Constitutional Law, Privacy

Judge’s Decision Awaited in NYC Stop and Frisk Trial

by Michele Bowman | Lawyers.com on 5/22/2013

Closing arguments wrapped up on May 20 in Floyd v. City of New York, the first trial to spotlight New York City’s controversial “stop and frisk” law enforcement program, which plaintiffs say amounts to unconstitutional racial...more

California Moves One Step Closer to Passing Privacy Bill Requiring a Search Warrant for Providers' Customers' Emails

by Amy L. Pierce | Pillsbury Social Media, Entertainment &... on 5/17/2013

In a 33-1 vote, on May 13, the state Senate approved Senator Mark Leno's bill that would require state law enforcement officials to obtain a search warrant before asking service providers to disclose the contents of their...more

Fenwick Employment Brief - May 2013

by Daniel J. McCoy, Dan Ko Obuhanych | Fenwick & West LLP on 5/15/2013

The NLRB's controversial requirement that employers post notices informing employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (as reported in our January and May 2012 FEBs) has been held unconstitutional by the...more

Warrantless Cell Phone Searches – A Look at the Case Law

by Mintz Levin - Privacy & Security on 5/14/2013

When a person is arrested with a cell phone, law enforcement officers will likely want to search the phone’s contents. Today’s smart phones are a treasure trove of contacts, calendars, voice and text messages, e-mail,...more

Context, Content And Privacy In Warrantless Searches Of Cell Phone And Cameras

by Tim Banks | Dentons on 4/25/2013

Context and content matters to the assessment of reasonable expectations of privacy in criminal law matters. Recently, in R. v. B. (C.), 2013 CarswellOnt 3851 (SCJ), P. Smith J. considered the constitutionality of a...more

Sixth Circuit Rules School’s Search Of Student Cellphone Violated Fourth Amendment

by Jackie Wernz | Franczek Radelet P.C. on 4/24/2013

In a recent decision, the first federal appellate court to address the rights of school officials to search student cell phones held that a student’s violation of a school rule regarding technology did not justify a general...more

Law Mandates CalPERS/CalSTRS Support For Shareholder Resolutions Supporting Religious Minorities

by Keith Paul Bishop | Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis... on 4/23/2013

In 1999, the legislature enacted SB 105 (Burton) which obligates CalPERS and CalSTRS to support, whenever feasible, shareholder resolutions at domestic and international corporations in which those funds have invested that...more

Court to Rule on Exceptions to Warrant Requirement for GPS Tracking

by Jeff Ifrah on 4/22/2013

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit is set to become the first federal appellate court to answer the question left open by the Supreme Court in United States v. Jones. Last year, the Court held in Jones that a...more

Is The IRS Reading Emails With A Search Warrant?

by Charles (Chuck) Rubin on 4/18/2013

Last week, the ACLU created a stir when it suggested that the IRS may be reading taxpayers’ emails without obtaining a search warrant. At least at some point in time in the past, according to the IRS’ 2009 “Search Warrant...more

Can Police Enter Condominium Common Elements Without A Search Warrant?

by Barbara Holmes | Heenan Blaikie LLP on 4/17/2013

As reported in the Ottawa Citizen, in a recent drug trafficking case the Ontario Superior Court considered whether the police could enter, without a search warrant, the common elements of the condominium building in which the...more

Prosecutor Claims Milwaukee Police Officers Engaged In A Pattern Of Illegal Conduct

by Samster, Konkel & Safran, S.C. on 4/15/2013

On Thursday, March 21, 2013, a motion hearing occurred regarding the four Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) officers who face charges of conducting illegal strip searches and illegal body cavity searches. During the hearing,...more

Do Police Need a Warrant to Track Your Cell Phone?

by Aaron Kase | Lawyers.com on 4/11/2013

Can police track your location via your cell phone without so much as obtaining a warrant? The answer, for now, is maybe. ...more

The Basics of Brianna’s Law

by Law Office of David R. Houston on 4/2/2013

In 2008, Brianna Denison, a 19-year-old college student, was kidnapped from a friend's house, raped and murdered. Although James Michael Biela initially refused to provide a DNA sample, he was ultimately convicted of these...more

