Law Commons^™

You Booze, You Bruise, You Lose: Analyzing The Constitutionality Of Florida’S Involuntary Blood Draw Statute In The Wake Of Missouri V. Mcneely, Francisco D. Zornosa

Francisco D Zornosa

No abstract provided.

Whose Metadata Is It Anyways? Why Riley V. California Illustrates That The National Security Administration's Bulk Data Collection Is A Fourth Amendment Problem, Jesse S. Weinstein

Jesse S Weinstein

No abstract provided.

Abidor V. Napolitano: Suspicionless Cell Phone And Laptop Searches At The Border Compromise The Fourth And First Amendments, Adam Lamparello, Charles Maclean

Adam Lamparello

The article explores the December 31, 2013 Abidor decision where the federal district court upheld the ongoing application of the border search exception as applied to deep, forensic searches of laptops and other digital devices. That exception allows suspicionless searches of any persons, effects, and “closed containers” crossing a border into the United States, and laptops and external hard drives are generally considered “closed containers” under the border search exception. We argue that the border search exception, grounded as it is in pre-digital age fact patterns, should no longer serve as precedent for border searches of the immense memories of …

Amicus Brief -- Riley V. California And United States V. Wurie, Charles E. Maclean, Adam Lamparello

Adam Lamparello

Warrantless searches of cell phone memory—after a suspect has been arrested, and after law enforcement has seized the phone—would have been unconstitutional at the time the Fourth Amendment was adopted, and are unconstitutional now. Simply stated, they are unreasonable. And reasonableness—not a categorical warrant requirement—is the “touchstone of Fourth Amendment analysis.”

The Rise And Fall Of The Exclusionary Rule, Albert E. Poirier Jr.

Albert E Poirier Jr.

The years between 1913 and 1967 saw a growing tendency on the part of the Supreme Court to allow the submission of evidence that had been gained unlawfully by the police or prosecutors. Since 1961, and particularly during the Rehnquist and Roberts Courts, the rules excluding evidence have steadily diminished. This paper seeks to review the history of the exclusionary rule.

The Piranha Is As Deadly As The Shark: A Case For The Limitation On Deceptive Practices In Dna Collection, Brett A. Bauman

Brett A Bauman

Police deception tactics are utilized throughout the United States as a way to catch unsuspecting criminals. Although criticized in many respects, most deceptive police techniques are not only legal, but are actually encouraged. DNA collection and analysis is no exception—techniques are frequently used by law enforcement officers in an attempt to collect a suspect’s genetic specimen in the interest of solving crimes. While law enforcement officers typically have the best interests of society in mind, the current practices employed by officers to collect suspects’ DNA violate the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment provides protection against unreasonable searches and seizures, and …

The Fourth Amendment's National Security Exception: Its History And Limits, L. Rush Atkinson

L. Rush Atkinson

Each year, federal agents conduct thousands of “national security investigations” into suspected spies, terrorists, and other foreign threats. The constitutional limits imposed by the Fourth Amendment, however, remain murky, and the extent to which national security justifies deviations from the Amendment’s traditional rules is unclear. With little judicial precedent on point, the gloss of past executive practice has become an important means for gauging the boundaries of today’s national security practices. Accounts of past executive practice, however, have thus far been historically incomplete, leading to distorted analyses of its precedential significance. Dating back to World War II, national security investigations …

The Xenophobic Fourth Amendment: How Racism Has Influenced The Discriminatory Application Of The Fourth Amendment To Non-Citizens, Steven T. Sacco Mr.

Steven T. Sacco Mr.

This article illustrates how racism continues to color judge-made immigration law in the United States, but specifically with respect to federal jurisprudential analysis and application of the right to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment as it is applied to non-citizens residing in the United States. The result is a different set of rules and reduced freedoms under the Fourth Amendment for non-citizens as compared to citizens – a xenophobic Fourth Amendment.

