Checking out-of-state DLs takes longer, so the officer didn’t intentionally delay the stop for the drug dog to arrive. State v. Haught, 2026-Ohio-4479 (8th Dist. Nov. 12, 2026).
Defendant argues the search was void under the community caretaking exception. Instead, the automobile exception applies, and it’s valid. United States v. Williams, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 257715 (N.D. Okla. Nov. 10, 2026).*
The evidence supports the trial court’s conclusion that the stop wasn’t unreasonably extended. The drug dog arrived within 18 minutes of the actual stop. State v. Coots, 2026 Mo. LEXIS 329 (Nov. 10, 2026).*
Defendant’s speeding stop was justified by at least reasonable suspicion. United States v. Red, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 258477 (D. Neb. Oct. 28, 2026).*
Israel officials captured Palestinian cell phone traffic that partly resulted in this indictment. That was sufficiently a foreign search. United States v. Al-Muhtadi, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 258887 (W.D. La. Nov. 10, 2026).
The complained of omissions from the affidavit for search warrant weren’t material to the probable cause finding. If the information had been included, the warrant still wouldn’t have been overbroad. United States v. Subil, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 258589 (W.D. Wash. Nov. 10, 2026).*
Probable cause was shown on the totality of information in the affidavit for warrant despite defendant’s claim some allegations were too general or had possible innocent explanations. United States v. McGauley, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 258291 (S.D. Fla. Oct. 30, 2026),* adopted, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 256740 (S.D. Fla. Nov. 9, 2026).*
The officer’s interpretation of the traffic law justifying his stop was just wrong, and it was not objectively reasonable under Heien. Therefore, the stop was void. Lanier v. State, 2026 Ind. LEXIS 719 (Nov. 10, 2026).
Plaintiff’s complaint that the Dept. of Taxation engaged in illegally using cameras and listening devices in 2015 was barred by limitations and for failure otherwise state a claim. Jabr v. Dep’t of Taxation, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 256918 (S.D. Ohio Nov. 9, 2026).*
Imposing an increased DWI penalty for a prior BAC refusal that violated the Fourth Amendment was barred. State v. Rossow, 2026 Wisc. App. LEXIS 1221 (Nov. 10, 2026).*
Nervousness, heaving chest breaths, failure to promptly stop in a high crime area, t-shirt pulled up too high was reasonable suspicion. Commonwealth v. Williams, 2026 PA Super 254 (Nov. 10, 2026).*
Posted in§ 1983 / Bivens, Reasonable suspicion|Comments Off on IN: Officer’s interpretation of traffic law wasn’t reasonable so stop was void
Reason: Miami Sheriff Hired a Private Law Firm To Pursue—and Profit From—Asset Forfeiture Cases by C.J. Ciaramella (“A court appeal challenging the Miami-Dade County sheriff’s unusual practice of using a private law firm to pursue property seizures on its behalf—and guaranteeing the firm a cut of the proceeds—could change the law surrounding police seizures in Florida and is drawing national attention from think tanks and criminal defense groups. The appeal, brought by a group of Miami-area mobile phone distributors and retailers who had tens of millions of dollars seized by the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office (MDSO) last year, is the first time Florida state courts have considered whether police departments can pay private law firms on a contingency basis to represent them in civil asset forfeiture cases.”)
Posted inForfeiture|Comments Off on Reason: Miami Sheriff Hired a Private Law Firm To Pursue—and Profit From—Asset Forfeiture Cases
IRS CID placed a pole camera observing defendant’s home and curtilage. It did not, however, show inside his house, and it was reasonable. United States v. Meade, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 256690 (D. Conn. Nov. 9, 2026).
Plaintiff’s complaint stated enough to move forward that an ADA authorized his arrest allegedly without probable cause. Kelly v. City of Cochran, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 255232 (M.D. Ga. Nov. 6, 2026).*
There was plenty of information of communication among co-conspirators. “[W]e find that there was a nexus connecting the request to search Pickell’s communication gadgets and monies to the crime of theft, receiving stolen property and complicity in committing these crimes.” And, thus, probable cause. State v. Pickell, 2026-Ohio-4461 (4th Dist. Oct. 29, 2026).*
Based on collective knowledge, the officers had reasonable suspicion for this stop. United States v. Denton, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 256435 (N.D. Iowa Nov. 9, 2026).*
In Ohio, knock-and-announce is a statutory mandate, and the officer’s failure to comply shown on body cam justifies exclusion, despite Hudson. State v. Robinson, 2026-Ohio-4424 (12th Dist. Nov. 9, 2026).
