With no guaranteed delivery time on a USPS Express Mail package, briefly delaying it in transit to look up the names on it (sender and recipient and addresses) didn’t violate any Fourth Amendment rights. Separating it for a dog sniff didn’t either. United States v. Diiorio, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 212479 (D. Mont. Sep. 18, 2026).
Louisiana recognizes broad standing, more so than the Fourth Amendment. The search of a neighbor’s flower bed for a shell casing was reasonable. No violation of curtilage. [So they say, and I can’t agree.] State v. Bethune, 2026 La. App. LEXIS 1851 (La. App. 5 Cir Sep. 17, 2026).*
An allegation of excessive force during a warranted arrest is a sufficiently new Bivens context that it’s dismissed. FTCA claim can proceed. Coote v. United States, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 212690 (S.D.N.Y. Sep. 14, 2026).*
Officers came to defendant’s house without an arrest or search warrant to arrest him for a CSAM offense. He answered the door in his underwear. They asked about cell phone and saw it and seized it. Payton applies, and the phone is suppressed. There were no exigent circumstances, and the plain view exception can’t be bootstrapped here. United States v. Miller, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 212349 (S.D. W. Va. Sep. 18, 2026).
“To be sure, the application presented a close call as to probable cause. But once the state court judge made that call, it was objectively reasonable for the officers to rely on it.” United States v. Mayence, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 211698 (W.D. La. Aug. 19, 2026).*
“The Court finds a stop occurred but reasonable suspicion existed. The characteristics of the area, proximity to the border, information about the vehicle, usual pattern of local traffic, time of day, and behavior of the vehicle, together with reasonable inferences of an experienced Border Patrol agent, support BPA Brown’s reasonable suspicion that this vehicle had traveled from Phoenix to a pickup area, had picked up illegal aliens, and was traveling back to Phoenix or elsewhere with its passengers.” United States v. Florendo, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 212272 (D. Ariz. Aug. 25, 2026).*
Parking on the grass justified this stop. State v. Green, 2026-Ohio-3654 (2d Dist. Sep. 18, 2026).*
On the totality, defendant’s stop was with reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation, and it was not unreasonably extended. State v. Livesay, 2026 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 619 (Sep. 17, 2026).*
Stopping a bicycle with no light or red reflector was reasonable. United States v. Peralta, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 211945 (D. Ariz. Sep. 18, 2026).*
Defendant’s phone was inevitably discovered during the search of his house, so the seizure was valid. He was also interrogated in his bedroom in his underwear by four armed officers. This was custody for Miranda. United States v. Frazier, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 212109 (D. Mass. Sep. 18, 2026).*
NCMEC’s cybertips are reliable enough to support probable cause and the good faith exception. United States v. Gibbs, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 28546 (11th Cir. Sep. 17, 2026).
Even if plaintiff could show that the official’s conduct was wrongful and something should be suppressed, the exclusionary rule doesn’t apply in civil cases. Winnick v. City of Fort Worth, 2026 Tex. App. LEXIS 8839 (Tex. App. – Ft. Worth Sep. 17, 2026).*
Defendant put a gun in a bag in the back of a pickup truck and walked away from it. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy in what he apparently abandoned in the back of the truck. Commonwealth v. Serrano, 2026 PA Super 205 (Sep. 18, 2026).* [The court spent too much time on whether he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the back of the truck and who had the burden on that since it was going with abandonment.]
Defendant’s allegedly committing an execution style murder in public in broad daylight was exigency to get his CSLI at that moment to locate him. Carpenter recognized exigency exceptions. Anderson v. State, 2026 Miss. App. LEXIS 406 (Sep. 15, 2026).