Hold On: The Remarkably Resilient, Constitutionally Dubious "48-Hour Hold", Steven Mulroy

Steven Mulroy

This article discusses the surprisingly widespread, little-known practice of “48-hour holds,” where police detain a suspect without charge or access to bail for up to 48 hours to continue their investigation; at the end of 48 hours, they either charge or release him. Although it has not been discussed in the scholarly literature, the practice has occurred in a number of large local jurisdictions over the past few decades, and continues today in some of them. The “holds” often take place, admittedly or tacitly, without the probable cause needed to charge a defendant, and thus in violation of the Fourth …

The Court Misses The Point Again In United States V. Jones: An Opt-In Model For Privacy Protection In A Post Google-Earth World, Mary G. Leary

Mary G Leary

“Nothing is private anymore.” This is an oft repeated sentiment by many Americans, not to mention the focus of judicial confusion and legislative blustering. In the wake of publicly available technologies such as Google Earth, internet tracking, cell phone triangulation, to name just a few, many people feel unable to prevent the government or anyone from obtaining private information. While this may seem simply a function of a modern world, this reality creates a fundamental problem for Fourth Amendment jurisprudence which has heretofore gone unrecognized. The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures. Therefore, in order for the …

Arizona V. Gant: The Good, The Bad, And The Meaning Of Reasonable Belief, Geoffrey S. Corn

Geoffrey S. Corn

Reasonable belief. Use of this phrase by the Supreme Court in Arizona v. Gant transformed what could have been a clear and logical holding into a source of potential uncertainty. At its core, Gant constricts the authority to search an automobile incident to lawful arrest (SITLA), an authority established by the Court almost thirty years earlier in New York v. Belton. The Court concluded Belton had evolved to a point that could no longer be justified by the underlying exigency rationale for SITLA, creating an automatic and unrestricted search authority whenever the police arrested an occupant or recent occupant of …

Hey! You! Get Off Of My Cloud: Defining And Protecting The Metes And Bounds Of Privacy, Security, And Property In Cloud Computing, Timothy D. Martin

Timothy D Martin

Cloud computing is a growing force in today’s interconnected technological world. It allows people and organizations to purchase computing power and resources on an as-needed, pay-as-you-go basis. Users can employ it to satisfy modest needs, such as simple word-processing tasks, or to create large-scale enterprise applications delivered on the web. But cloud computing raises questions of functionality, security, confidentiality, ethics, enforcement, and data ownership. The lack of a clear body of law defining and regulating law enforcement’s access to electronic data and ability to prosecute related crimes creates other risks and erodes confidence in cloud computing. This paper begins with …

Targeting, Command Judgment, And A Proposed Quantum Of Proof Component: A Fourth Amendment Lesson In Contextual Reasonableness, Geoffrey S. Corn

Geoffrey S. Corn

No decision by a military commander engaged in hostilities has more profound consequence than the decision to launch an attack. Pursuant to the law of armed conflict (LOAC), that decision must be based on the judgment that the object of attack – a person, place, or thing - qualifies as a lawful military objective. This judgment almost always sets in motion the application of deadly combat power, and routinely produces loss of life or grievous bodily injury, often times to individuals and property not the intended object of attack, but considered ‘collateral damage.’ In operational terms, this judgment determines whether …

"One Free Swerve”?: Requiring Police To Corroborate Anonymous Tips In Order To Establish Reasonable Suspicion For Warrantless Seizure Of Alleged Drunk Drivers, Michael B. Kunz

Michael B Kunz

While the Supreme Court holds that warrantless searches and seizures are presumptively unreasonable, it has carved out exceptions to the warrant requirement that provide law enforcement officials flexibility with which to conduct their day-to-day investigations. However, in Florida v. J.L. the Court recognized a limit to one such exception by holding that reasonable suspicion cannot be based exclusively on a bare-boned anonymous tip. Nevertheless, the Court complicated this rule by hypothesizing that police might be able to act on a lesser showing of reliability when an anonymous tip alleges a sufficiently great danger. Relying on this abstract idea, a number …

Can The American People, Through Their Legislature, Determine What Remedy Should Be Available For Fourth Amendment Violations?, Kevin R. Pettrey

Kevin R Pettrey

The United States Supreme Court, in Hudson and Herring, has opened the door to possible alternative Fourth Amendment remedies. Due to these recent cases, Congress and the states may have room to maneuver legislatively to create a remedy of another kind. This article proposes a statute to serve as an alternative remedy and supports the statute's constitutionality through a careful analysis of Supreme Court jurisprudence on the Fourth Amendment and related topics.

