Furtive movements during a traffic stop added to reasonable suspicion of a potential weapon. Bazemore v. Commonwealth, 2024 Va. App. LEXIS 659 (Nov. 12, 2024).*
“Under our highly deferential standard of review, it also created a sufficient—if weak—nexus between Deeble’s apartment and his alleged criminal activity.” [Followed by five paragraphs on nexus.] State v. Deeble, 2024-Ohio-5418 (6th Dist. Nov. 15, 2024).*
Defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim is essentially a challenge to the proof at trial and rejected. The issues were thoroughly developed at trial and cross-examined on. State v. Gregory, 2024-Ohio-5420 (6th Dist. Nov. 15, 2024).*
Officers had probable cause to arrest for at least one offense, although not all they thought, and that defeats plaintiff’s false arrest claim. Bey v. Ayers, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 29333 (7th Cir. Nov. 19, 2024).*
The officer’s body slam of a resisting minor suspect about half his weight was entitled to qualified immunity. “But even if the facts of our case did fit Richmond, the statement that ‘less force is appropriate’ would not put every objectively reasonable officer on notice that a wrestling move to subdue a potentially armed, actively resisting plaintiff violated the Fourth Amendment.” H.M. v. Castoro, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 28991 (11th Cir. Nov. 15, 2024).*
The search warrants here were issued with sufficient particularity [without telling the rest of us why which is typical of the New York Appellate Divisions], considering they are “cloaked with the presumption of validity.” People v. Irwin, 2024 NY Slip Op 05684 (4th Dept. Nov. 15, 2024).*
Two searches: One allegedly invalid because without a warrant followed by another with a warrant. The first was based on entry on an emergency that led to a plain view, and that led to the warrant for the second search. People v. Howard, 2024 NY Slip Op 05733 (4th Dept. Nov. 15, 2024).*
A 48 hour pretrial detainee in a dry cell has no reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Burk, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209407 (D. Alaska Nov. 18, 2024).*
Defendant’s Franks officer of proof with a proffered corrected affidavit for warrant still shows probable cause. The complained about mistake wasn’t material to the probable cause and it wasn’t intentional. “Even if we found merit in Lenhart’s principal arguments, the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule would apply.” United States v. Lenhart, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208550 (M.D. Pa. Nov. 18, 2024).*
There was reasonable suspicion on the totality to detain and handcuff defendant for stalking. United States v. Hoffpowier, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207974 (E.D. Tenn. Sep. 23, 2024),* adopted, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207043 (E.D. Tenn. Nov. 14, 2024).*
The officer had reasonable suspicion and probable cause for defendant’s stop. He was looking for him and confirmed it was him from a booking photo he had. United States v. Virrueta, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 29017 (8th Cir. Nov. 15, 2024).*
Force Science via Police 1: Officer-created jeopardy: A legal theory that threatens effective policing by Lewis “Von” Kliem (“The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear Barnes v. Felix, a case that could redefine how officers’ split-second decisions are judged” [¶] “The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear Barnes v. Felix offers a long-awaited opportunity to clarify how officers’ pre-seizure actions are assessed in use-of-force cases. The case is pivotal, as it directly confronts the ‘officer-created jeopardy’ theory, which invites hindsight bias and outcome-driven judgments that challenge the Fourth Amendment’s objective reasonableness standard. [¶] Barnes v. Felix: A moment to reflect”).
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Reasonable suspicion and a park violation: “Accordingly, Sergeant Call’s 11 years of experience in Park County coupled with his knowledge of state and county law gave him reason to suspect that Mitchell was potentially engaged in criminal conduct—namely, trespassing and operating a vehicle off road during stage two fire restrictions.” United States v. Mitchell, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208132 (D. Mont. Nov. 15, 2024).*
The district court’s finding the officer did not lean in the car before seeing the gun is supported by the record and affirmed. United States v. McDonald, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 29222 (3d Cir. Nov. 18, 2024).*
Police entered plaintiff’s home in response to a burglary call. A gun was seized for “safekeeping.” He sued over the entry and lost. His appellate argument about a jury instruction not properly defining the scope of permissible search is rejected as undeveloped. Burks v. Tate, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 29161 (7th Cir. Nov. 15, 2024).*
Something we don’t see hardly ever: The omitted information was material to probable cause and the affiant omitted it thinking it didn’t matter. But it did. And the good faith exception doesn’t apply here. United States v. Pettigrew, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207943 (W.D. Tenn. Nov. 15, 2024):
The warrant here authorized search of defendant’s iCloud account for 11 years worth of information despite the probable cause being limited to one event in 2022. The warrant was based on a template that authorized search of the entire account, and it failed particularity. It became a rummaging. Moreover, the good faith exception cannot be applied here because of its breadth. United States v. Rondeau, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207909 (D.S.D. Nov. 13, 2024):
Defendant’s DUI stop justified a search for open containers, and a firearm was validly found. United States v. Stuckey, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207801 (N.D. Iowa Nov. 15, 2024).