Defendant ran a motel and the police were called about a disturbance, which seemed to be a regular thing there, and defendant was often the instigator. He was ultimately Tazed in what he contended was a private part of the property, his back office and residence. The police were reasonable in all they did, and, as noted at oral argument, what about inevitable discovery? Here, it’s all on the hotel surveillance video, and the police would have gotten it in due course, as they usually did. State v. Trivedi, 2026 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 612 (Sep. 16, 2026).*
This 2254 on ineffective assistance of counsel on search claims fails because none of the searches were illegal. It led off with pole camera observation of him removing methamphetamine from under his car, and that led to searching location data. He says it was from an “unlawful investigation,” but it clearly was not. Freeman v. United States, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208788 (E.D. Tenn. Sep. 15, 2026).*
While identification can be sought during a stop on reasonable suspicion under Hiibel under the Fourth Amendment, state statute says “public place,” and the back of a police car isn’t. State v. Bell, 2026-Ohio-3614 (1st Dist. Sep. 16, 2026).
2254 successor petitioner raised his lack of discovery of his Fourth Amendment claim in his original petition, so it’s barred. In re Surles, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 28366 (11th Cir. Sep. 15, 2026).*
Plaintiff’s malicious prosecution claim of violation of an order of protection is dismissed as legally frivolous and based on probable cause. The district court decided it on Heck grounds. Dougal v. Cty. of Saratoga, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 28285 (2d Cir. Sep. 16, 2026).*
Posted inArrest or entry on arrest, Issue preclusion|Comments Off on OH1: Statute says ID can’t be sought when def in back of police car because it’s not a “public place”
Strip search of an arrestee outside of a jail without warrant or exigency violates the Fourth Amendment, but the officer gets qualified immunity. Beatty v. Gardner, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 28373 (3d Cir. Sep. 16, 2026):
Plaintiffs plausibly pled violations of the Fourth Amendment for child protective services demanding and gaining entry into the home without a sufficient showing of exigency to protect the children. Also, the special needs doctrine doesn’t apply here. O’Bryant v. N.J. Div. of Child Prot. & Permanency, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 28393 (3d Cir. Sep. 16, 2026).
Officers had probable cause to believe that defendant parolee was staying in the apartment searched by his parole officer. Dunbar v. United States, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209950 (N.D. Ohio Sep. 15, 2026).*
The officer had cause to stop defendant for stopping past the white line. The traffic stop related inquiries developed a likely warrant, and the officer was waiting to confirm and didn’t yet write the ticket because of the possibility of defendant going into custody. Ultimately, reasonable suspicion developed. United States v. Eaker, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209541 (E.D. Tenn. Sep. 16, 2026).*
Entering the curtilage to turn off water service for nonpayment of the bill is not a Fourth Amendment seizure or entry. Holland v. Jersey Shore Area Joint Water Auth., 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209672 (M.D. Pa. Sep. 16, 2026)*:
Defendant was in a federal detention center pending trial, and his cell was searched and legal materials for trial were seized. His Fourth Amendment claim fails on its face. His Sixth Amendment claim also fails because a BOP attorney screened the materials, and defendant doesn’t show that his representation was interfered with. Byrd v. United States, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209953 (D.N.J. Sep. 16, 2026). [Thus, the attorney was a de facto master.]
Pausing 11 seconds after a traffic light turned green was not reasonable suspicion of OVI. City of Cleveland v. McClairn, 2026-Ohio-3641 (8th Dist. Sep. 17, 2026).*
“Defendant’s statement to Officer Habenicht—‘That’s not my bag, you won’t find no ID of mine in there!’—is functionally indistinguishable from the disclaimer the Fourth Circuit found dispositive in Ferebee, where the defendant’s assertion that a backpack was ‘actually not his’ completed an abandonment the moment it was uttered.” United States v. White, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209926 (W.D.N.C. Sep. 16, 2026).*
Defendant, a permanent resident, was suspected of a multimillion dollar fraud with false identities. He was stopped at JFK coming back and his phone was seized and searched helping make the case against him. No warrant was needed for the border search of this cell phone. United States v. Alisigwe, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 28444 (2d Cir. Sep. 17, 2026).
