Two Posner opinions of note involving the Fourth Amendment decided a day apart:<\/p>\n
In Balthazar v. City of Chicago<\/a>, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 22744 (7th Cir. November 8, 2013), police had a search warrant and were in an apartment building, and the officer with the battering ram went to the wrong door. Another officer yelled \u201cwrong door,\u201d but he couldn\u2019t check the swing, and broke the door. They went to the right door and entered. The city promptly paid to fix the door, but the officers didn\u2019t otherwise \u201csearch.\u201d Plaintiff sued under \u00a7 1983. At trial, it was apparent she was lying, so they had to go with alternate theory and lost. \u201c If\u00a0 you know you\u2019re in the wrong place\u2014a\u00a0place you\u2019re not authorized to search or want to search\u2014the \u201cunavoidable glance through the open door is not a search.\u201d.* <\/p>\n Morrow v. May<\/a>, 735 F.3d 639 (7th Cir. 2013)*, is a false arrest \u00a7 1983 case. It\u2019s great, entertaining writing (appellant’s counsel wouldn’t think so) and you wonder why there was an appeal, but it adds nothing to the body of Fourth Amendment law.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" b2evALnk.b2WPAutP Continue reading