Defendant moved to suppress a cell phone warrant at the border at JFK airport. He declined to provide an affidavit of standing despite being told it was required and instead relied on the criminal complaint. Denied without a hearing. United States v. Arteaga, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206361 (E.D.N.Y. Nov. 13, 2024).*
The affidavit for warrant of defendant’s house was based on a CI’s information that drugs would be present and investigation that defendant would leave the house to go to drug deals. Gibout v. State, 2024 Ark. App. 568 (Nov. 12, 2024).*
“[T]he decision to impound a vehicle is reasonable if there is a valid reason to move it, a legitimate basis to hold it for further investigation, or if there is no other person present who can safely drive it away.” The burden is on the state, and here they failed. People v. Essic, 2024 NY Slip Op 51517(U) (Kings Co. Nov. 13, 2024).*
2255 petitioner originally had a motion to suppress granted in state court, and the federal government indicted him. Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for failing to argue collateral estoppel, and issue foreclosed under circuit precedent. Miller v. United States, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207599 (W.D. Mich. Nov. 15, 2024):
Posted inIssue preclusion|Comments Off on Dual sovereignty: W.D.Mich: The defense can’t relitigate grant of state court suppression of the same evidence in federal court (but the federal government can)
Defendant was stopped for speeding, and the officer ultimately called for a drug dog. No drugs, but he’s a felon in possession. The court finds no reasonable suspicion for extending the stop. The government proffered travel plans, criminal history, and air fresheners. She left him to look for proof of insurance, and the movements in the car were consistent with that. No reasonable suspicion on the totality. Reversed. United States v. Taylor, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 29055 (6th Cir. Nov. 15, 2024):
Relying on reports of other officers that could have been exaggerations in part didn’t show that the affiant was intentionally or recklessly misleading the court. Also, “the Defendant has failed to demonstrate that Officer Granville’s inclusion of the exaggerated statement was material to probable cause, and she has therefore failed to satisfy the Franks test for suppression based on such exaggeration.” United States v. McLeod, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 205556 (E.D. Va. Nov. 12, 2024).
Decedent’s vehicle was accelerating at officers when the officer shot into the car repeatedly in two seconds. This use of force was reasonable. The fact another officer there did not shoot doesn’t make the first officer’s actions unreasonable. Baxter v. Santiago-Miranda, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 28813 (11th Cir. Nov. 13, 2024).*
Apparent hand-to-hand transaction in a high crime area was reasonable suspicion. United States v. Gandy, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206261 (D.N.J. Nov. 12, 2024).*
The officer slow walked “what should have been a brief detention” and can’t rely on its “attempt to characterize the situation as an evolving [which] one misses the mark.” United States v. Davis, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207203 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 14, 2024):
“That a motion to suppress or an objection based on trial testimony regarding the aerial surveillance video might have been reasonable falls short of establishing deficient performance by counsel. United States v. Reyes, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 134866, 2012 WL 4339070, at *4 (S.D. Cal. Sept. 19, 2012) (explaining ‘a Fourth Amendment motion to suppress in this case might seem reasonable; yet this is not the standard applied to consider an attorney’s performance’). Because the Strickland test requires that both prongs of the test be met, the Court need not address the prejudice prong. See Gonzalez v. Wong, 667 F.3d 965, 987 (9th Cir. 2011) (‘Because failure to meet either prong is fatal to [defendant’s] claim, there is no requirement that we “address both components of the inquiry if the defendant makes an insufficient showing on one.”’) (quoting Strickland, 466 U.S. at 697).” Villarreal v. United States, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206377 (S.D. Cal. Nov. 13, 2024).