Leashing The Internet Watchdog: Legislative Restraints On Electronic Surveillance In The U.S. And U.K., John P. Heekin

John P. Heekin

This article examines the legislative approaches undertaken by the United States and the United Kingdom to regulate the surveillance and interception of electronic communications. Drawing from the recognition of individual privacy in each country, the author explores the development and impact of statutory provisions enacted to accomplish effective oversight of the respective intelligence services. In the U.S., the shifting purposes and provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 are tracked from implementation to its revisions following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Along that timeline, a distinct trend toward greater deference to Executive authority for electronic surveillance …

I Swear: The History And Implications Of The Fourth Amendment’S “Oath Or Affirmation” Requirement, David S. Muraskin

David S Muraskin

This article seeks to reinvigorate the Fourth Amendment’s “Oath or affirmation” requirement. Fourth Amendment scholarship and jurisprudence typically dismiss the requirement as a mere procedural formality. However, reviewing pre-Revolution law and commentaries, early legal developments in the States, and the American justice manuals—treatises published by legal scholars to inform and influence judges and practitioners within the new nation—this article argues that the oath requirement is key to understanding and effectuating the Amendment’s purpose. The article demonstrates that the Amendment was partly motivated by a fear of how the Crown used its search and seizure power, as a primary investigatory tool …

Foreign Surveillance And Incidental U.S. Communications: Concerns Of Amnesty V. Mcconnell, Tarik N. Jallad

Tarik N. Jallad

Even with the most recent amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, questions still remain regarding the constitutional protections implicated during foreign and U.S. communications. In particular, Amnesty v. McConnell concerns the incidental U.S. communications that could be acquired during warrantless surveillance of a non-U.S. person overseas. While explicit Fourth Amendment protections are in place for U.S. citizens and permanent residents, the same is not true for the non-U.S. person located outside the nation’s borders. In conjunction with the 2008 Amendments Act, FISA attempts to adhere to the murky constitutional requirements demanded in this situation. However, some critics are not …

Stranger Than Dictum: Why Arizona V. Gant Compels The Conclusion That Suspicionless Buie Searches Incident To Lawful Arrests Are Unconstitutional, Colin Miller

Colin Miller

In its 1990 opinion in Maryland v. Buie, the Supreme Court held that as an incident to a lawful (home) arrest, officers can “as a precautionary matter and without probable cause or reasonable suspicion, look in closets and other spaces immediately adjoining the place of arrest from which an attack could be immediately launched.” While this holding was actually dictum, thereafter courts categorically concluded that Buie authorizes suspicionless searches of sufficiently large spaces not only in arrest rooms, but also in rooms immediately abutting arrest rooms and connected to arrest rooms by hallways. Buie was one of three Supreme Court …

The Effects, Thirty Years In Hindsight, Of Eliminating The Concept Of Fourth Amendment “Standing”, Robert H. Whorf

robert h whorf

Abstract – The Effects, Thirty Years in Hindsight, of Eliminating the Concept of Fourth Amendment Standing Copyright 2009 Robert H. Whorf This article presents a novel look at Fourth Amendment “standing” doctrine. It considers a case that has perplexed courts for three decades – Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128 (1978). The article chronicles an amazing variety of responses from lower courts in the years following issuance of the decision. Those responses indicate that courts were considerably confused about whether Rakas actually eliminated the concept of 4th Amendment standing by collapsing it into the threshold merits inquiry, or whether Rakas …

“The U. S. Supreme Court Gets It Right In Arizona V. Gant: Justifications For Rules Protect Constitutional Rights”, Shenequa L. Grey

Shenequa L. Grey

In Arizona v. Gant, 129 S.Ct. 1710 (2009), the United States Supreme Court recently revisited the search of an arrestee’s vehicle pursuant to the “search incident to a lawful arrest” exception to the warrant requirement. The Court held that police may search a vehicle incident to a recent occupant's arrest only if: (1) the arrestee is within reaching distance of the passenger compartment at the time of the search; or (2) if it is reasonable to believe the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest. This decision resolved long debated issues regarding the applicability of this exception as it …

Sometimes You Have To Go Backwards To Go Forwards: Judicial Review And The New National Security Exception To The Fourth Amendment, Sheerin N. Shahinpoor

Sheerin N. Shahinpoor

National security concerns have historically provided a strong basis for non-justiciable Executive Branch action; however, post 9/11, such actions have grown to encompass a greater number of American citizens' civil liberties. The federal judiciary's deferential treatment of national-security related conduct, particularly in the realm of suspicionless searches, occurs with dangerous frequency, and any semblance of meaningful review has been nearly eviscerated. The stakes involved in national security are weighty and, in many instances, present the courts with an artificial choice: uphold a potentially over-zealous suspicionless-search program but avoid danger, or strike down such a program in favor of civil liberties …

The Chains Of The Constitution And Legal Process In The Library: A Post-Patriot Reauthorization Act Assessment, Susan Nevelow Mart

Susan Nevelow Mart

Since the Patriot Act was passed in 2001, controversy has raged over nearly every provision. The controversy has been particularly intense over provisions that affect the patrons of libraries. This article follows those Patriot Act provisions that affect libraries, and reviews how they have been interpreted, how the Patriot Reauthorization Acts have changed them, and what government audits and court affidavits reveal about the use and misuse of the Patriot Act. The efforts of librarians and others opposed to the Patriot Act have had an effect, both legislatively and judicially, in changing and challenging the Patriot Act. Because libraries are …

The Search For A Ticking Nuclear Bomb: A Race To Save Human Lives Or A Fourth Amendment Violation?, Alexander Zektser

Alexander Zektser

No abstract provided.

