Circuit Courts of Appeal

In the recent case Milla v. Brown, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit examined Fourth Amendment claims lodged against two officers for detaining and searching the plaintiff and his vehicle without adequate reasonable suspicion to justify the detention. After receiving an anonymous tip about a nearby stabbing, police in Fairfax, Virginia, responded to a gas station, which was reported to

Today’s case comes to us from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in US v. Daniel [1]. For today’s training, we will consider an officer’s reasonable reliance on probable cause in the context of a search warrant, while exploring the boundaries of the good-faith exception. This case made its way to the Sixth Circuit after the defendant, Alejandro Daniel, was indicted for conspiracy

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in the case of Smith v. Agdeppa, recently explored the parameters of qualified immunity in a case where two police officers faced an intense confrontation with a suspect at a Los Angeles Gym.1 The subsequent use of deadly force by Officer Edward Agdeppa led to legal action by the deceased’s mother, Paulette Smith. She contended that her son’s

The First Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Penate v. Sullivan, offers a detailed examination of SWAT team entries and the significance of the knock-and-announce principle for upholding individuals’ constitutional rights as guided by the Fourth Amendment.1 This case originated out of Worcester, Massachusetts, where police were called to respond to a distraught woman’s report of sexual assault. With the victim’s assistance, the police

The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a decision in United States v. Woolridge, a case that addresses the issue of voluntary confessions and the application of Miranda warnings1. The decision by the Sixth Circuit emphasizes the primacy of the Fifth Amendment in safeguarding suspects’ rights during officer interactions with detainees. Joshua Woolridge, the defendant in the case, was charged under 18