“Although the warrant did not specifically state that the blood was to be ‘tested,’ ‘analyzed,’ or ‘examined’ for such intoxicants, a logical, commonsense reading of the warrant shows that the warrant was meant to authorize such analysis because an intoxicating substance cannot be found in blood unless the blood is tested. Therefore, we conclude that the search warrant authorized the taking and analysis of the Defendant’s blood.” State v. Arora, 2024 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 573 (Dec. 23, 2024).
Officers lawfully approached defendant’s vehicle parked partly on the sidewalk. They didn’t have to just issue a parking ticket. United States v. Howard, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 231999 (E.D. Mich. Dec. 23, 2024).*
In an R&R, the USMJ holds that there’s no showing for a Franks hearing, and defendant should prevail on the motion to suppress because of a lack of probable cause. United States v. Holloman, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 232139 (W.D.N.C. Dec. 20, 2024).*
Plaintiff’s shooting during a traffic stop gone bad is an expansion of Bivens and is rejected. Hernandez v. Causey, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 32527 (5th Cir. Dec. 23, 2024).
Defendant had standing to contest the search of his room at his father’s house. He divided time between two dwellings, and his father never went in his room. Nevertheless, the father was able to consent to the police searching the room in his house because of his control over the premises. Chavez v. State, 2024 Tex. App. LEXIS 8852 (Tex. App. – San Antonio Dec. 18, 2024).*
The district court found probable cause and the good faith exception for this warrant. On appeal, only the good faith exception is decided. The affidavit was not “bare bones.” “At a minimum, the affidavit alleged that one or two confidential sources purchased heroin and cocaine from Brand at a residence, then surrendered the substances to law enforcement. Moreover, we discern nothing in the record to suggest that the state court judge merely rubber-stamped the warrant application.” United States v. Brand, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 32489 (4th Cir. Dec. 23, 2024).*
The city’s rental property inspection ordinance does not fail under the state constitution’s search and seizure clause because it is not facially void in all circumstances. Administrative warrants can be obtained when there’s a proper showing. Singer v. City of Orange City, 2024 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 105 (Dec. 20, 2024). [This produced numerous hits of reprinted posts from a conservative blog that this is the end of the Fourth Amendment. And the sky is falling.]
K.D. v. State, 2024 Fla. App. LEXIS 9904 (Fla. 6th DCA Dec. 20, 2024),* involves a discovery dispute in a juvenile case where the product of a child pornography search warrant wasn’t fully disclosed before the hearing.
The CI’s information was reliable enough for probable cause. The CI was known to the officer and would be held accountable for false information. United States v. Pineda, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 231122 (D.R.I. Dec. 19, 2024).*
Aside from failing to pull over, the passenger’s admission there were firearms and drugs in the glove compartment was probable cause. United States v. Hemphill, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 32424 (5th Cir. Dec. 20, 2024).*
The search warrant production helped authenticate defendant’s Facebook records for trial. Anderson v. State, 2024 Ind. App. LEXIS 351 (Dec. 20, 2024).
The fog line statute requires a driver to stay “as nearly as practicable entirely within a single lane” and that allows some deviations. The testimony here was that it was five times, and that’s enough for a stop. United States v. Garcia, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 230828 (N.D. Okla. Nov. 19, 2024).* adopted 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 229432 (N.D. Okla. Dec. 19, 2024).*
There was probable cause: “The Court concludes that this is sufficient evidence of narcotics trafficking that would lead a prudent person to believe that a search would uncover contraband or evidence of criminal activity at Defendant’s residence, in his car, and on his phones. Law enforcement established a nexus between Defendant’s narcotics trafficking and his use of phones to arrange the buys, as well as Defendant’s use of a specific vehicle for the exchange and the Defendant’s travel from a specific residence directly to the exchange.” And, the good faith exception applies. United States v. Garcia-Rodriguez, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 230858 (D. Utah Dec. 19, 2024).*
Conflict of laws: Where defendant’s supervised release search was by federal officers, federal law controls in state court, not state law. State v. Young, 2024 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 106 (Dec. 20, 2024).
A motion to reconsider denial of a Fourth Amendment claim won’t be entertained based on a case that could have been cited before. And, here it wouldn’t matter anyway. United States v. Price, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 230704 (S.D. Ohio Dec. 20, 2024).*
The USMJ found no probable cause in this brief affidavit for warrant but the good faith exception applied. On review, the USDJ finds there was probable cause and the good faith exception applies. United States v. Lineback, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 230748 (W.D. Tenn. Dec. 20, 2024).*
State law says that the product of search warrants can be suppressed when they were wrongfully executed. That says nothing about a delayed return, and the search won’t be suppressed for that reason. Alvarez v. State, 2024 Nev. LEXIS 69 (Dec. 19, 2024).