Plaintiff’s complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief is disclaimed not to be a domestic relations appeal from state to federal court. It’s barred by abstention and the Rooker-Feldman doctrine. Bonsignore v. N.Y. State Dep’t of Taxation & Fin., 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208666 (S.D.N.Y. July 21, 2026).*
Plaintiff’s interactions with the Fort Smith animal control officers with an alleged arrest without probable cause doesn’t rise to the level of serious bad faith to avoid Younger abstention. Steffy v. City of Fort Smith, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 210512 (W.D. Ark. Sep. 17, 2026).*
Officers got a 911 call about potential prostitution with a woman approaching cars at an intersection known for that. It turned out she was significantly older than the person described in the 911 call, but there still was reasonable suspicion for the contact. State v. Doherty, 2026-Ohio-3615 (1st Dist. Sep. 16, 2026).*
The officer regularly surveilled a gas station where people would congregate but not buy gas. When there was a mass of cars leaving at one time without buying gas, he concluded the drug trade was over and followed defendant’s car. With two traffic violations he stopped it. The fact he had mixed motives for the stop was still reasonable suspicion. State v. Shabazz, 2026-Ohio-3630 (8th Dist. Sep. 17, 2026).*
The identified informant’s tip that defendant put a stolen gun and license plate in his car was probable cause after the officer confirmed defendant was a felon. United States v. Digsby, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 28508 (4th Cir. Sep. 17, 2026).*
Posted inInformant hearsay, Pretext, Reasonable suspicion|Comments Off on OH1: RS for stop on a prostitution 911 call even though def was significantly older than the person described in the call
As a guest of a guest, defendant had standing to contest the search of the hotel room, but he didn’t have standing to contest the search of the other tenant’s cell phone. State v. Miller, 2026 N.C. App. LEXIS 763 (Sep. 16, 2026).
Use of a Taser on defendant at this arrest was reasonable under the circumstances, not that it would reverse his conviction anyway. Calloway v. State, 2026 Ga. App. LEXIS 438 (Sep. 15, 2026).*
2255 petitioner doesn’t show how defense counsel was ineffective for not filing a motion to suppress because he doesn’t show that it had merit or would have changed his decision to plead guilty. Alston v. United States, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208093 (M.D.N.C. Aug. 18, 2026).*
Too detailed an inventory not unreasonable. “Lynch offers no argument to suggest that his vehicle was not properly subject to the tow policy and its accompanying inventory search. Instead, Lynch appears to take issue with the manner in which Officer Wolk conducted the inventory search. More specifically, Lynch appears to contend that Officer Wolk’s failure to inventory every item in the vehicle somehow transformed the legal and permissible inventory search to an unlawful, warrantless investigatory search. The Court finds no merit in this contention.” United States v. Lynch, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207809 (N.D. Ohio Sep. 15, 2026).*
There was conflicting evidence, but it’s not clear there wasn’t probable cause for arrest. Thus, qualified immunity. Wadkins v. Klingshirn, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 28240 (6th Cir. Sep. 14, 2026).*
Respondent showed no reasonable expectation of privacy in a video on someone else’s SD card. State v. Catherine, 2026 La. App. LEXIS 1815 (La. App. 1 Cir Sep. 14, 2026).*
The valid stop was at 1:45 am in a high crime area with furtive movements. They ordered the driver out and the passenger to stay in. The valid protective sweep of defendant’s car came after the officer learned of his criminal history. Claiborne v. Commonwealth, 2026 Va. App. LEXIS 491 (Sep. 15, 2026) (with a dissent).
