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Fourth Amendment Law Enforcement

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures and provides that warrants may only be granted upon findings of probable cause. The Fourth... more +
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures and provides that warrants may only be granted upon findings of probable cause. The Fourth Amendment applies to the States via the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.  Important areas of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence flow from questions surrounding the definitions of "search" and "seizure," the applicability of the Amendment to so-called "stop and frisk" situations, the level of control that must be exerted by law enforcement before an individual is deemed "seized," and the "exclusionary rule," just to name a few.    less -
WilmerHale

The Impact and Future of the Fifth Circuit’s New Hard-Line Stance on Geofence Warrants

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On August 9, 2024, the Fifth Circuit issued its decision in United States v. Smith, No. 23-60321, broadly holding: “that the use of geofence warrants … is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment.” This categorical holding...more

Robins Kaplan LLP

To Seize or Not to Seize: Campus Protests and Police Uses of Force

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Dozens of college and university campuses experienced protests in April and May of 2024 due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Many were peaceful, but some turned violent — and they engendered a wide variety of law...more

WilmerHale

Outlier or Trend? A Possible Narrowing of the Border Search Exception for Electronic Devices

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As we wrote in a note back in December 2020, the border search exception to the Fourth Amendment is a powerful investigative tool relied on by law enforcement to gather critical physical and digital evidence because it allows...more

Zuckerman Spaeder LLP

How many times can the same police department arrest you on a warrant that bears your name but is plainly not intended for you?

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What’s in a name? If it’s in a warrant and you’re in the Eleventh Circuit, enough to arrest and jail you for three days even if you don’t match the description of the wanted person, the warrant was issued 26 years earlier...more

Baker Donelson

A Victory for Qualified Immunity. A Trend to Continue?

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Events from recent years related to alleged police misconduct raised major questions surrounding the protections afforded by qualified immunity to police officers in excessive force claims. Two recent Supreme Court decisions...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Rare En Banc Second Circuit Says “Spread Eagle” Order Not a Search Over Spirited Dissents Decrying State of Fourth Amendment...

The Second Circuit, sitting en banc, reversed a panel decision holding that officers lacked reasonable suspicion to frisk defendant Calvin Weaver after a traffic stop. The en banc majority (Judge Nardini, who authored the...more

Rumberger | Kirk

Supreme Court Rejects Community Caretaking Doctrine to Authorize Warrantless Search of Home to Seize Firearms

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The 21st Century law enforcement officer serves a variety of public service functions, only some of which involve the enforcement of criminal laws. From some of those non-criminal public service roles, the courts have...more

Poyner Spruill LLP

Torres v. Madrid (New Excessive Force Opinion from SCOTUS)

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In a 5-3 decision authored by Chief Justice Roberts, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Torres v. Madrid that a woman who was shot while fleeing from police officers was “seized,” even though she remained at large. ...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

The Supreme Court - March 25, 2021

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Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial Dist., No. 19-368; Ford Motor Co. v. Bandemer, No. 19-369: In two separate products liability actions, petitioner Ford Motor Company challenged the Montana and Minnesota State courts’...more

Womble Bond Dickinson

U.S. Surveillance Society Could Learn from EU Approach to Privacy

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We have learned in the past year that privacy protection can often conflict with pandemic protections, as contact tracing regimes and databases of infections and vaccinations highlight people’s personal situations in the...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

The Supreme Court - November 20, 2020

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United States v. Cooley, No. 19-1414: Whether the lower courts erred in suppressing evidence on the theory that a police officer of an Indian tribe lacked authority to temporarily detain and search respondent, a non-Indian,...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Second Circuit Reverses One Conviction for Lack of Venue, Affirms Others Despite Unlawful Warrant

In United States v. Purcell, the Second Circuit (Lynch, Pooler, and Park) considered the conviction of defendant Lavellous Purcell on five counts all arising out of his operation of a prostitution business. On appeal,...more