Plaintiff’s Franks challenge to a housing inspection warrant fails. Even taking the disputed information out, there was probable cause. AB Realty, LLC v. Lane, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 34111 (8th Cir. Nov. 6, 2026).*
Defendant’s stop was for following too close, which the court credited, and then the officer smelled marijuana which defendant admitted he had. United States v. Zermeno, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 34150 (10th Cir. Nov. 6, 2026).*
The affidavit here showed probable cause that defendant was high in a nationwide DTO. The omitted information didn’t warrant a Franks hearing. United States v. Earl, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 255148 (N.D. Ga. Nov. 6, 2026).*
Reason: Documents Reveal the Postal Service’s Broad Surveillance of Political Activists by J.D. Tuccille (“‘The law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service has been quietly running a program that tracks and collects Americans’ social media posts, including those about planned protests,’ Jana Winter first reported in 2021 for Yahoo! News. Among the organizations alarmed by the disclosure was the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which filed suit to learn more about the surveillance program. ‘After years of delays and technical failures that led the agency to lose access to a trove of emails discussing the program,’ wrote EFF Deputy Legal Director Aaron Mackey, the organization was finally able to extract some key documents about iCOP from the postal cops this month. Others were apparently destroyed. ‘The disclosures include a series of bulletins created from iCOP, which show that the postal service used the program in 2020 and 2021 to monitor and circulate information about a wide range of planned protests’ from ‘across the political spectrum,’ Mackey added.”)
Posted inSurveillance technology|Comments Off on Reason: Documents Reveal the Postal Service’s Broad Surveillance of Political Activists
This stop was a child not in a booster seat which officers saw when passing. United States v. Lane, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 34156 (4th Cir. Nov. 6, 2026).*
Defendant wasn’t stopped until he was Tased after fleeing and resisting. That was lawful. United States v. Bradley, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 253974 (E.D. Mo. Sep. 29, 2026),* adopted, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 253178 (E.D. Mo. Nov. 4, 2026).*
Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment claim he was involuntarily hospitalized on his arrest survived screening. D’Angelo v. Erie Cty. Sheriff’s Office, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 254716 (W.D.N.Y. Nov. 5, 2026).*
The showing of probable cause was based on corroborating circumstances and inferences, but it was enough. United States v. Davis, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 255533 (E.D. Mo. Nov. 6, 2026).*
Posted inAirport searches|Comments Off on Newsner: Airports changed their X-ray scanners after controversial images revealed what security staff could see
The location data on a Ryder rental truck is third-party information, not comparable to CSLI in Carpenter, and a search warrant wasn’t needed to get it. United States v. Subil, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 255856 (W.D. Wash. Nov. 6, 2026).
The officer stopped his car at the entrance to an apartment complex and walked up to defendant’s car. No lights, no gun drawn. The conversation was consensual, even up to the time the officer saw drugs. State v. Ledford, 2026-Ohio-4372 (8th Dist. Nov. 5, 2026).*
A former DHS officer didn’t show that his personnel action was based on his refusing to order a search of a JFK flight because he thought it would violate the Fourth Amendment. The agency showed it was for repeated instances of disrespectful behavior. May v. DOJ, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 33866 (Fed. Cir. Nov. 5, 2026).*
A Gerstein/McLaughlin violation for delayed first appearance requires a showing of prejudice. Conners v. Lundy, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 254646 (C.D. Cal. Nov. 3, 2026):
Franks motion properly denied for lack of an offer of proof. United States v. Adams, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 34035 (11th Cir. Nov. 5, 2026).
“Nor was the affidavit required to establish that officers personally observed Thompson enter or leave the apartment. ‘The critical element in a reasonable search is not that the owner of the property is suspected of crime but that there is reasonable cause to believe that specific things to be searched for and seized are located on the property to which entry is sought.’ … Accordingly, we reject Thompson’s argument that the affidavit failed to establish that the transaction occurred at Apartment G-8.” And the good faith exception is moot. Thompson v. State, 2026 Ark. App. 535 (Nov. 4, 2026).*
Defendant’s vehicle left parked in an HOV lane was properly impounded and then inventoried. United States v. Horsley, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 254209 (N.D. Tex. Nov. 5, 2026).*
When officers have a search warrant for a cell phone with a fingerprint unlock, it should ask defendant to open the phone, not grab his hand and make him. They will get into the phone under the warrant. United States v. Iler, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 253788 (D. Alaska Oct. 9, 2026) (R&R), adopted 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 253310 (D. Alaska Nov. 2, 2026) (relying on United States v. Payne, 99 F.4th 495, 511-13 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 145 S. Ct. 605, 220 L. Ed. 2d 237 (2024))
The search of defendant’s car lacked probable cause, and it’s suppressed. United States v. Porter, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 250202 (D. Alaska Nov. 2, 2026).*
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a prison cell from searches, even if they are retaliatory and harassing. Williams v. Delmar, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 251607 (N.D.N.Y. Nov. 3, 2026).*
Defendant’s confession there was child porn on his computer was probable cause to seize it and then get a search warrant for it. United States v. Schohn, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 33881 (2d Cir. Nov. 5, 2026).
