A DTF officer surveilling defendant who saw a traffic offense could ask a marked car to make a traffic stop. State v. Streeter, 2026-Ohio-1668 (5th Dist. May 5, 2026).*
In the Fulton County 2020 ballot seizure and return case, the government pleads law enforcement and deliberative process privileges. They have to answer some questions first by the next day. Pitts v. United States, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 100885 (N.D. Ga. Apr. 30, 2026).*
Through a convoluted series of “wild goose chases” for defendant’s phone allegedly with texts about sex with a minor on it, defendant said it was home and then his car, and officers got a warrant for each “assiduously” finding no phone. One officer found it at his work in a work drawer labeled with his name and brought it out. He had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the draw, but the seizure of the phone for a later warrant was the product of an independent source. They would have ultimately found it. No suppression. State v. Chandler, 2026 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 258 (May 7, 2026).*
Defendant doesn’t show judicial bias at trial because the trial judge issued the search warrant two years earlier and didn’t remember it until during trial. No affidavit of bias filed. State v. Baker, 2026-Ohio-1628 (5th Dist. May 5, 2026).
The government’s warranted use of a Stingray to locate him was a search, and it was reasonable, and, if not, in good faith. United States v. Jason, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99286 (E.D. Pa. May 4, 2026).
Coming to court six times for a traffic ticket was not an unlawful seizure. Tarharka v. Delius, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99640 (N.D. Ga. Mar. 19, 2026).*
Defendant’s act of kicking and biting ICE officers that came to the jail to get him was an independent crime and not a product of the prior allegedly illegal arrest. United States v. Wanjiku, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 100083 (W.D. Okla. May 6, 2026).*
The search warrant for a Washington Post reporter’s computers, phone, and files violated the Privacy Protection Act because it was not evidence of a crime or contraband. It also implicates prior restraint on speech. The USMJ’s order that the court will review in camera what was seized is affirmed. In the Matter of the Search of the Real Property and Premises of Natanson, 1:26-sw-00054 (WBP-AJT) (E.D. Va. May 5, 2026):
Officers came without a warrant to arrest defendant where he was spending the night, and he tried to escape. That was exigency. United States v. Richard, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99358 (E.D.N.Y. May 5, 2026).
Defendant’s presence in someone else’s hotel room for “commercial activity” gave him no reasonable expectation of privacy from police entry. United States v. Anderson, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99481 (D. Mont. May 4, 2026).*
In the same case, the geofence warrant to identify him was with probable cause, it was particular, and it was executed in good faith. United States v. Jason, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99303 (E.D. Pa. May 4, 2026).*
Asking a commercial truck driver about his cargo and inspecting papers did not impermissibly extend the stop. United States v. Tsegay, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99314 (D. Kan. May 4, 2026).*
Plaintiff fully litigated his Fourth Amendment claim in state court and lost. Collateral estoppel bars him from pursuing a federal claim for the same thing. Pelton v. Amador, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98995 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 24, 2026).
Defendant faults defense counsel for pursuing a meritless motion to suppress he insisted on causing him to forfeit a favorable plea offer. No IAC. State v. Tate, 2026-Ohio-1636 (5th Dist. May 5, 2026).*
That Dropbox reports child porn in its system doesn’t make it a government actor for the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Blocker, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 13026 (7th Cir. May 5, 2026).*
The officer knew defendant from long before, and he has a reasonable belief defendant was driving his car while a probation and parole warrant was out for him. United States v. Rodriguez, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99220 (D. Mont. May 5, 2026).*
The First Circuit declines to get into the issue of whether an undocumented person here is part of the “people” with Fourth Amendment rights, instead deciding he loses on the merits. United States v. Vizcaíno-Peguero, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 13000 (1st Cir. May 5, 2026).
Defendant doesn’t get discovery to help with a Franks challenge; nothing in Franks suggests that. If more develops, he can file a Franks motion. United States v. Bridges, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98583 (D. Me. May 5, 2026).*
A Fourth Amendment violation has nothing to do with removal proceedings. Romero v. Anda-Ybarra, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98642 (W.D. Tex. May 5, 2026).*
The affiant recklessly omitted important information that would have negated probable cause, but it wasn’t material to the ultimate finding of probable cause. United States v. Foster, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98801 (D. Conn. May 5, 2026).* (Helpful case for both sides of the question elsewhere.)
