4th amendment issues

The Supreme Court has just ruled that evidence obtained in an illegal search can be used against you. The case involves a person who was stopped by police on suspicion of illegal drug activity - a stop that was later deemed unlawful by state authorities. The police then found an outstanding...

Supreme Court says police must get warrants for most cellphone searches From the SCOTUS Blog analysis: Chief Justice Roberts, delivering the Court's opinion in Riley v. California:

Cops use cellphone tracking without warrants "due to Non-Disclosure Agreement" The police in Florida have used "Stingray" cell phone tracking technology over 200 times without getting a warrant, or even ever telling a judge about it. It seems the reason for this is that they signed a...

A higher court ruling has over turned a recent judgment banning the NY police policy of randomly stopping and frisking people. On the face of it, this policy seems to me to be an egregious violation of the fourth amendment's prohibition of unreasonable search and seizure. However, living at the...

The Guardian has obtained a copy of a court order by which Verizon is required to give an electronic copy of all 'call details' from phone calls originating in the domestic US, to the NSA. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/06/verizon-telephone-data-court-order Is this...

The New York Times (and other media outlets, community groups and politicians ) have questioned the New York City Police Department's 'stop-and-frisk' policing strategy. It is currently the basis for a federal trial in Manhattan. Critics say The police disagree: Link

A man bought a rifle (22lr caliber ar-15 look-a-like) for his son's birthday and posted a photo on Facebook. Later someone called suggesting that children in the house may be in danger of having access to unsecured firearms. The man claimed the police "raided" his house demanding to see the...

The late and unlamented Robert Bork was among many conservative thinkers who asserted that there is no right to privacy. Leaving aside for the moment that such a stance is an odd one for people who claim they want to get government off our backs, if seems to me that the Fourth Amendment to the...

Justices Rein In Police on GPS Trackers Seems like a no-brainer to me. Glad it was unanimous.

IIRC, the case United States v. Jones has been discussed in this forum. In case it hasn't been, the question presented was whether attaching and using a GPS device to track a suspect's car is a search under the Fourth Amendment (and thus whether a warrant is required). The court, in an opinion...

Bill 1867 passed. This sucker's causing a mess. According to members of my family, it allows the US Military to arrest and hold US citizens without warrant if the government sees you as a threat. The OCCUPY movement is targeted. Written by a concerned family member: Please forgive my...

I'm a Rhode Islander (yes, it is a state!) and today our new governor Lincoln Chaffee signed into law the mandatory use of seat-belts. You should know that here in RI it is perfectly LEGAL to ride a motorcycle without a helmet. That's right, no helmet, on a motorcycle. Yet, we now have a law...

Back in 2001, there was a case involving a Washington D.C. nightclub owner by the name of Antoine Jones who was suspected of dealing cocaine. He was tracked for an entire month without a warrant via a GPS device attached to his vehicle. The information gathered from the vehicle was then used...

Backscatter machines go mobile -- Company web site with pix: http://www.as-e.com/products_solutions/zbv.asp I can envision a future where everyone, men and women, Muslim's and non-Muslim's all wear lead-lined burkas to absorb the radiation. Burkas, not just for the harem anymore! :D...