Fourth Amendment Commons^™

Frankly, It's A Mess: Requiring Courts To Transparently "Redline" Affidavits In The Face Of Franks Challenges, Diana Bibb

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Part I provides a brief overview of the Fourth Amendment, probable cause, and the exclusionary rule. Part II discusses Franks v. Delaware, the development of the challenge’s framework, and subsequent expansions to the doctrine made by the lower courts. Next, Part III argues that, despite the aforementioned expansions, courts have consistently weakened Franks. Notably, the Supreme Court refuses to consider Franks issues, including the multitude of splits over which standard of review is applicable. Moreover, some circuits have developed their own minute rules that have chiseled away at the effectiveness of a Franks challenge. Part IV proposes that …

Fitbit Data And The Fourth Amendment: Why The Collection Of Data From A Fitbit Constitutes A Search And Should Require A Warrant In Light Of Carpenter V. United States, Alxis Rodis

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Two Clauses: Search And Seizure, Establishment Of Religion, And Constitutional Reason, Perry Dane

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Article dissects two developments in widely separate areas of American constitutional law—the “reasonable expectation of privacy” test for the Fourth Amendment’s Search and Seizure Clause and the “endorsement” test for the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. These two stories might seem worlds apart, and they have not previously been systematically examined together. Nevertheless, the Article argues that they have in common at least three important symptoms of our legal culture’s deep malaise. These three phenomena occur in other contexts, too, but they appear with special clarity and a stark cumulative force in the two stories on which this Article focuses. …

Horizontal Cybersurveillance Through Sentiment Analysis, Margaret Hu

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Essay describes emerging big data technologies that facilitate horizontal cybersurveillance. Horizontal cybersurveillance makes possible what has been termed as “sentiment analysis.” Sentiment analysis can be described as opinion mining and social movement forecasting. Through sentiment analysis, mass cybersurveillance technologies can be deployed to detect potential terrorism and state conflict, predict protest and civil unrest, and gauge the mood of populations and subpopulations. Horizontal cybersurveillance through sentiment analysis has the likely result of chilling expressive and associational freedoms, while at the same time risking mass data seizures and searches. These programs, therefore, must be assessed as adversely impacting a combination …

Binary Searches And The Central Meaning Of The Fourth Amendment, Lawrence Rosenthal

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Administrative Searches, Technology And Personal Privacy, Russell L. Weaver

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Seizing A Cell Phone Incident To Arrest: Data Extraction Devices, Faraday Bags, Or Aluminum Foil As A Solution To The Warrantless Cell Phone Search Problem, Adam M. Gershowitz

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

The Real Rules Of "Search" Interpretations, Luke M. Milligan

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The Supreme Court tells us that a Fourth Amendment “search” is a matter of “reasonable expectations of privacy.” Scholars meanwhile debate “search” on the axes of value, doctrine, institutionalism, interpretation, and judicial politics. Yet neither prevailing judicial doctrine nor normative academic discourse has had much impact on the Court’s actual “search” interpretations. This article suggests that this static between “paper” rules and “real” rules (and, more generally, normative prescriptions and judicial decisionmaking) is a function of a deep constraint on the judiciary’s capacity to form “search” doctrine in free accordance with evolving juridical and policy norms. This constraint is one …

Georgia V. Randolph, The Red-Headed Stepchild Of An Ugly Family: Why Third Party Consent Search Doctrine Is An Unfortunate Fourth Amendment Development That Should Be Restrained, Aubrey H. Brown

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Sense-Enhanced Searches And The Irrelevance Of The Fourth Amendment, David E. Steinberg

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Righteous Shooting, Unreasonable Seizure? The Relevance Of An Officer's Pre-Seizure Conduct In An Excessive Force Claim, Aaron Kimber

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Affecting Eternity: The Court's Confused Lesson In Board Of Education V. Earls, George M. Dery Iii

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In Board of Education v. Earls, the US. Supreme Court found the random drug testing of schoolchildren who participated in extracurricular activities to be reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. In this Article, Professor Dery argues that this latest extension of the special needs doctrine is both patronizing to student privacy interests and inconsistent with the Court's previous limitation of suspicionless searches in New Jersey v. T.L.O. and Chandler v. Miller. Professor Dery criticizes the Court's Earls decision as a confused lesson in constitutional law, abandoning the very fundamentals of the Fourth Amendment.

Can The "Public Interest" Justify Non-Consensual Searches Of Homes In Bankruptcy Cases?, A. Mechele Dickerson

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Bits And Bytes: The Carnivore Initiative And The Search And Seizure Of Electronic Mail, Sandy D. Hellums

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Note examines the application of Fourth Amendment search and seizure doctrines to the interception of electronic mail within the context of the FBI Carnivore initiative. The author argues that the traditional law of electronic surveillance's understanding of communication is outdated and never contemplated new technologies like Carnivore and their far reaching implications. Consequently, the author argues, that to protect our long-understood expectations of privacy, the search and seizure of electronic documents should be analyzed under the traditional papers analysis. To do so, the Supreme Court would afford the interception electronic documents the highest form of constitutional protect available under …

Individualized School Searches And The Fourth Amendment: What's A School District To Do?, Jason E. Yearout

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

As high-profile incidents of school violence appear to become more frequent and severe, public perception has deteriorated to the point where many citizens believe that schools are unsafe and administrators lack the power to control student activity. In their efforts to promote a safe learning environment, many school administrators have attempted to create strict guidelines concerning the power of school personnel to prevent illegal and unsafe activity from taking place at school. However, as administrators devise the rules by which to implement these standards, they are given little guidance by the Supreme Court regarding the application of the Fourth Amendment …

Personal Does Not Always Equal "Private": The Constitutionality Of Requiring Dna Samples From Convicted Felons And Arrestees, Martha L. Lawson

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In the past couple of decades, the use of DNA testing has become a major debate in criminal law. Many Americans have called for regular use of DNA testing in criminal cases, particularly in the aftermath of the O.J. Simpson murder trial. While these tests can potentially help better ensure justice conducting DNA tests raises fundamental personal privacy concerns. This Note analyzes the development of DNA testing throughout the United States, giving a historical account of how the courts and local police departments have dealt with this testing Finally, the Note argues that the government's interest in mandatory testing of …

Choosing Perspectives In Criminal Procedure, Ronald J. Bacigal

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In this Article, Professor Bacigal examines the Supreme Court's use of various perspectives in examining the reasonableness of searches and seizures. Although the Supreme Court purports to rely on a consistent method of constitutional analysis when rendering decisions on Fourth Amendment issues, the case law in this area indicates that the Court is influenced sometimes by the citizen's perspective, sometimes by the police officers' perspective, and sometimes by the perspective of the hypothesized reasonable person.

After identifying the role of perspectives in a number of seminal Court decisions, Professor Bacigal discusses the benefits and limitations of the Court's reliance on …

Does The Fourth Amendment Apply To The Armed Forces?, Fredric I. Lederer, Frederic L. Borch

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.