Defendant’s expired tags justified the stop. United States v. Quinn, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 230231 (E.D.N.C. Dec. 19, 2024).*
The isolated individual facts don’t show probable cause but collectively they do. The good faith exception applies, too. United States v. Lineback, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 230748 (W.D. Tenn. Dec. 20, 2024).*
Plaintiff’s guilty plea stops her false arrest claim. Kattie Sherrod Est. v. Madden, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 230703 (S.D. Ohio Dec. 20, 2024).*
WaPo editorial: The DEA shows why officers cannot police themselves when seizing assets (“A DOJ inspector general report underscores the need for reforming civil forfeiture practices. … ‘Civil asset forfeiture’ sounds like a wonky term for some arcane practice in a secluded cranny of the justice system. In fact, it can be a powerful law enforcement tool in the battle against crimes such as drug trafficking — when used correctly. When abused, it can result in innocent people having their property seized, often without criminal charges.”)
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Defendant’s stop based on a vehicle equipment law that had not yet gone into effect was not saved by Heien. As in: when the law’s not yet law, there can’t be a reasonable mistake about its application. “An officer cannot stop a motorist based on speculation about what the law requires. There can be no good faith under such circumstances.” As to informant hearsay, the sole fact an informant was known from a prior DV call isn’t reason to credit her story without more to show this story was reliably true. Vincent v. Commonwealth, 2024 Ky. LEXIS 402 (Dec. 19, 2024).
“The following non-exhaustive factors may contribute to reasonable suspicion for extending a traffic stop: (1) a high-crime area; (2) a short-term stop at a hotel; (3) the time of day; (4) failure to promptly pull over; (5) driving a vehicle registered to an absent third party; (6) driving without a valid driver’s license or insurance; (7) prior criminal history; and (8) lies, evasion, or inconsistencies. ‘Each factor is not to be considered in isolation because even though one factor alone may be innocently explained, the factors considered together can support reasonable suspicion.’ The Court will examine these seemingly innocuous factors and determine whether, in the aggregate, they can amount to a reasonable, articulable suspicion that Defendant was engaged in criminal activity.” Here they do. United States v. Presley, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 230671 (D. Kan. Dec. 20, 2024).*
Posted inReasonable suspicion, Reasonableness|Comments Off on KY: Stop based on a statute not yet in effect isn’t a reasonable mistake of law
The DUI BAC statute requires that a search warrant for blood alcohol can only be issued if there was a death or physical injury involved, and this court has previously upheld that limitation. Here, there was no death or physical injury, so the warrant was invalid. Story v. Commonwealth, 2024 Ky. LEXIS 403 (Dec. 19, 2024).
Defendant’s successor 2254 claim fails. “[I]f this claim is based on newly discovered evidence regarding the search warrant supporting his arrest and his arraignment, his proposed claim does not satisfy § 2244(b) because he has not pointed to any evidence showing that, but for constitutional error, no reasonable factfinder would have found him guilty of the underlying crimes. 28 U.S.C. § 2244(b)(2)(B)(ii). Nor has St. Ann established that the evidence could not have been discovered previously through the exercise of due diligence. § 2244(b)(2)(B)(I).” In re St. Ann, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 32391 (6th Cir. Dec. 20, 2024).* [In my state, lack of arraignment is meaningless after conviction. So where’s the constitutional claim?]
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in jail, so plaintiff’s complaint that there were “leaked” conversations that caused him difficulties stated no claim. Johnson v. Eubanks, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 230644 (W.D. Ky. Dec. 20, 2024).*
Lawyers may have concerns about relying on AI for legal briefs due to several reasons. While AI can be a powerful tool for legal research and drafting, there are potential pitfalls that can make it risky to trust AI entirely without human oversight. Here are some reasons why lawyers might approach AI-generated briefs cautiously:
Defendant was schizophrenic and he was destroying the wiring in his apartment. The landlord got an electrician and then they brought a police officer because they feared he had a weapon (which he did). The entry by the police was preventative and not investigative, and the viewing of the firearm by a convicted felon was reasonable. Crite v. Commonwealth, 2024 Ky. LEXIS 386 (Dec. 19, 2024):
Search warrant for “controlled substances” without specifying anything in particular, including what the controlled buy allegedly was, was overbroad. In addition, the warrant wasn’t present at the search, so it can’t help limit the search [which seems kind of a circular argument here since it didn’t specify either]. Commonwealth v. Padilla, 2024 Mass. App. LEXIS 157 (Dec. 20, 2024).
