2014).
Two probation and parole searches were valid. State v. Gillis, 2014 Del. Super. LEXIS 366 (July 24, 2014).*
The smell of raw marijuana in a vehicle is enough to justify a patdown of the driver. Bell v. State, 2014 Ind. App. LEXIS 356 (July 28, 2014).*
Under the collective knowledge doctrine, all the details don’t have to be passed on to the arresting officer to make the arrest legal. State v. Iven, 2014 OK CR 8; 2014 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 7 (July 25, 2014).
Plaintiff filed a § 1983 excessive force and ADA case against St. Louis County and Taser International, the manufacturer of Tasers. Plaintiff was completely psychotic and was walking around the neighborhood naked and claiming to be God. When he got back to his house, an altercation ensued, and the police were called. Plaintiff was repeatedly Tasered and still would not submit, apparently because of his mental state. The officers and county get qualified immunity, and the Taser instruction manual did not create any clearly established right. De Boise v. Taser Int’l, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 14276 (8th Cir. July 28, 2014).*
Posted back on April 8th: “[U]nder the facts presented by this case, a forensic computer search cannot be performed under the border search doctrine in the absence of reasonable suspicion. Because the officials here reasonably suspected that Saboonchi was violating export restrictions, Defendant’s Motion to Suppress is denied.” United States v. Saboonchi, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47665 (D. Md. April 7, 2014). On reconsideration after Riley was decided June 25th, Riley has no effect on the border search doctrine.
United States v. Saboonchi, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102261 (D. Md. July 28, 2014).
The reasonable suspicion for the stop included that there was a controlled buy from the defendant, and that allowed for the stop to be extended. United States v. Gonsalves, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101805 (D. Mass. July 25, 2014).*
Posted inBorder search, Cell phones|Comments Off on D.Md.: Riley cell phone case has no effect on border searches of cell phones
Search warrants were used to obtain patient medical records of alleged illegal pain management clinics that implicated the privacy rights of the patients, and they were sealed, amounting to an order of suppression. The circuit court is ordered to fashion a remedy that permits access to the information for the state’s investigation but still protects the identity of the patients. State v. Crumbley, 2014 Fla. App. LEXIS 11386 (Fla. 2d DCA July 25, 2014): Continue reading →
NYTimes: A Stronger Bill to Limit Surveillance (Editorial):
The Senate should pass a bill that will finally put an end to the indiscriminate bulk collection of Americans’ phone records.
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on NYTimes: A Stronger Bill to Limit Surveillance (Editorial)
There is a reasonable expectation of privacy in CSLI, but it is subject to exigent circumstances in a proper case. State v. Subdiaz-Osorio, 2014 WI 87, 2014 Wisc. LEXIS 502 (July 24, 2014):
[*P5] This case presents two issues for review. First,did law enforcement agents violate Subdiaz-Osorio’s Fourth Amendment rights when they procured his cell phone location information without first obtaining a court order based on probable cause? … Continue reading →
Posted inCell phones, Reasonable expectation of privacy|Comments Off on WI: There is a reasonable expectation of privacy in CSLI, but it is subject to exigent circumstances in a proper case
Prior statutory authority is not required to get cell site location data and use of a stringray as long as there was a warrant issued on probable cause. State v. Tate, 2014 WI 89, 2014 Wisc. LEXIS 504 (July 24, 2014): Continue reading →
Posted inCell phones|Comments Off on WI: Prior statutory authority is not required to get CSLI and use of a stringray as long as there was a warrant issued on PC
Warrensburg – Voters statewide will decide Aug. 5 whether to add electronic data and communications to the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment property protections.
Missouri Constitutional Amendment No. 9, passed overwhelmingly in the Missouri Senate 31-1 and 114-28 in the Missouri House, is sponsored by Sen. Robert Schaaf, R-St. Louis. The amendment proposes a person’s electronic data and devices are protected from unreasonable searches and seizures.
Posted inCell phones|Comments Off on MO Voters to decide electronic privacy matter Aug. 5
Alleged police brutality caught on camera in New York and Los Angeles this month has prompted a public outcry for better officer training. But in some cases, authorities say the full story is not always told. They are responding with some high-tech tools. Policing in the digital age means every moment, every incident can be caught on camera – and sometimes, followed by accusations of excessive use of force. But now, hundreds of police departments are exploring whether their own cameras might create a more complete picture of a scene.
Posted inPolice misconduct|Comments Off on CBS News: More police officers being outfitted with body cameras
Defendant didn’t pursue an interlocutory appeal of his suppression motion on telephone records being seized in violation of the state constitution. Therefore, he waived it by objecting at trial. Nevertheless, the court finds that he would lose on the state constitutional issue, even if preserved. McCowan v. State, 10 N.E.3d 522 (Ind. App. 2014) (ordered published June 10, 2014). Make note: More telling is that this issue was deemed waived, and then the court went out of its way to hold against the defendant anyway. Litigating some forms of informational privacy will always remain a steep, uphill battle. If anything, just the long history of telephone records being subpoenable may be enough. Other information of more recent vintage? Maybe some headway can be made there.
A patfrisk of a backpack preliminary to a search of a car was unjustified by any objective criteria. Commonwealth v. Rutledge, 86 Mass. App. Ct. 904 (July 25, 2014).*
An established and proven reliable CI coupled with a controlled buy is reasonable suspicion. United States v. Gonsalves, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101805 (D. Mass. July 25, 2014).*
Defendant was seen holding a blue camera bag as he entered a car that was later stopped. Holding the bag then doesn’t give standing because he later did not assert an ownership interest in it. United States v. Valle-Irizarry, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 100562 (D. N.J. July 22, 2014).*
The stop of defendant’s vehicle near the border was based on reasonable suspicion he was involved in drug smuggling, and there was reasonable suspicion on the totality. United States v. Arjon, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 14167 (10th Cir. July 25, 2014).*
A stop with guns drawn was justified by objectively reasonable evidence that defendant was armed. United States v. Diaz-Perez, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101961 (E.D. Cal. July 24, 2014).*
Posted inReasonable suspicion, Standing|Comments Off on D.N.J.: Merely holding a camera bag getting into a car doesn’t give standing when the car was later stopped without some ownership interest
The district court erred in concluding defendant was “in custody” for Miranda purposes. He showed up at his house as a search warrant was being executed and was talked to on the couch. He was told he was not in custody. Of course the situation was dominated by the police because minutes earlier they broke down the door and there were 7-8 inside, but that alone is not enough. On the totality, statements made here during the execution of a search warrant, after he was told he wasn’t in custody, are admissible. He also consented to producing a laptop from his car. United States v. Williams, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 14159, (8th Cir. July 25, 2014):* Continue reading →
Posted inConsent, Warrant execution|Comments Off on CA8: Despite an ongoing search of his house for CP, defendant wasn’t in custody when he made statements
"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.