Womble Bond Dickinson

U.S. Customs Opens Mass Searches of Data on Confiscated Traveler Smartphones, Computers

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I am an advocate of providing law enforcement officers the newest technology to do their jobs well. If there is a recording of an event, the police should be able to use it. If a stingray can capture cell phone...more

Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

Ninth Circuit Upholds Officers’ Qualified Immunity in Dynamic Shooting Case

In Neftali Monzon v. City of Murrieta et al. (No. 19-55164, filed July 22/2020), Plaintiffs Neftali Monzon and Marylou Monzon sued the City of Murrieta and five individually named police officers (collectively “Defendants”)...more

Sullivan & Worcester

The Fourth Amendment Downs 'Video Voyeurism' in Kraft SpaGate Case

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On Wednesday, Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed a lower court decision excluding video evidence that Florida prosecutors sought to use in their case against hundreds of men who allegedly patronized the...more

Womble Bond Dickinson

The Constitution Protects Faces in the Crowd

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Unlimited law enforcement application of facial recognition software to surveillance footage is an unreasonable search and a violation of Constitutional rights for people in a peaceful crowd. An officer should need to...more

Robins Kaplan LLP

Financial Daily Dose 6.12.2020 | Top Story: American Airlines Pledges Loyalty Program as Collateral for COVID Stimulus Package

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American Airlines Group Inc. stated that it plans to pledge its loyalty program “as collateral for a $4.75 billion government loan as it seeks to shore up capital to manage through the coronavirus pandemic.” The company...more

Best Best & Krieger LLP

Law Enforcement Can’t Use an Administrative Search Warrant in Ongoing Criminal Investigation

Ninth Circuit Affirms Motion to Suppress Evidence Seized by Deputies Assisting Code Enforcement Officers - Law enforcement officers violate the Fourth Amendment when their “primary purpose” in assisting code enforcement...more

Tucker Arensberg, P.C.

Court Dismisses Student’s Claim That Confiscation of His Cell Phone While District Investigated Student’s Suspected Misconduct Was...

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Rorvik v. Snohomish School District, et al., 2018 WL 3917932.  The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington rejects student’s Section 1983 claims that District officials’ confiscation of his cell phone,...more

Fox Rothschild LLP

The Mandate Rule And Another Thinly-Sliced Qualified Immunity Opinion From The Fourth Circuit

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A while back I wrote about the collateral order doctrine as discussed by the Fourth Circuit in Williams v. Strickland. Williams involved an alleged excessive force claim against a law enforcement officer and an...more

Snell & Wilmer

What Does the New Utah Electronic Data Privacy Law Do?

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Utah recently became the first state to enact a law specifically designed to protect private electronic information stored with third parties from collection by law enforcement without a valid warrant. Utah Governor Gary...more

Womble Bond Dickinson

New Utah Privacy Law Expands Warrant Requirement for Individuals’ Data Held by Electronic Communications Service Providers

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On March 27, 2019, Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed HB 57, a bill designed to increase privacy protections by requiring law enforcement to obtain a search warrant before being able to access a person’s data held by...more

Sands Anderson PC

The One Fingered Salute: It's Rude, But It's Not Probable Cause To Arrest

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Officer Matthew Minard of the Taylor, Michigan Police Department pulled over Debra Cruise-Gulyas for speeding. He cut her a break and cited her only for a non-moving violation. A lot of people would’ve been grateful, but...more

Foley Hoag LLP - Security, Privacy and the...

Can Law Enforcement Force You To Use Your Finger to Unlock Your Phone?

Can a fingerprint alone provide “testimony” about a person? Earlier this month, a federal court in California said yes. But the court was not engaging in a highly-localized form of palm-reading; rather, the question arose in...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Privacy - Wherefore Art Thou? - The Third Circuit Denies 4th Amendment Right

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The Third Circuit Denies 4th Amendment Right - Let’s face it – over the last 20 years or so, we have come to embrace, celebrate, and depend completely on electronic communications. What is more, we keep reaching out to...more

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