Category Archives: Uncategorized

WaPo: For seniors using tech to age in place, surveillance can be the price of independence by Heather Kelly (“To age in their own homes, seniors are juggling being watched with being on their own”):

Intercept: School Officials Welcome Homeland Security Surveillance After Student Fights (“Administrators in Prince George’s County say they wanted help monitoring school safety — but sweeping surveillance could land kids in gang databases and families in deportation proceedings.”)

CNS: Activists leak 600 hours of mostly Dallas police helicopter footage after city’s 22 terabyte loss of criminal case data (“The leaked video shows the surveillance of people in their front yards, standing by their cars and sunbathing with no … Continue reading →

Lawfare: The Impact of Carpenter v. United States in the Lower Courts and the Emerging Carpenter Test by Matthew Tokson:

Police entry for a drug overdose is an exigency. United States v. Van Pelt, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 211734 (D.Mont. Nov. 2, 2021). And there’s this:

ABAJ: Chemerinsky: SCOTUS continues to hold the line on qualified immunity (“Two unanimous U.S. Supreme Court decisions on Oct. 18 show the justices are continuing to broadly interpret qualified immunity to limit suits against government officials, especially police officers. Perhaps … Continue reading →

Law.com: Analysis: Recent Woes for Prosecutors in Cellphone Searches (“Three recent district court decisions exemplify how courts have struggled with the Fourth Amendment questions raised by the intrusive nature of cellphone searches.”)

Three weeks passed in a murder investigation between officers thinking they might have to search and getting the search warrant. Other search warrants were obtained in the interim, and the investigation was ongoing. The delay was reasonable. United States v. … Continue reading →

A pseudo welfare check cannot be a ruse for a plain view under Jardines. Police officers entering defendant’s girlfriend’s yard under the guise of a welfare check over the normal access route were looking for and discovered a 9 mm … Continue reading →

The officers here had a reasonable basis for arresting plaintiff for obstruction of an officer, whether it was based on a reasonable mistake of fact or of law. And that plays into qualified immunity. Barrera v. City of Mount Pleasant, … Continue reading →

Removal of children from the home on reasonable suspicion of exposure to toxic fumes, even if governed by the Fourth Amendment, was based on reasonable suspicion and was subject to qualified immunity. Stanley v. Hutchinson, 20-1822 (8th Cir. Sept. 8, … Continue reading →

NYTimes: How the N.Y.P.D. Is Using Post-9/11 Tools on Everyday New Yorkers (“Two decades after the attack on New York City, the Police Department is using counterterrorism tools and tactics to combat routine street crime.”)

The Economist: A 38-year-old charity will be integrated into Apple’s newest operating system (“The peculiar status of NCMEC, funded by the Justice department but independent of it, allows what might otherwise be an unlawful search”)

WaPo: Surveillance and Capture: Two Models of Privacy by Reed Albergotti (“He predicted the dark side of the Internet 30 years ago. Why did no one listen? Philip Agre, a computer scientist turned humanities professor, was prescient about many of … Continue reading →

So postings will occur on the weekends.

CNN: Florida judge orders destruction of suppressed video evidence in Robert Kraft case by Rebekah Riess, Gregory Lemos & Amir Vera (“A Palm Beach County, Florida, judge ordered the destruction of video evidence previously suppressed in the case against New … Continue reading →

The question is not whether defendant actually made a left turn traffic violation; it’s whether the officer reasonably believed he did. Even the Ohio courts aren’t sure, and that makes the officer’s belief reasonable. United States v. Pacelli, 2021 U.S. … Continue reading →

First for me since March 2020. Postings will be hit or miss. Mostly miss. I will catch up. Update: We won the Silver Medal.

The warrant for defendant’s cell phone showed plenty of probable cause. Because the probable cause was based on use of the phone as an instrumentality of the offense of attempted child exploitation and possession of child pornography, a broader warrant … Continue reading →

Officer’s testimony a small quantity of marijuana in two sandwich bags could be smelled as a car drove by is found incredible and contrary to common sense. United States v. Gray, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128199 (S.D. Ind. July 9, … Continue reading →