The Presumption of Innocence Podcast: Episode 48 - Digital Boundaries: Fourth Amendment Protections in a Connected World
Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 141: Listen and Learn -- The Fourth Amendment
E17: Carpenter Decision Builds Up Privacy from #SCOTUS
Do Legal Challenges to NSA's PRISM Program Stand a Chance? Yes.
Recently, New York State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Marcelle ordered an immediate halt to warrantless searches of licensed hemp retailers. These searches had been conducted in connection with raids targeting smoke shops and...more
“The right of the people to be secure … against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause … and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the...more
U.S. law has long provided a border search exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant or probable cause requirement, allowing federal agents to search people, and their electronic devices, at border crossings without a warrant...more
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
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
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
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
Last week, in a historic decision on travelers’ rights to privacy at the U.S. border, U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper in Boston ruled that suspicionless searches at U.S. ports of entry (airports and border crossings)...more
Like many cities across the nation, the City of Saginaw, Michigan, has used tire chalking — the technique of marking a parked car’s tire with chalk to determine how long it has been stationary. When an officer returns to a...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
Municipalities that rely on chalking cars and sidewalks as part of their parking enforcement should change their practices after a recent ruling....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
The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently confirmed school officials’ governmental immunity in a Fourth Amendment challenge to a search of one high school student’s cell phone....more
The U.S. Supreme Court has once again expanded the Fourth Amendment protections afforded to certain modern digital communications. And in doing so, the unusual five-justice majority led by Chief Justice Roberts has suggested...more
In the context of an appeal from a decision of the Board of Immigration appeals, Zuniga-Perez v. Sessions, the Second Circuit (Pooley, Wesley, Chin, C.JJ) ruled that a search conducted by law enforcement personnel violated...more
In a landmark Fourth Amendment case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that digital is different. A cross-practice team from our National Security & Digital Crimes and Cybersecurity Preparedness & Response teams parse the narrow...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down a major decision, Carpenter v. United States, concerning the Fourth Amendment’s application to the rapidly evolving technological landscape. The 5-4 decision dramatically alters the...more
As close observers of the implications of privacy law on companies’ data collection, usage and disclosure practices, we at Socially Aware were among the many tech-law enthusiasts anticipating the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent...more
The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled in Carpenter v. United States that the government must have a warrant to access an individual’s cell phone location history from wireless carriers. The Court held, in a 5–4 opinion issued...more