The warrant here required “photographing his hands, fingers, and forearms.” The search warrant’s particularity wasn’t violated by manipulating his hands to allegedly mimic what was seen in child pornography photographs off his computer. Search warrants don’t have to specify how they are executed. United States v. Akhter, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96842 (E.D. Va. May 1, 2026).
The state can’t appeal an order suppressing bodycam video for violation of state statute. It doesn’t fit within the rule permitting appeals of motions to suppress. People v. Schneider, 2026 CO 27 (May 4, 2026).*
Matching the description of a suspect and being in proximity to the crime is reasonable suspicion. United States v. Johnson, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98540 (E.D. Pa. May 5, 2026).*
Defendant was being questioned in an interrogation room, and officers were seeking a search warrant for GSR on his hands. He needed to pee, but they wouldn’t let him go alone because they didn’t want him to wash his hands. He went. Then he confessed while waiting for the warrant. No Fourth or Fifth Amendment violation. Dickey v. State, 2026 Ga. LEXIS 133 (May 5, 2026).*
The search warrant for defendant’s cell phone included “or within cloud based storage accessible by the device.” The warrant was not overbroad. State v. Pampas, 2026 La. App. LEXIS 848 (La. App. 5 Cir May 5, 2026).
Defense counsel’s failure to file a suppression motion isn’t ineffective assistance of counsel without saying what it was about and how the petitioner would win. Gallardo v. United States, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96906 (N.D. Tex. May 1, 2026).*
A vehicle may be stopped for actions of the passenger. Here it was belief that he threw a bottle out of the car and there was no one else around. He was apparently armed, and a felon. United States v. Gatnoor, No. 25-2052 (8th Cir. May 5, 2026).*
The drug dog arrived before the ticket could be completed, so the dog sniff didn’t extend the stop. State v. Parks, 2026-Ohio-1629 (6th Dist. May 5, 2026).*
Defendant’s refusal to comply with a search warrant for biometric opening of his cell phone (here, a face scan) was admissible at trial to show consciousness of guilt. “Given that ‘[i]t is today universally conceded that the fact of an accused’s … resistance to arrest … and related conduct, are admissible as evidence of consciousness of guilt, and thus of guilt itself,’ … the Court AGREES that evidence supporting Defendant’s refusal to cooperate with the court Order to unlock his phone at the time of his arrest is admissible to show consciousness of guilt.” United States v. Simons, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96683 (S.D. Cal. May 1, 2026).
State law defines the § 1983 statute of limitations, but federal law controls when it accrues. Here, plaintiff’s own exhibits showed he knew about the claim in 2015, ten years before he sued. Jabr v. Dep’t of Taxation, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96424 (S.D. Ohio May 1, 2026).*
Plaintiff claims damages from a search warrant to obtain IP address information. He doesn’t have standing in the third-party records. Pryor v. Gregory, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96428 (N.D. Miss. Apr. 30, 2026).*
Police observed defendant place a firearm on the wheel of a parked car where it remained in plain view, and he was later arrested. The firearm was abandoned property, not subject to the search incident doctrine, and the DNA warrant for touch DNA off the gun was issued with probable cause. United States v. Smith, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96554 (D.D.C. May 1, 2026).*
“The law is well-settled in the Third Circuit that neither a prisoner, nor the recipient of the phone call from the prisoner, have a reasonable expectation of privacy in phone calls that are made from a prison facility.” United States v. Tuggles, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96571 (E.D. Pa. May 1, 2026).*
Defendant’s objections only argue about whether defendant likely was the person carrying drugs and was it “bare bones.” There was particularity and a clause about anything else, but, on the whole, the good faith exception applies. United States v. Kelly, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96401 (W.D. La. Apr. 16, 2026).*
Police had court ordered exigent CSLI from that and a cell site simulator once he was identified as the shooter in a murder 13 days earlier. He was on the run into North Carolina and was eluding capture. This amounted to hot pursuit. Thomas v. State, 2026 Md. App. LEXIS 515 (May 1, 2026):
Defendant’s allegedly unlawful arrest doesn’t void the later search warrant for a DNA swab based on independent grounds, and not mentioning the alleged illegal arrest. United States v. Smith, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96554 (D.D.C. May 1, 2026).
