Inserting a key into a vehicle’s door is a Fourth Amendment search, requiring preexisting probable cause to believe that the vehicle belongs to or is controlled by, the suspect.
Google, using its proprietary “hashing” procedures to identify child pornography constitutes a private person search, which is not illegal under the Fourth Amendment. Law enforcement’s viewing of the same information is also therefore lawful despite the lack of a search warrant.
A law enforcement officer’s use of a ruse falsely misrepresenting his authority, resulting in a suspect being subject to a detention and/or his vehicle subject to a search where such detention or search would otherwise have been unlawful, violates the Fourth Amendment.
Absent some observed criminal violation and a determination of probable cause, it is illegal for law enforcement to search a person’s motor vehicle for marijuana.
Strip searches of visitors to a prison facility must be based upon a reasonable suspicion to believe the visitor is in possession of contraband. A visitor to a prison with a reasonable suspicion to believe that he or she possesses contraband may be subject to a strip search, but only after given the option of leaving the ...
The exclusionary rule does not apply to a new and distinct crime occurring during or immediately after a detention, whether the detention was lawful or not. Therefore, the lawfulness of a suspect’s detention is not relevant at a motion to suppress pursuant to P.C. § 1538.5 when charged only with resisting arrest.
When the causal connection between unconstitutional police conduct and subsequently discovered evidence is remote or has been interrupted by some intervening circumstance, so that the interest protected by the constitutional guarantee that has been violated would not be served by suppression of the evidence obtained, then ...
The lawful possession of marijuana in a vehicle, by itself, does not supply the necessary probable cause needed to allow for a search of that vehicle for more marijuana. A closed container of not more than 28.5 grams of marijuana in a vehicle, even though not sealed, is lawful for a person who is 21 years of age or older...
A bulge in a person’s clothing that may in a police officer’s training and experience be a concealed firearm, is sufficient reasonable suspicion to believe that the person is in illegal possession of a firearm, justifying that person’s detention for investigation.
A prosecutor has a duty under Brady v. Maryland to specifically inform defense counsel of the existence of records and/or reports which contain potentially impeaching information. The fact that such records and/or reports are made confidential by statute does not take precedence over the fact that they contain potentially ...
