Fourth Amendment Commons^™

Disrespect As The Essence Of Constitutional Right Violations, R. George Wright

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article posits that disrespect is a fundamental concept in understanding constitutional rights violations. It argues that the underlying logic and limits of constitutional rights are rooted in considerations of respect and disrespect, particularly respect for persons. The author contends that both intentional and unintentional disrespect can lead to constitutional violations, affecting various rights such as equal protection, free speech, and due process. The analysis draws on philosophical frameworks, including those of Kant and Rawls, to emphasize the centrality of respect in constitutional jurisprudence.

Constitutional Law—Fourth Amendment Search And Seizure—Online Schools During A Pandemic: Fourth Amendment Implications When The State Requires Your Child To Turn On The Camera And Microphone Inside Your Home, Conan N. Becknell

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Restoring Causality In Attenuation: Establishing The Breadth Of A Fourth Amendment Violation, Bryan H. Ward

West Virginia Law Review

When the police violate a suspect’s Fourth Amendment rights, what often follows is the discovery of incriminating evidence. Sometimes the evidence is discovered directly after the Fourth Amendment violation. In other situations, the evidence comes by a more indirect route and may occur long after the original Fourth Amendment violation. Courts struggle when trying to decide if the discovery of this indirectly obtained evidence was caused by the police misconduct. This causal question is important because causality acts as a limiting principle when deciding when to apply the exclusionary rule. A basic view of the exclusionary rule suggests that evidence …

The Aftermath Of Carpenter: An Empirical Study Of Fourth Amendment Law, 2018-2021, Matthew Tokson

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

Fourth Amendment law is in flux. The Supreme Court recently established, in the landmark case Carpenter v. United States, that individuals can retain Fourth Amendment rights in information they disclose to a third party. In the internet era, this ruling has the potential to extend privacy protections to a huge variety of sensitive digital information. But Carpenter is also notoriously vague. Scholars and lower courts have tried to guess at what the law of Fourth Amendment searches will be going forward—and have reached different, contradictory conclusions.

This Article reports the results of a large-scale empirical study of the impact of …

The Expressive Fourth Amendment, Karen Pita Loor

Faculty Scholarship

After the eight-minute and forty-six second video of George Floyd’s murder went viral, cities across the United States erupted in mass protests with people outraged by the death of yet another Black person at the hands of police. The streets were flooded for months with activists and community members of all races marching, screaming, and demonstrating against police brutality and for racial justice. Police—like warriors against enemy forces—confronted overwhelmingly peaceful protesters with militarized violence and force. Ultimately, racial justice protesters and members of the media brought lawsuits under section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act in the district courts of …

The Second Amendment In A Carceral State, Alice Ristroph

Northwestern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Note: The "Border" Of Constitutional Electronic Privacy Rights: Electronic Searches And Seizures At The United States' Territorial Limits, Ryan Garippo

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

In the recent challenge brought before the First Circuit, the court was not required to directly answer what level of particularized suspicion is required for a forensic search. Although, its holding is consistent with the jurisprudence set forth by both the Fourth and Eleventh Circuits. Furthermore, it is important to note that there have been legal challenges brought on this issue in the Fifth, Seventh, and Tenth Circuits. However, in each of these cases, the court chose not to decide the constitutional question because it was not outcome determinative for the litigants in question. This disagreement between the federal circuit …

Covid-19 Sewage Testing As A Police Surveillance Infrastructure, Elizabeth E. Joh

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

This essay argues that sewage testing will outlive the pandemic and become a part of a general policing surveillance infrastructure. We risk adopting this surveillance method without taking care to assess the legal and policy questions raised by its use. Wastewater can provide early clues not just for COVID-19 outbreaks, but also for the presence (and assumed use) of opioids, methamphetamines, and other illegal drugs. Sewage testing at the University of California, San Diego, recently led to an alert that an infected person was “someone who used a restroom [at a specified residence hall] from 6 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. …

Note: Home-Sharing, Ride-Sharing, And Data-Sharing: Fourth Amendment Hurdles For Local Governance Of The Sharing Economy, Matthew J. Disler

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

Cities’ attempts to regulate the sharing economy reveal a conflict between local governance interests and Fourth Amendment doctrine. Although sharing economy industries present local problems, from housing affordability and land-use regulations to traffic congestion and sidewalk safety, cities attempt to effectuate their policies through data reporting requirements that are vulnerable to Fourth Amendment challenge. Businesses have successfully argued that cities’ reporting requirements are unconstitutional searches because they have an unreasonably broad scope and lack an opportunity for pre-compliance review. This Article argues that this impasse results from recent developments that have lent additional confusion to the Fourth Amendment’s administrative search …