Driving Off The Face Of The Fourth Amendment: Weighing Caballes Under The Proposed "Vehicular Frisk" Standard, Christopher M. Pardo

ILSU Working Paper Series

This paper explores and explains the socioeconomic and racial effects of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Caballes decision. While society charges law enforcement with eliminating illegal drug activity, the Fourth Amendment rights of every American citizen must also be respected. In Caballes, the Supreme Court held that a dog-sniff does not constitute a Fourth Amendment search, so probable cause is not needed to examine a citizen’s vehicle using a drug dog. While Caballes may be effective in helping police battle a burgeoning drug trade, as it allows police to walk a drug-detection dog around any lawfully stopped vehicle, it also creates …

Driving Off The Face Of The Fourth Amendment: Weighing Caballes Under The Proposed 'Vehicular Frisk' Standard, Christopher M. Pardo

Bocconi Legal Papers

This paper explores and explains the socioeconomic and racial effects of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Caballes decision. While society charges law enforcement with eliminating illegal drug activity, the Fourth Amendment rights of every American citizen must also be respected. In Caballes, the Supreme Court held that a dog-sniff does not constitute a Fourth Amendment search, so probable cause is not needed to examine a citizen’s vehicle using a drug dog. While Caballes may be effective in helping police battle a burgeoning drug trade, as it allows police to walk a drug-detection dog around any lawfully stopped vehicle, it also creates …

Free To Leave? An Empirical Look At The Fourth Amendment’S Seizure Standard, David K. Kessler

David K Kessler

Whether a person has been “seized” often determines if he or she receives Fourth Amendment protection. The Supreme Court has established a standard for identifying seizures: a person is seized when a reasonable person in his situation would not have felt free to leave or otherwise terminate the encounter with law enforcement. In applying that standard, today’s courts conduct crucial seizure inquiries relying only on their own beliefs about when a reasonable person would feel free to leave. Both the Court and scholars have noted that, though empirical evidence about whether people actually feel free to leave would help guide …

Human Dignity Under The Fourth Amendment, John D. Castiglione

John D. Castiglione

Fourth Amendment "reasonableness" jurisprudence as currently constituted is incapable of providing consistent decisions reflective of the underlying philosophical and moral structure of the Constitution. Increasingly, courts have allowed reasonableness analysis to devolve into little more than an awkward balancing exercise between the needs of law enforcement and the interests of "privacy." Upon initial consideration, this seems appropriate; the Fourth Amendment has been long been understood as a bulwark against unreasonable privacy invasions in the course of law enforcement. This understanding is, however, incomplete. As courts have moved towards an almost exclusive focus on privacy as the counter-balance to the government's …

Surveillance Of Emergent Associations: Freedom Of Association In A Network Society, Katherine J. Strandburg

Katherine J. Strandburg

Recent events have combined to bring of the prospect of using communications traffic data to ferret out suspect groups and investigate their membership and structure to the forefront of debate. While such “relational surveillance” has been around for years, efforts are being made to update traffic analysis to incorporate insights from “social network analysis” -- a means of analyzing relational structures developed by sociologists.1-13 Interest in employing social network analysis for law enforcement purposes was given a huge boost after September 11, 2001 when attention focused on tracking terrorist networks.5,7,9,11,12,14-17 Traffic data, when stored, aggregated, and analyzed using sophisticated computer …

Search And Seizure On Steroids: United States V. Comprehensive Drug Testing And Its Consequences For Private Information Stored On Commercial Electronic Databases, Aaron S. Lowenstein

Aaron S Lowenstein

This article critiques the Ninth Circuit’s recent decision in United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing. This case received some attention because it stems from the investigation into the use of steroids in Major League Baseball. It should have received much more attention, however, because of its troubling expansion of the government’s authority to access our private digital information without a warrant.

Executing a search warrant for information stored on a computer database poses special problems. Because targets of government investigations can easily conceal incriminating digital evidence, investigators often must search an entire computer hard drive in order to effectively execute …