Sniff and search is no longer the default for police in some of the 33 states that have legalized marijuana. Traditionally, an officer could use the merest whiff of weed to justify a warrantless vehicle search, and whatever turned up ...

Tagged with: Fourth Amendment marijuana U.S. Supreme Court warrantless vehicle search

The attorneys arguing in U.S. v. Wurie and Riley v. California urged the court to draw a bright line with respect to the ability of police to search the contents of arrestees’ cellphones.

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The justices’ analysis could provide important guidance as other cases addressing the scope of individuals’ expectation of privacy in the information contained in their mobile phones make their way through the courts.

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The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider whether police making an arrest must get a warrant before searching the suspect’s mobile phone.

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Law enforcement is nothing if not creative when it comes to finding ways around the Constitution and the Fourth Amendment.

Tagged with: Fourth Amendment privacy U.S. Supreme Court

Because of the wealth of personal information most cellphones hold, defense attorneys and civil liberties advocates argue that police searches of physical phones as well as the collection of location data emitted from the phones should require a warrant, just as the search of a person’s personal computer or the substance of phone or email conversations would.

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The U.S. has the unique challenge of trying to run secret intelligence in an open democracy. It has to do so under the law.

Tagged with: Eric Holder Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Fourth Amendment National Security Agency U.S. Justice Department

On May 7, an appellate court in Wisconsin decided State v. Sveum. At issue was whether the surreptitious placement of a GPS tracking device on a person’s automobile, without a warrant, and the use of the device to continually track ...

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U.S. Supreme Court justices weighed putting limits on the power of school officials, considering a clash over the strip-search of a 13-year-old girl accused of handing out prescription drugs. Hearing arguments in Washington on Tuesday, several justices said the position ...

Tagged with: Arizona Fourth Amendment Kerry Wilson Safford Unified School District Savana Redding strip search U.S. Supreme Court