Driving a moped on the sidewalk and not wearing a helmet was justification for defendant’s stop, and a gun was legitimately found. United States v. Northover, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 95711 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 30, 2026).*
Defendant’s general motion to suppress is denied. It doesn’t allege how any rights were violated or what was seized. People v. Louis, 2026 NYLJ LEXIS 734 (N.Y. Co. May 1, 2026).*
An overly intrusive state ordered medical exam can violate clearly established law. Wright v. Talamantes, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 12696 (9th Cir. May 1, 2026).*
A “clumsy” inventory that omitted “miscellaneous personal items” was not an unreasonable inventory. No level of specificity is required. United States v. Samuels, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96304 (S.D. Fla. May 1, 2026).
The CSAM search warrant here for ten years’ worth of information in specific categories was not overbroad. The state alleged information that supported ten years’ worth. Defendant argues that they were only entitled to two months’ worth. State v. Difilippo, 2026 Del. Super. LEXIS 201 (Apr. 24, 2026).*
Defendant got six extensions of time to file a suppression motion and was still untimely. Exercising discretion, the court goes to the merits [likely to preempt an IAC claim] and finds the search warrant was issued with probable cause based on reliable informant hearsay. United States v. Hardison, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 95414 (E.D. Tenn. Apr. 30, 2026).*
Posted inInformant hearsay, Inventory, Overbreadth|Comments Off on S.D.Fla.: Inventory that omitted “miscellaneous personal items” was not unreasonable
Defendant was charged with witness intimidation for contact with a witness in a criminal case of his. That charge was later dropped, and he sued. Defendants didn’t violate Franks by not mentioning that he never did it again. That’s not material. Brown v. Lott, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 12714 (4th Cir. Apr. 28, 2026).
“[T]he four confidential informants and one anonymous tipster are reliable, corroborated by independent evidence and each other, and support finding probable cause. Three informants have a history of providing reliable information. … Further, three informants provided information against their penal interests by describing their personal involvement with Velisek, so those statements are ‘presumptively credible.’” United States v. Velisek, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96136 (D. Minn. May 1, 2026).
The court’s clarifying question asked during the suppression hearing did not violate due process. Courts can ask some questions, and there was no objection at the time. United States v. Neel, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 12681 (11th Cir. May 1, 2026).*
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in files on his computer that were open for peer-to-peer sharing. Therefore, when the government used BitTorrent to access his computer, it did not violate the Fourth Amendment or the state constitution. People v. Slusher, 2026 COA 30 (Apr. 30, 2026).
Decedent’s traffic stop led to him being shot and killed. Plaintiff plausibly alleged a Fourth Amendment excessive force claim. Beck v. United States, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93300 (D.N.M. Apr. 27, 2026).*
Under Stone, the inquiry is whether the state provided a mechanism to litigate Fourth Amendment claims before trial. The state does here. Cooper v. Cool, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 95023 (N.D. Ohio Apr. 30, 2026).*
2254 petitioner’s Fourth Amendment claim is Stoned out. No COA on that or other issues in the case. Zuniga v. Marinich, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 12575 (6th Cir. Apr. 29, 2026).*
Defendant’s alleged excessive nervousness wasn’t visible on the video. And, even if he was, that’s a reasonable response to multiple police cars showing up for a routine traffic stop. No reasonable suspicion to continue the stop. People v. Thomas, 2026 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3967 (Columbia Co. Apr. 27, 2026).
The government [pretty obviously] showed probable cause for prospective cell phone location information of a California to New York drug conspiracy. United States v. Guadarrama, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93491 (S.D. Cal. Apr. 28, 2026).*
Defendant in his rented truck violated two traffic laws. While the officer was following he checked the license plate reader information that showed the truck had made a quick round trip from Colorado to California. It turned out his girlfriend had rented the truck, but nothing on the rental agreement made him an authorized driver. A drug dog was run around the truck after calling in the information he had and before issuing any citations. The dog alerted, and the use of the ALPR didn’t cause the stop. United States v. Salcido-Gonzalez, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 12341 (10th Cir. Apr. 29, 2026).*
Posted inAutomatic license plate readers, Cell phones|Comments Off on NY Columbia Co.: Alleged excessive nervousness when multiple police cars arrive at a traffic stop doesn’t add to RS
Defendant fled the police and tried dumping his backpack at his grandmother’s house. She opened the door, saw what was happening, and shut the door. Continuing to flee, he dumped the backpack on her curtilage. It was found abandoned. United States v. Lodge, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 12547 (4th Cir. Apr. 30, 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.
