Law Commons^™

Getting Beyond Intuition In The Probable Cause Inquiry, Erica Goldberg

School of Law Faculty Publications

Courts are proudly resigned to the fact that the probable cause inquiry is “nontechnical.” In order to conduct a search or make an arrest, police need to satisfy the probable cause standard, which the Supreme Court has deemed “incapable of precise definition or quantification into percentages.” The flexibility of this elusive standard enables courts to defer to police officers’ reasonable judgments and expert intuitions in unique situations. However, police officers are increasingly using investigative techniques that replace their own observational skills with test results from some other source, such as drug sniffing dogs, facial recognition technology, and DNA matching. The …

How United States V. Jones Can Restore Our Faith In The Fourth Amendment, Erica Goldberg

School of Law Faculty Publications

United States v. Jones, issued in January of this year, is a landmark case that has the potential to restore a property-based interpretation of the Fourth Amendment to prominence. In 1967, the Supreme Court abandoned its previous Fourth Amendment framework, which had viewed the prohibition on unreasonable searches in light of property and trespass laws, and replaced it with a rule protecting the public’s reasonable expectations of privacy. Although the Court may have intended this reasonable expectations test to provide more protection than a test rooted in property law, the new test in fact made the Justices’ subjective views about …

Applying The Rules Of Discovery To Information Uncovered About Jurors, Thaddeus A. Hoffmeister

School of Law Faculty Publications

As more and more personal information is placed online, attorneys are increasingly turning to the internet to investigate and research jurors. In certain jurisdictions, the practice has become fairly commonplace. One prominent trial consultant has gone so far as to claim, “Anyone who doesn’t make use of [internet searches] is bordering on malpractice.” While this may somewhat overstate the importance of investigating jurors online, it nonetheless demonstrates just how routine the practice has become. Aside from increased acceptance among practitioners, courts have both approved of and encouraged online investigation of jurors.

While many view this practice as a benefit to …

The Grand Jury Legal Advisor: Resurrecting The Grand Jury’S Shield, Thaddeus A. Hoffmeister

School of Law Faculty Publications

This Article advocates for the creation of a Grand Jury Legal Advisor (GJLA) to resurrect the historical autonomy of grand juries. The Article draws upon Hawaii's experiences with the GJLA, and incorporates survey responses from a representative sample of former GJLAs.

The Article begins with a general and historical overview of the grand jury process. This portion of the Article demonstrates how all three branches of government have contributed to the diminishment of the powers of grand jurors. Part IV of this Article discusses the important policy rationales underlying the need for grand jury autonomy; Part V recommends the implementation …