The inventory search here was unreasonable, but the evidence was admissible because of inevitable discovery. It would have been found anyway. People v. Mitchell, 2024 NY Slip Op 51715(U) (Co. Ct. Albany Co. Nov. 19, 2024).*
Plaintiff sued under § 1983 claiming the search in his pending state case was illegal. Court abstains. Dicostanzo v. City of Billings Police Dep’t, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 229935 (D. Mont. Dec. 19, 2024).*
A group strip search in prison was reasonable. Plummer v. Belford, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 230042 (S.D. Ill. Dec. 19, 2024).*
The officer responded to a neighbor’s call that there was the smell of a dead animal coming from defendant’s property. The officer walked up the driveway and could see chained obviously sickly dogs with no food or water. The smell was overpowering and made the officer feel sick. This was exigency of animals in distress. State v. Johnson, 2024 N.C. App. LEXIS 1002 (Dec. 17, 2024).
Only a hunch: “Stated otherwise, while the testifying [BLM] Rangers offered ‘articulable’ facts in support of their hunch that criminal activity was afoot, they provide little basis for how these factors were ‘suspicious’ individually or in the aggregate in the context of the other facts and circumstances at the scene addressed above.” United States v. Holliway, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 229807 (E.D. Cal. Dec. 19, 2024).*
Defendant doesn’t argue scope of search incident to arrest, only that there was no probable cause for the arrest, and there was. State v. Eckert, 2024 Iowa App. LEXIS 937 (Dec. 18, 2024).*
A drug dog alert on defendant’s car isn’t reasonable suspicion to frisk his person. State v. Stollings, 2024 N.C. App. LEXIS 1006 (Dec. 17, 2024).
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not further challenging the search warrant issued after an entry to execute an arrest warrant. The entry was lawful, so no IAC. United States v. Essex, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 229633 (E.D. Ky. Dec. 19, 2024).*
The defendant officers’ actions in shooting decedent weren’t brought about by their own recklessness. Qualified immunity applies. Estate of Alire v. Wihera, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 32285 (10th Cir. Dec. 20, 2024).*
“[T]he government’s seventeen-day delay between the warrantless seizure of Thompson’s property and the issuance of the search warrants was reasonable. The first factor favors the government because seventeen days—eleven of which were business days—is relatively short and far shorter than other instances in which courts have deemed a delay in securing a warrant reasonable.” United States v. Thompson, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 228675 (D. Mass. Dec. 18, 2024).
Driving several seconds on the fog line was reasonable suspicion for a stop. United States v. Garcia, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 229432 (N.D. Okla. Dec. 19, 2024).*
“Assuming, arguendo, that Defendant has standing to raise the concerns here at issue, the affidavits set forth ample indicia of probable cause; are sufficiently particular as to the items to be searched; demonstrate the required ‘probable cause nexus,’ … and are neither vague nor conclusory. … (‘probable cause is not a “high bar”’). Contrary to the suggestion of Defendant’s counsel, these are not ‘bare bones’ warrants that might merit striking. … Moreover, even if the Court were to now find the warrants lacking—which it does not—the officers relied in good faith on the two search warrants at issue and the good faith exception would apply.” United States v. Holmes, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 229724 (S.D. Ohio Dec. 19, 2024).*
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the ER room he was being treated in when the officer entered, observed him clearly intoxicated, and then elicited admissions from him. (The court considered both trespass and reasonable expectation of privacy theories and goes with the latter.) State v. Miller, 2024 Iowa App. LEXIS 892 (Dec. 18, 2024).
2255 successor petition, relying on Mapp v. Ohio as a “new constitutional rule” is rejected. Mapp was decided in 1961 and isn’t new. In re Moore, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 32062 (11th Cir. Dec. 17, 2024).* [They really have to say that.]
Defendant’s letting in the CI in for a drug deal was not an illegal search. That’s pure consent. (But the court goes one step further, unnecessarily, to find attenuation because it took ten minutes before the drug deal happened.) United States v. Corder, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 32101 (7th Cir. Dec. 18, 2024).* [Don’t rely on this case for attenuation; seems like an outlier to me.]
The officer came to defendant’s door for a knock-and-talk about marijuana sales, and, when the door was opened, he could smell marijuana. Defendant shut the door and attempted to put a bar up to block access, and that was all exigency. State v. Reel, 2024 N.C. App. LEXIS 1011 (Dec. 17, 2024).
Smell of marijuana coming from car justified search of two backpacks found inside under the automobile exception. State v. Torregano, 2024 La. App. LEXIS 2216 (La. App. 4 Cir Dec. 17, 2024).*
2255 petition’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim fails on merits of search. The protective sweep here was justified by a fear of an active shooter. Williams v. United States, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 228392 (M.D. Fla. Dec. 17, 2024).* [Not even close, here.]
"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.