Note: Facial Recognition Technology And The Constitution, Mark Simonitis

Notre Dame Journal on Emerging Technologies

Over the past several years, we have seen an increase in the adoption and use of facial recognition technology (FRT). Both private corporations and government organizations have increasingly used this technology over the past several years, and law enforcement agencies have been just as eager to utilize FRT in their operations. The potential uses for this technology in a law enforcement capacity are numerous. For example, FRT could be used to identify criminals whose faces were caught on surveillance footage, or it could be used to help identify citizens during border crossings. However, it is easy to imagine how an …

Antiracism In Action, Daniel Harawa, Brandon Hasbrouck

Washington and Lee Law Review

Racism pervades the criminal legal system, influencing everything from who police stop and search, to who prosecutors charge, to what punishments courts apply. The Supreme Court’s fixation on colorblind application of the Constitution gives judges license to disregard the role race plays in the criminal legal system, and all too often, they do. Yet Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory challenges the facially race-neutral reasoning of criminal justice actors, often applying ostensibly colorblind scrutiny to achieve a color-conscious jurisprudence. Nor is he afraid of engaging directly in a frank discussion of the racial realities of America, rebuking those within the system …

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 …

Thompson V. Clark: Brief Of Amici Curiae Current And Former Prosecutors, Department Of Justice Officials, And Judges In Support Of Petitioner, Barbara L. Mcquade

Appellate Briefs

Amici are current and former federal, state, and local prosecutors, Department of Justice officials, and judges with experience prosecuting and establishing policy for prosecuting crimes at various levels of the criminal justice system. Amici recognize that prosecutors and judges must always conduct their duties in the interests of justice. Prosecutors therefore exercise their discretion to seek dismissal of criminal charges—and judges grant dismissal— where there is insufficient evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt or when other compelling circumstances call for dismissal. Amici have an interest in ensuring that prosecutors’ decisions whether to pursue criminal charges are not …

Border Searches For Investigatory Purposes: Implementing A Border Nexus Standard, Brenna Ferris

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat

Border searches are a commonly used exception to the Fourth Amendment’s probable cause and warrant requirements. Using a border search, the government can conduct searches of individuals without any kind of individualized suspicion. Border searches pose a concerning risk to privacy when they are used as a tool for criminal investigations. The Supreme Court has never ruled on searches used in this way, but lower courts are addressing the technique and reaching conflicting decisions. Courts need to take an approach that will protect the privacy interests of individuals while allowing the government to advance its interests in protecting its borders …

Visible Policing: Technology, Transparency, And Democratic Control, Hannah Bloch-Wehba

Faculty Scholarship

Law enforcement has an opacity problem. Police use sophisticated technologies to monitor individuals, surveil communities, and predict behaviors in increasingly intrusive ways. But legal institutions have struggled to understand—let alone set limits on—new investigative methods and techniques for two major reasons. First, new surveillance technology tends to operate in opaque and unaccountable ways, augmenting police power while remaining free of meaningful oversight. Second, shifts in Fourth Amendment doctrine have expanded law enforcement’s ability to engage in surveillance relatively free of scrutiny by courts or by the public. The result is that modern policing is not highly visible to oversight institutions …

(Re)Framing Race In Civil Rights Lawyering, Anthony V. Alfieri, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Articles

This Review examines the significance of Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s new book, Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow, for the study of racism in our nation's legal system and for the regulation of race in the legal profession, especially in the everyday labor of civil-rights and poverty lawyers, prosecutors, and public defenders. Surprisingly, few have explored the relevance of the racial narratives distilled by Gates in Stony the Roa - the images, stereotypes, and tropes that Whites constructed of Blacks to deepen and ensure the life and legacy of white supremacy-to the practice …

The Genetic Panopticon: Genetic Genealogy Searches And The Fourth Amendment, Genevieve Carter

Northwestern Journal of Technology and Intellectual Property

As consumer DNA testing gains widespread popularity, so has law enforcement’s interest in leveraging genetic databases for criminal investigations. Consumer DNA testing products like 23andMe and Ancestry allow private individuals access to their genetic data on private databases. However, once coded, genetic data is free to be downloaded by users and uploaded to public databases. Police identify suspects by uploading cold case DNA to public genetic databases and find familial matches. If they identify a familial match, they narrow the field of suspects using traditional methods of investigation, which often includes extracting suspect DNA from a piece of their abandoned …

The Current State Of Students’ Fourth Amendment Rights: How Implicit Bias Goes Unchecked In A Subjective Framework, Christian Williams

Child and Family Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Comment: Doe V. Woodard And Its Impact On The Circuit Split Surrounding Social Workers’ Inspections Of Suspected Victims Of Child Abuse, Mary Kate Workman

Child and Family Law Journal

No abstract provided.

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.