Law School Toolbox Podcast Episode 325: Listen and Learn -- The Fourth Amendment: Informer Tips
Law School Toolbox Podcast Episode 323: Listen and Learn -- The Exclusionary Rule (Criminal Law and Procedure)
Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 156: Listen and Learn -- The Fourth Amendment: Informer Tips
Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 154: Listen and Learn -- The Exclusionary Rule (Criminal Law and Procedure)
Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 141: Listen and Learn -- The Fourth Amendment
With Probable Cause and Drug-Sniffing Dogs, Supreme Court Would Rather Keep Things Fluid
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal Upholds City of San Diego’s Municipal Code Regarding Use of Parking Spaces - The Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal has ruled that the practice of “tire-chalking,” a common practice of...more
Last week, the First Circuit issued a decision that could be destined for Supreme Court review, but that nonetheless will immediately impact the course of criminal defendants' Fourth Amendment rights, particularly concerning...more
Welcome back to the Bar Exam Toolbox podcast! Today, in our "Listen and Learn" series, we're discussing when the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution applies, and how to determine if an unlawful search has...more
In a 9-0 opinion by Justice Thomas, the Supreme Court held that the “community caretaking” exception does not extend to the home, narrowing police powers to search homes without a warrant and repudiating the First Circuit’s...more
In United States v. Smith, the Second Circuit (Katzmann, Kearse, Meyer, by designation) issued a split opinion weighing whether a month-long delay between authorities’ seizure of a tablet computer and their application for a...more
Congress Sprints to the Finish. Congress returned this week from its Thanksgiving break and is racing to the end of the first session of the 116th Congress. Lawmakers are technically only supposed to remain in town through...more
On June 27, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Mitchell v. Wisconsin, No. 18-6210, holding that the exigent-circumstances exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement almost always permits a blood test without a...more
One of our favorite sources for Franczek email alerts is our readers, and we recently received a question from a Twitter follower about the legal considerations related to randomized dog searched in public schools. ...more
The City of Saginaw, Mich. uses the common technique of “chalking” — marking a parked car’s tire with chalk to track how long it is stationary. If an officer sees the chalk on the tire beyond the amount of time of the parking...more
While I can’t say I’ve seen everything, there are days when I feel like I’m getting close. Although this blog has most often looked at North Carolina or Fourth Circuit cases, we sometimes cast a wider net. Let’s consider a...more
Recent Supreme Court Decisions Strengthen Drivers’ Privacy Rights - The Fourth Amendment protects individuals from warrantless searches and seizures in areas where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The United...more
On May 1, 2018, the Second Circuit (Lynch, Carney, Hellerstein D.J. (concurring)) reversed the district court’s denial of Defendant Robert Alexander’s motion to suppress guns found after a search of a bag in front of a shed...more
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (“CBP”) recently updated its 2009 directive pertaining to border searches of electronic devices. The Supreme Court of the United States has deemed warrantless searches by CBP legal and...more
Currently there are a number of pending cases concerning the issue of whether Border searches can include a search of someone’s cellphone. On March 15, 2018, a divided 11th Circuit Court, upheld the conviction of a Florida...more
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in what may become one of the defining consumer privacy cases of our generation. The central question in Carpenter v. United States asks whether the government violates the Fourth...more
In the 2017-18 term, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide a number of potentially significant disputes relevant to businesses, including those involving constitutional protections, class actions and other corporate liability...more
On November 29, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in United States v. Carpenter, a case that could fundamentally change the way the government collects, uses, and tracks individuals’ location information...more
On Wednesday, November 29, 2017, the Supreme Court heard arguments in the appeal of Timothy Carpenter, a man convicted and sentenced to 116 years for his role in a series of armed robberies. In proving his guilt, prosecutors...more
In Carpenter v. United States, federal investigators sought cellphone location data for a set of persons suspected in a series of robberies. The Fourth Amendment prevents the government from conducting unreasonable searches...more
On June 5, 2017, the Supreme Court of the United States granted certiorari in Carpenter v. United States, a case in which the court will assess and decide the extent of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against a warrantless...more
The United States Supreme Court has just agreed to hear the case of a Detroit man who was sentenced to 116 years in prison after data from his own cellular phone was used against him at his trial for his role in a string of...more
In a split decision in United States v. Delva, No. 15-cr-683 (Kearse, Winter, Jacobs), the Second Circuit held that the Fourth Amendment allowed law enforcement officers to seize cell phones and a number of letters that were...more
As mentioned in a prior blog post, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) can conduct searches of individuals departing the United States, a fact that many are not aware of. In fact, the rule that failure to declare...more
The controversial practice of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents randomly demanding that Americans turn over passwords to their mobile devices so they can be searched at the border and at ports of entry may be...more
The Illinois Appellate Court has found unconstitutional a provision of the Illinois Liquor Control Act (Liquor Act) that authorizes unlimited inspection of liquor retailers' premises by local officials. The court ruled that...more