The U.S. Coast Guard can board a stateless vessel in the Dominican Republic’s Exclusive Economic Zone (“EEZ”). The delay in presentment was not unreasonable. The defendants were brought first to Gitmo and then to the Southern District of Florida. In re United States, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 28234 (11th Cir. Sep. 15, 2026).*
“The affidavit provided probable cause to believe that Mr. Martin is a drug dealer and that the residence and storage unit were used as part of his drug trafficking activity.” He was surveilled for a while before probable cause developed. Also, his Franks challenge fails. “The only alleged false statement in the affidavit he identifies was the statement that Mr. Martin had ‘almost daily access to Target Location 2.’ … True, the access code records for the storage unit could not definitively attribute the code uses to Mr. Martin, rather than A.H. or another individual. But, while the characterization of the access records may not have been ideal, the statement was not false.” United States v. Martin, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207683 (M.D. Fla. Sep. 15, 2026).*
Posted inFranks doctrine, Protective sweep|Comments Off on VA: Stop at night in high-crime area with furtive movements made sweep of car reasonable after learning of def’s criminal history
Exclusionary rule only applies to blameworthy conduct, not isolated mistakes. United States v. Walker, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 28223 (3d Cir. Sep. 15, 2026):
“Defendant cites no authority to the effect that a Fourth Amendment violation requires automatic dismissal of the indictment. Instead, he attempts to tie the alleged violations into his greater theory of outrageous government conduct under Rochin, Russell and Twigg. However, those cases deal with circumstances in which the government created the crime, they do not speak to Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. The second point to be made is that generally, Fourth Amendment violations result not in dismissal as is the prayer for relief here, but instead in suppression of the illegally obtained evidence.” United States v. Cuevas-Hernández, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207483 (D.P.R. Sep. 11, 2026).
Defendant’s frisk during his traffic stop was reasonable. “Under the totality of the circumstances analysis, we conclude that the combination of (1) the timing and location of the traffic stop; (2) Garrison’s evasive action of rolling up his tinted windows and putting on a sweatshirt during the traffic stop; (3) his particularized nervous response to the question of whether he had a firearm on his person; and (4) his physical movements that obscured part of his waistband was sufficient to support the officer’s reasonable suspicion that he was armed and dangerous. Thus, we affirm the circuit court’s decision to deny the motion to suppress.” Garrison v. Commonwealth, 2026 Va. App. LEXIS 487 (Sep. 15, 2026).*
Defendant was in the ER and the hospital had his clothes. A spent shell casing was discovered in his pants by a nurse and it was turned over to the police. That was a private search. United States v. Young, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207457 (E.D. Mich. Sep. 14, 2026).
The CI’s information was predictive that a tracked package with a controlled substance would arrive at an address in Kenner. While under surveillance, the package arrived, and 20 minutes later, defendant showed up, went briefly inside, and left. That was reasonable suspicion for the stop. State v. Woods, 2026 La. App. LEXIS 1795 (La. App. 5 Cir Sep. 11, 2026).*
There was probable cause for the search warrant here, and it was not bare bones. Therefore, the good faith exception applies also. United States v. Jackson, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207087 (E.D. Mich. Sep. 14, 2026).*
Nexus was shown. “As the Government acknowledged at oral argument, the affidavit could have contained more detail on the tracking data. But the details included nonetheless establish a ‘fair probability’ that the evidence would be found there, and that is all that is required.” United States v. Vongdala, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207360 (W.D. Wash. Sep. 14, 2026).*
Records from PayPal and Block were mere third-party records under Miller. The search of his cell phone at Customs at the Houston airport was a routine border search. Child pornography was found on it. United States v. Flores, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207304 (S.D. Tex. Sep. 14, 2026).*
“Here, the Court finds that defense counsel had all the information necessary to bring the referenced motion by the deadline for such motions. Moreover, the Court finds that, because of defense counsel’s undue delay, the Government was not prepared, before and during the evidentiary hearing, to substantively respond to a challenge of the duration of the stop under Rodriguez v. United States. … For all of these reasons, the Court finds that defense counsel has not shown good cause for the filing of an untimely motion in limine.” Even on the merits, defendant would lose on his Rodriguez issue. United States v. Abdullah, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206547 (N.D.N.Y. Sep. 14, 2026).*
The police video was too grainy to really see any real detail, so the district court could rely on the officer’s testimony. United States v. Jackson, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 28095 (10th Cir. Sep. 14, 2026).*
"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.
