Fourth Amendment

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals recently analyzed the case Baca v. Cosper, where the Court considered whether a police officer’s use of deadly force against a mentally diminished elderly woman was objectively reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The decision addresses a crucial issue in law enforcement: determining when a knife-wielding individual actually poses an immediate threat justifying lethal force, and what the law requires

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a recent decision in United States v. Poller, 129 F.4th 169 (2d Cir. 2025). As part of an ongoing investigation into suspected drug and weapons offenses, officers executing search and arrest warrants approached the suspect’s vehicle—parked on a public street outside his residence—and used an iPhone camera to examine its interior. On February 20, 2025,

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently issued a decision in the case of United States v. Rose, where the Court considered whether officers’ observations of tinted windows can establish probable cause for a traffic stop and whether employing a drug-detection dog, along with subsequent arrests and searches, can withstand constitutional scrutiny.[1] This case originated with a routine traffic stop in

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently issued a decision which considered the scope of law enforcement’s authority to conduct a warrantless vehicle search incident to a lawful arrest based on a valid arrest warrant. The case, United States v. Turner, stems from several incidents that took place in North Carolina, over roughly two days in June of 2020. After

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently rendered a decision in Meshal v. Commissioner, Georgia Dept. of Public Safety, where the Court considered under what circumstances an officer may be denied qualified immunity for extending a traffic stop. Specifically, is a call to the FBI concerning a driver’s status on the No-Fly List equivalent to a warrants check? The case

The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently rendered a decision in United States v. Davis, considering whether law enforcement officers had a sufficient constitutional basis to search a defendant’s vehicle after he was pulled over in response to reports of domestic violence.1 In the early morning hours of February 22, 2022, a domestic disturbance unfolded at a family home in