Law Commons^™

Hash It Out: Fourth Amendment Protection Of Electronically Stored Child Exploitation, Rebekah A. Branham

Akron Law Review

Few courts have addressed whether ISP’s use of hash-based evaluation violates an individual’s Fourth Amendment rights. In 2018, the Fifth Circuit was presented with this issue in United States v. Reddick. The defendant is Reddick uploaded files to the cloud-sharing server Microsoft SkyDrive. Thereafter PhotoDNA, a computer software program that uses hashing, automatically reviewed the hash values of those files and compared them against its database of known child pornography hash values. PhotoDNA detected a hash value match between the defendant’s photos and the database. It then created a “CyberTip,” sending the files and users information to the NCMEC. …

United States V. Markham: The Attack On The Drug War Becomes An Attack On The Fourth Amendment, Lee A. Schaffer

Akron Law Review

In United States v. Markham, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit expanded the exception even further when it upheld the validity of a warrantless search of a mobile home parked in a private residential driveway.

This casenote will review the history behind the fourth amendment's warrant requirement and the development of the automobile exception. Next, it will examine the Supreme Court's decision in Carney to evaluate the sixth circuit's application of the automobile exception in Markham, and the court's ruling that a warrantless search and seizure of a motor home parked in the driveway …

Beware Of Government Agents Bearing Trojan Horses, Brian L. Owsley

Akron Law Review

This Article addresses the use of Trojan devices by the Government to legally search computers potentially around the world. Although the Government does seek judicial authorization for these techniques based on a search warrant, there are still concerns about whether the applications meet constitutional standards as well as Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (“Rule 41”). The use of these Trojan devices has not been addressed in current scholarship meaningfully; therefore, this Article focuses on when and how authorization of search warrant applications for these techniques are appropriate. Part II addresses the implications of the standards enunciated …

The Search For The Fourth Amendment Seizure: It Won't Be Found On A Bus - Florida V. Bostick, James Spallino Jr.

Akron Law Review

The Florida v. Bostick decision raises important Fourth Amendment questions regarding police encounters with citizens.

Part I of this Note discusses the development of the legal standard used for determining when a consensual encounter results in an impermissible seizure. Part II reviews the Bostick decision. Part III analyzes the impact of the Bostick decision. This section argues that: (1) the status of the legal standard to be used in consensual encounter cases is now uncertain as a result of the Court's holding; (2) the Court sent a strong message to individuals and the law enforcement community by refusing to decide …

Another Casualty Of The War . . . Vagrancy Laws Target The Fourth Amendment, T. Leigh Anenson

Akron Law Review

This Comment will review the origins of the vagrancy law and its traditional abuses. It will then examine decisions discussing the vagrancy law's constitutionality under the Due Process clause void-for-vagueness doctrine and the courts' attempted remedy of explicit standards as to place, scope, or purpose. The remainder of this Comment will discuss the constitutionality of these revised vagrancy laws under the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable seizures.

Wilson V. Arkansas: Thirty Years After The Supreme Court Addresses The Knock And Announce Issue, Todd Witten

Akron Law Review

This Note will initially discuss the historical background of the knock and announce principle and its evolution from the English common law. Next, the Note will address the facts and the holdings of Wilson, in the lower courts and the Supreme Court. Finally, the Note will analyze the Wilson decision and its precedential value.

Off Duty, Off The Wall, But Not Off The Hook: Section 1983 Liability For The Private Misconduct Of Public Officials, Douglas S. Miller

Akron Law Review

The language quoted in the previous paragraph, employing as it does the metaphor of causation, represents one model for determining when a person has acted under color of law. Other models have also been used. In Part II of this Article, I note briefly the inconsistency of outcome that has marked this area, and identify the various models used, relying in part on the efforts of other commentators to describe the models that might be available from a theoretical standpoint. In the course of identifying these models, I note that many, if not all, lack authority either in the history …

The Shift Of The Balance Of Advantage In Criminal Litigation: The Case Of Mr. Simpson, David Robinson Jr.

Akron Law Review

The intense public interest in the extraordinary trial and acquittal of Mr. O.J. Simpson provides an appropriate occasion to look at the criminal justice system more generally, to note where we have been in the balance of advantage between prosecution and defense, where we are now, and where, perhaps, we should be.

Chandler V. Miller: Redefining "Special Needs" For Suspicionless Drug Testing Under The Fourth Amendment, Joy L. Ames

Akron Law Review

This Note will discuss the three Supreme Court cases that, up to now, have defined Fourth Amendment doctrine regarding suspicionless drug testing in the public sector: National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab, Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives’ Association, and Vernonia School District v. Acton. Specifically, this Note will focus on the "special needs" analysis as it was articulated in these cases, as well as how that analysis was altered in Chandler. This Note will then thoroughly analyze the Chandler decision, pointing out its strengths in eliminating some of the subjectivity of Fourth Amendment doctrine. It will also explain the …

Atwater V. City Of Largo Vista: Buckle-Up Or Get Locked-Up: Warrantless Arrests For Fine-Only Misdemeanors Under The Fourth Amendment, Jason M. Katz

Akron Law Review

The first part of this note presents a brief background of the constitutional jurisprudence regarding arrests. The note then recites the facts that led to this case and the legal proceedings that followed, including the Supreme Court’s decision. Next, the note analyzes the Court’s majority opinion, remarks on changes and deviations that were made in the law, and questions some areas of the Court’s analysis. The note concludes by addressing the significant consequences that the Atwater ruling may have on ordinary Americans.