Plaintiff fails to state a claim for taking DNA in a criminal case. Hawkins v. Washoe Cty., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206175 (D. Nev. Oct. 24, 2024).*
Possession of marijuana is still a federal crime, so a dog alert on defendant’s backpack justified its search. United States v. Higgins, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206173 (W.D. Mo. Oct. 3, 2024),* adopted, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 205034 (W.D. Mo. Nov. 12, 2024).*
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NBC: 2 Missouri officers accused of stealing nude photos from dozens of women’s phones at traffic stops by Austin Mullen and Doha Madani (“Two former Missouri officers were charged in separate, unconnected cases in federal court this week over allegations that they illegally searched women’s phones during traffic stops to obtain intimate, explicit images on the devices. [¶] Julian Alcala, 29, who was employed as a police officer with the city of Florissant, is charged with 20 counts of deprivation of rights and a count of destroying records in a federal investigation, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri announced Thursday. [¶] Deprivation of rights specifically refers to being free from unreasonable search and seizure, established in the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”)
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LATimes: Are automated license plate readers in your city? Here’s how to find out by Nathan Solis (“Will Freeman wants people to know they’re being tracked. [¶] His desire to shed light on the proliferation of license plate readers in his neighborhood in Huntsville, Ala., this year spurred an idea for a crowdsourced database where people across the world can upload the locations of the readers. The database, called DeFlock, also provides users with the option to list who manufactured the cameras for greater transparency.”)
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A state judge is denied absolute immunity for allegedly participating in a seizure in the courthouse rather than just ordering it. Rockett ex rel. His Minor Children v. Eighmy, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 205918 (W.D. Mo. Nov. 13, 2024).
A jailer did not commit an unlawful search by Googling an inmate’s criminal history. Conley-Reifer v. Butler Cty. Prison, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 205127 (W.D. Pa. Nov. 12, 2024).*
Under the state statute on probation and parole searches, defendant’s claim another person’s unreasonable search [never suggested to present a standing problem] was defaulted as not preserved for review below. Harding v. State, 2024 Ark. App. 560 (Nov. 13, 2024).* (Preserved or not, it would have lost. Not even close. But, the Arkansas courts will hold you defaulted an issue rather than just say you couldn’t win it even if you did it right, thereby implying that maybe you could have if you did it right.)
The good faith exception doesn’t apply where binding appellate precedence doesn’t specifically authorize the officer’s actions. And, as to inevitable discovery of defendant’s cell phone seizure, it was found speculative because he happened to be at the scene and they weren’t looking for the phone. (There’s also a government argument waiver finding.) United States v. Holmes, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 28741 (9th Cir. Nov. 13, 2024):
Govt. Technology: NYPD Using Drones to Respond on ‘Select Priority’ Calls (“The Drone as First Responder program, piloted earlier this year, is now operational in five command areas of the New York City Police Department. The devices are intended to assist police in responding to shots-fired calls, robberies and other crimes.” “Critics have called use of the devices in policing dystopian; one said it may infringe on First and Fourth Amendment rights, according to a May article in the New York Daily News.”)
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The fact the issuing magistrate had to read 65 pages in 21 minutes doesn’t mean he wasn’t neutral and detached. “The Court is not persuaded by Defendant’s assessment of Judge Morrison’s reading speed, which relies wholly on speculation.” United States v. Washington, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 205386 (W.D.N.Y. Nov. 12, 2024).
It wasn’t an arrest until defendant was ordered from the vehicle. The stop was reasonably prolonged with reasonable suspicion. United States v. Bruma, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 205099 (N.D. Ind. Nov. 12, 2024).*
“The record supports the circuit court’s finding of fact that Burrell consented to the search of his cell phone when he handed over the phone to Detective Mayer. In addition, the circuit court expressly rejected Burrell’s testimony about his encounter with Detective Mayer. Consequently, given Detective Mayer’s credible testimony, the circuit court was not plainly wrong or without evidence when it found that Burrell consented to the search of his cell phone. Therefore, the circuit court did not err when it denied Burrell’s motion to suppress the evidence obtained from his cell phone because Burrell consented to the search.” Burrell v. Commonwealth, 2024 Va. App. LEXIS 651 (Nov. 12, 2024).*
“Here, in contrast, Ms. Spadaro was an arriving passenger; her airplane ticket was a nonissue. There is no indication that law enforcement took her identification from her. And, despite her several requests to use the restroom, the audio recording supports the Magistrate Judge’s conclusion that she voluntarily consented to the search of her carry-on luggage and later, to the search of her checked bags. Further, the Court agrees with the Government’s assertion that the relocation of Ms. Sabado to the police department office, by itself, did not require probable cause to arrest. See Royer, 103 S. Ct. at 504-05.” United States v. Spadaro, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 204513 (D. Alaska Nov. 8, 2024).*
Lack of a license plate led to initiating a stop and that led to furtive movements in the car before and after the stop. That justified a protective sweep of the car. Bazemore v. Commonwealth, 2024 Va. App. LEXIS 648 (Nov. 12, 2024).*
Plaintiff wasn’t so drunk that she was a disorderly person, and there wasn’t probable cause for her arrest. The officer gets the benefit of lack of clearly established law on this score. Jones v. Naert, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 28608 (6th Cir. Nov. 12, 2024).*
"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.