Be Careful When Searching Student Cell Phones, Sixth Circuit Warns

by David G. King, Christopher M. Trebilcock | Miller Canfield on 4/2/2013

With text messages, Tweets, Facebook posts and other digital communications so prevalent in student’s lives, schools have been struggling to deal with the influx of mobile devices on campus. Last week, the Sixth U.S. Circuit...more

Judge Strikes Down FBI’s Use of ‘National Security Letters’

by Jeff Ifrah on 3/29/2013

In a recent decision, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District of California struck down the FBI’s use of National Security Letters (NSLs) as unconstitutional. Unbeknownst to most Americans, the FBI has been...more

BB&K Police Chief Bulletin: K-9 Searches - Supreme Court Just Says No to K-9 Drug Sniffing on Porch

by Paul A. Cappitelli, G. Ross Trindle III | Best Best & Krieger LLP on 3/29/2013

Overview: In a 5-4 decision,the U.S. Supreme Court this week ruled that a Florida police dog’s sniffing for drugs in front of a man’s home constituted an illegal search. Based on an unverified tip, police physically entered...more

How Far Does Clergy Confidentiality Go Under Common Law?

by Theresa Lynn Sidebotham on 3/26/2013

The privilege of talking confidentially with clergy, such as a pastor or priest, is ancient and honored, and clergy cannot be made to testify about those conversations. Some states have fairly broad statutes defining the...more

Bills on Use of Mobile-Device-Location Data Reintroduced

by Brad Guyton | Davis Wright Tremaine LLP on 3/26/2013

Updating our entry on this issue posted during the last Congress, on March 21, 2013, lawmakers in the House and Senate reintroduced companion bills intended to curb government use of mobile users’ geolocation data. The...more

Bill Introduced On Warrantless GPS Tracking

by Dennis Olle, Pedro Pavon | Carlton Fields on 3/26/2013

On March 21, a bipartisan group of legislators in the House of Representatives introduced a new bill, the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act, which would force law enforcement to obtain a warrant to track suspects with...more

California District Court Finds National Security Letter Statute Unconstitutional

by Brad Guyton, John Seiver | Davis Wright Tremaine LLP on 3/22/2013

Last week, in In re National Security Letter, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California found unconstitutional two sections of the federal law allowing the FBI to issue “National Security...more

LinkedIn Data Breach Lawsuit Dismissed For Lack Of Standing

by Amelia Gerlicher, James McCullagh | Perkins Coie on 3/19/2013

A federal judge in the Northern District of California recently added to the growing list of cases rejecting attempts to recover damages resulting from data breaches. In In re LinkedIn User Privacy Litigation, Case no....more

BB&K Police Chief Bulletin: Search of Vehicle “Black Box" - Admissible Evidence Captured by Vehicle’s Sensing Diagnostic Module

by Paul A. Cappitelli, G. Ross Trindle III | Best Best & Krieger LLP on 3/15/2013

Overview: A California appellate court recently upheld the admission of evidence obtained from the sensing diagnostic module (SDM) of a vehicle impounded after a fatal crash. The SDM decides whether to deploy air bags based...more

Setback for Apple in iPhone MDL

by Evan Nadel | Mintz Levin - Privacy & Security on 3/13/2013

In a case about exposing user data, Apple suffered a setback due to its concealment of information in litigation. Last week, in the multi-district litigation, In Re iPhone Application Litigation, Judge Lucy Koh of the...more

Court: Data on Unsecured Network May Qualify for 4th Amendment Protection

by Jeff Ifrah on 3/11/2013

The vast increase in the use of wireless data networks has led to new legal issues regarding network users’ right to privacy. A recent opinion issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon indicates that, under...more

The Impact Of The Supreme Court’s Recent Decision In Clapper v. Amnesty International USA On Privacy and Data-Security Litigation

by Edward Boyle, David Cinotti, Emilio W. Cividanes, Thomas Gilbertsen, Stuart P. Ingis, Joeann Walker | Venable LLP on 3/6/2013

On February 26, 2013, the Supreme Court decided Clapper v. Amnesty International USA, which clarified the standard to establish Article III standing for claims based on impending or future harm. The Supreme Court, in a 5-4...more

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Constitutional Law › Privacy