Overgeneralization Of The Hot Pursuit Doctrine Provides Another Blow To The Fourth Amendment In Middletown V. Flinchum, Nathan Vaughn

Akron Law Review

Unreasonable searches of the home have often been regarded as a serious infringement upon one’s right to privacy. The right to privacy is currently recognized by a variety of governments and has existed for hundreds of years. Although the Constitution does not grant an express right to privacy, the Supreme Court has consistently acknowledged the rights of personal privacy and zones of privacy. Affording extra protection to the home seems to show that our right to privacy is at its peak behind closed doors.

Unfortunately, the list of exceptions to the warrant requirement is large and continuously growing. These exceptions …

Please Report To The Principal's Office, Urine Trouble: The Effect Of Board Of Education V. Earls On America's Schoolchildren, M. Casey Kucharson

Akron Law Review

This Note analyzes the Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls and its implication for the future of the Fourth Amendment and drug testing. Part II of this Note documents the history and the expansion of the “special needs” doctrine, and illustrates how the doctrine has whittled away high school and middle school students’ Fourth Amendment guarantees. Part III of this Note introduces the parties and gives a picture of the circumstances surrounding the Earls case. Part III then discusses the District Court for the Western District of …

Dudley Do Wrong: An Analysis Of A "Stop And Identify" Statute In Hiibel V. Sixth Judicial District Of Nevada, James G. Warner

Akron Law Review

Part II of this note traces the development of “stop and identify” statutes, including its origins in historical vagrancy and loitering statutes, courts’ treatment of such laws, and the progression of the specific Nevada statute at issue. Part III examines the appellate and Supreme Court decisions in the Hiibel case. Part IV analyzes the Court’s decision in Hiibel under the void for vagueness doctrine and the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, and highlights the recent enactment of a “stop and identify” statute in Arizona. Finally, Part V concludes that the Nevada “stop and identify” statute allows too great of an intrusion …

Two Wrongs Don't Make A Fourth Amendment Right: Samson Court Errs In Choosing Proper Analytical Framework, Errs In Result, Parolees Lose Fourth Amendment Protection, Rachael A. Lynch

Akron Law Review

This Note will follow the Fourth Amendment from its origins to its modern application to parolee rights, as evidenced by the Samson Court. Part II focuses on the Fourth Amendment, from the circumstances surrounding its adoption to modern court cases that have applied its tenets to prisoners, probationers, and, finally, parolees. Part III details the Supreme Court’s decision in Samson v. California, including a thorough discussion of the facts that gave rise to the case and lower court decisions. Part IV explores the problems with the Court’s framework and suggests other possible frameworks the Court could have used to come …

How Privacy Killed Katz: A Tale Of Cognitive Freedom And The Property Of Personhood As Fourth Amendment Norm, Christian M. Halliburton

Akron Law Review

With each passing day, new technologies push the horizons of official government investigative and surveillance activity deeper and deeper into the mind and consciousness of the surveilled subject. While law enforcement agencies have always relied on observing the behavior and activity of suspicious targets, and there has been little judicial ink spent preserving the confidentiality of such observable activity, the law has been slow to respond to rapid increases in the capacity or scope of official observation that the advance of technologically sophisticated surveillance techniques helped facilitate. The sampling of techniques at the center of this Article allow the operators …

Foreword To The Neuroscience, Law & Government Symposium, Jane Campbell Moriarty

Akron Law Review

It is with much pleasure that I write the foreword for this Symposium in the Akron Law Review. The authors were each presenters at the Neuroscience, Law & Government Conference, held at The University of Akron School of Law in September, 2008. The articles in this edition of Akron Law Review are as diverse as the presentations themselves, and provide a fascinating glimpse into various ways in which neuroscience is making inroads in both law and government. The explosion of neuroscience and neuroimaging discoveries this decade is nothing short of remarkable, leading one prominent scientist to term the last several …

Bright Lines, Black Bodies: The Florence Strip Search Case And Its Dire Repercussions, Teresa A. Miller

Akron Law Review

Part I is a brief history of Search and Seizure law, focusing on seismic doctrinal shifts that occurred from the 1950s to the present. As a framework for the important cases, the Founders’ concerns about abuse of governmental authority are discussed, as well as the rights protected by the Fourth Amendment. Various governmental programs will also be presented, such as the War on Drugs and its call for a large-scale federal anti-drug policy, first initiated by President Richard Nixon in 1969. Part II is a description of the central reasoning presented in Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders, including the …

Full Disclosure: Cognitive Science, Informants, And Search Warrant Scrutiny, Mary Nicol Bowman

Akron Law Review

This article aims to improve the quality of evidence gathering and interpretation at one crucial phase of investigations: the evaluation of search warrant applications. Part II of this article provides background on the search warrant application process, including how courts evaluate such applications based on informants’ tips and how defendants can subsequently challenge those decisions. Part III then discusses the ways in which cognitive biases can affect each stage of the search warrant process. Part IV provides my suggested solutions to the problems identified, all of which fall under the general umbrella of full disclosure. That part argues that education …