Fourth Amendment Archives - Page 8 of 9

First Circuit Finds No Expectation of Privacy for Trespasser’s Firearms

United States v. John is a case that deals with search and seizure in relation to a trespasser’s supposed expectation of privacy.1 The district court denied the Defendant’s motion to suppress the evidence based on Fourth Amendment grounds, and the First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment, holding that the denial to suppress was proper. On November 10, 2018, law enforcement officers were

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Mouthy Detainees and Excessive Force: Johnson v. City of Miami Beach

Today’s case from the Eleventh Circuit examines an excessive use of force that ultimately ended in an officer being denied qualified immunity. Qualified immunity protects officers from civil liability unless their conduct violates clearly established constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known. In excessive force cases, whether a plaintiff’s constitutional rights were violated is governed by the Fourth Amendment’s objective reasonableness

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Force That Matches the Escalation of Resistance

Betts v. Brennan, a case in the Fifth Circuit, involves a use of force incident during a traffic stop. The district court initially decided the case and cited Hanks v. Rogers, another use of force case where the court held that the plaintiff successfully rebutted the defendant’s qualified immunity defense. In Hanks v. Rogers, the court concluded that the plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment right to

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Consent to Search Granted and then Taken Away

The recent case from the Seventh Circuit, United States v. Jones, raises important questions about Fourth Amendment rights and consent to search. The case involved an arrest warrant that led to a consensual search, ultimately revealing a hidden firearm. The issue at hand is whether a person who initially grants consent to a search retains the right to withdraw that consent during the search.

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Naked Fugitives and Protective Sweeps

Today’s case from the Eighth Circuit involves officers locating two naked fugitives and conducting a protective sweep. ATF was later called in when a firearm was found during the initial search. Two cases to note to better understand our case today. First, in United States v. Cedano-Medina, the standard was set that a “warrantless search is valid if conducted [based on] knowing and voluntary

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Objectively Reasonable Facts and Hidden Agendas – United States v. Miles

Today’s case, United States v. Miles, is another traffic violation coming to us from the First Circuit. The trooper in today’s case has an excellent memory, and as a result he was able track down our suspect who was in possession of illegal drugs. The Court uses Whren v. United States, in their argument. In Whren, SCOTUS held that the reasonableness of a traffic

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The Force Must Match the Circumstance

As we have discussed in previous training sessions, protests at City Council meetings and town halls are becoming more frequent. Today’s case, Williamson v. City of National City, took place in a City Council meeting. When evaluating a Fourth Amendment claim of excessive force, the court will ask whether an officer’s actions were objectively reasonable considering the facts and circumstances surrounding the incident. While

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CyberTip From Facebook Employee

Today’s case, United States v. Meals, 21 F.4th 903 (5th Cir. 2021), actually makes Facebook look like the good guys for a change. Before we jump into the facts of the case, let’s review our major legal component today, the private search doctrine. According to United States v. Jacobsen, under the private search doctrine, when a private actor finds evidence of criminal conduct after searching someone

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One of These Things is Not Like the Other: Parolee Rights & Warrantless Searches

Today’s legal update comes to us from the Seventh Circuit and addresses the question of parolee rights. Many parolee agreements state that if a parolee violates his or her release agreement, officers have a right to search their belongings. This case also addresses several important court cases regarding cell phones, search warrants and parolee rights. The first case used in the court’s argument by

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It’s All in the Hips: A Suspect’s Suspicious Movements Lead to A Reasonable Frisk

Before we get into our case, let’s review the Supreme Court’s two objective tests for identifying a Fourth Amendment search. These two tests include whether police: (1) “physically intrud[es] on a constitutionally protected area” (under United States v. Jones); or (2) violate a person’s “reasonable expectation of privacy” (under Katz v. United States). These are different from a seizure, which is legally defined as

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