The search warrant for defendant’s car was issued with probable cause. United States v. Devero, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 251603 (W.D. Pa. Nov. 3, 2026).*
The denial of defendant’s motion to dismiss in lieu of a motion to suppress doesn’t warrant here extraordinary interlocutory appeal. No opinion on the legality of the search is given. State v. Ball, 2026 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 765 (Nov. 5, 2026).*
The bulge of a possible firearm was not probable cause, but defendant’s confession to carrying one was. State v. Calloway, 2026-Ohio-4375 (8th Dist. Nov. 5, 2026).*
In a cell phone search for drug and gun crimes, the officer didn’t need a second warrant when he came upon interspersed information about a sex crime. In addition, the officer stayed focused on the drug and gun crimes. That’s plain view. United States v. Mason, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 252304 (S.D. Iowa Nov. 2, 2026).
There was probable cause for a firearm at defendant’s house five days after an offense. If not, the good faith exception applies. United States v. Williams, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 251276 (W.D. La. Nov. 2, 2026).*
Four month old information for a straw gun purchase wasn’t stale since guns are kept. Thirty days of past and then realtime CSLI was with probable cause and a warrant. United States v. Haley, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 252387 (W.D. Mich. Nov. 3, 2026).*
In a 2254, defendant was not denied effective assistance of counsel by defense counsel not challenging DNA taken from him by warrant in Florida in yet another sex offense, where the results were uploaded to CODIS and resulted in a hit in New York. Petitioner was never prosecuted in the Florida case, and statute said it shouldn’t have been uploaded. But that’s not a constitutional claim, nor is it an unreasonable application of federal law under Strickland. Brown v. Wolcott, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 250240 (N.D.N.Y. Nov. 2, 2026).
“The Court recognizes that the search warrant could have described in greater detail the AR-15 observed by Holland. The Court finds that failure to do so did not render the search warrant unconstitutionally overbroad considering the wider scope of the danger presented and larger firearms threat. The specificity requirement for the things to be seized must depend on the nature and ‘the circumstances of the case and the type of items involved.’ … The circumstances present here and the reasonable specificity in the description indicate that the search warrant proved sufficiently particular.” United States v. Stordahl, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 249569 (D. Mont. Oct. 30, 2026).*
Staying stopped at a green light was a traffic offense, and that justified this stop. Wright v. State, 2026 Md. App. LEXIS 1255 (Oct. 30, 2026).*
Posted inDNA, Particularity, Reasonable suspicion|Comments Off on N.D.N.Y.: DNA by SW in FL in CODIS could be used in NY; defense counsel not IAC for not making def’s argument
Navajo police stopped defendant’s car and the officer smelled alcohol, which is illegal in the Navajo Nation. That justified a search of the vehicle. A Glock with a switch and marijuana were found. United States v. Skacy, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 248602 (D. Ariz. Oct. 29, 2026).
The border search of defendant’s cell phone was reasonable. CBP had intel he was an acquirer of CSAM. United States v. McNealy, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 248740 (S.D. Fla. Oct. 29, 2026).*
The traffic stop was based on objective facts, and the drug dog arrived four minutes into it. The sniff didn’t prolong the stop. United States v. Lee, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 249329 (C.D. Ill. Oct. 30, 2026).*
The charge is possession of an unregistered silencer. The affidavit for warrant referred to acts of domestic violence and defendant’s large number of weapons. The totality meant anything firearm related, not just one AR-15. United States v. Stordahl, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 249569 (D. Mont. Oct. 30, 2026).*
“Here, defendant’s affidavit in support of his motion to suppress contended that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy from a search and seizure by the police because, although he knew his location was being tracked by his parole officer through his ankle monitor as a condition of parole, he did not consent to the police tracking his location with such device. Even assuming defendant subjectively believed that the GPS tracking data collected by his state-issued ankle monitor was private — despite knowing that he was under constant monitoring as a condition of his parole — that expectation was not objectively reasonable or justiciable under the circumstances presented here.” People v. Smith, 2026 NY Slip Op 06356, 2026 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6566 (3d Dept. Oct. 29, 2026). [3 years 3½ months to decide this appeal]
On defendant’s motion to reconsider denial of his suppression motion, the failure to meet the Franks burden is reaffirmed. United States v. Williams, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 247799 (E.D. La. Oct. 29, 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.
