October 23, 2024 [View / Download]

  • Marijuana Case Brings Clarity on Open Containers in Vehicles and Whether a Warrantless Search is Lawful
  • Does it Violate Miranda to Have an Informant Question Suspect After He’s Invoked the Right to Counsel?
  • In Landmark Case, 9th Circuit Rules Against Use of Deadly Force on Non-Threatening Armed Person

September 22, 2024 [View / Download]

  • Ninth Circuit Limits High-Risk Vehicle Stops: New Potential Liability Risks for Police
  • California Court Clarifies Rules on Prolonged and Pretextual Traffic Stops
  • Ninth Circuit ruling limits Use of Deadly Force Immunity in a Knee to the Neck and Back Case.

September 01, 2024 [View / Download]

  • Ninth Circuit Rules Parole Questions During Traffic Stops Are Constitutionally Valid
  • Ninth Circuit Rules Deadly Force Justified in the Fatal Shooting of a Knife-Wielding, Mentally Ill Man
  • To Search or Not to Search: Case Explores When it’s Lawful to Search an Impounded Car and When it’s Not

August 04, 2024 [View / Download]

  • The legality of inventory searches of an arrestee’s personal belongings without a booking
  • Court Invalidates Evidence Discovered After Group Detention Expires
  • Court Rules Forcing Parolees to Use Biometrics to Unlock Phones Is Lawful

July 01, 2024 [View / Download]

  • Court Rules on Detentions vs. Consensual Encounters Amid Implicit Bias Concerns
  • When is the Use of Deadly Force Lawful? And Does “Legal” Equate to Right? 

May 01, 2024 [View / Download]

  • Emerging Legal Issues in Compelling the Use of One’s Fingerprint to Open a Phone
  • Beware Explicit and Implicit Bias: The California Racial Justice Act Has No Tolerance for Racism

April 07, 2024 [View / Download]

  • Can You Detain Non-Suspects with No Reasonable Suspicion to Believe They Are Involved in a Crime?
  • Fourth Amendment Waiver Searches: Don’t Prolong a Detention Beyond Why You First Stopped a Driver
  • More on Prolonged Detentions: Careful Not to Stray from the ‘Mission of the Traffic Stop’

March 14, 2024 [View / Download]

  • Detentions and Consent: When Do Legal Searches Turn Illegal, and Potential Evidence Suppressed? 
  • New Case on Consent Searches When Tenants’ Wishes Conflict, and When a Suspect is “Present” to Object
  • New Decision Rules on Constitutionality of Fixed-Camera Monitoring in Public

January 21, 2024 [View / Download]

  • New, Rare Case on Wiretaps, Prescription Databases, GPS Tracking Warrants and Wiretap Statutes
  • DUI Blood Draws and Implied vs. Express Consent, a Complex Issue

December 23, 2023 [View / Download]

  • Free Speech, the First Amendment, and Time, Place and Manner Restrictions in Public Spaces
  • New Fourth Amendment Ruling Discusses Undercover Searches and Residential Entries While Recording
  • Deadly Force, Qualified Immunity and Civil Liability: We’re Not in California Anymore with This Case

November 30, 2023 [View / Download]

  • Can you coerce a subject into allowing you to search his vehicle? When is consent voluntary – or not?
  • What’s the Standard for Knowing if a Suspect is Subject to a Fourth Amendment Waiver Search?
  • Miranda Invocations and Waivers: Timing Is Important When a Suspect Talks After Waiving His Rights

October 26, 2023 [View / Download]

  • All About Pretext Stops, Unduly Long Detentions and Weapons Pat Downs: What’s Legal, from a New Ruling
  • Automobile Exception to Search Warrant Rules: In a Warrantless Search, Probable Cause Still Required 

September 23, 2023 [View / Download]

  • Geofence Warrants – Be Specific in Time, Location and Scope of What You’re Seeking

August 21, 2023 [View / Download]

  • Can Law Enforcement Impound a Vehicle Solely for Unpaid Parking Citations? New Case Law Clarifies
  • Is Deadly Force Reasonable When a Suspect is Pointing a Replica Firearm?
  • Exploring a Citizen’s Refusal to Cooperate, Probable Cause to Arrest Them, Use of Force and Retaliation

July 17, 2023 [View / Download]

  • New Appellate Decision Clarifies Legal Use of Cuffs and Firearm During a Detention
  • California Supreme Court Limits Absolute Immunity for Public Employees’ Actions During Investigations
  • Appeals Ruling Clarifies What’s Needed in a DNA-Related Search Warrant Affidavit

June 24, 2023 [View / Download]

  • Convicted felons are not included in the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms
  • Temporary DVROs: What if the subject hasn’t been served? What if they don’t know it exists?
  • Circuit Court Rules on the “Danger Doctrine” and How it Applies in Civil Cases

May 13, 2023 [View / Download]

  • A Geofence Search Warrant Must Particularly Describe the Thing or Place to be Searched and the Property
  • The Use of Deadly Force and the Duty to Warn

April 09, 2023 [View / Download]

  • A Statute That Purports to Make Illegal the Videotaping of Police in Public Violates the 1st Amendment
  • Searches of Vehicles for Marijuana & Persons under the age of 21 may not legally possess marijuana.
  • An illegal detention may poison an otherwise lawful search under the “fruit of the poisonous tree"...

March 15, 2023 [View / Download]

  • Prolonged Detentions and Seizure of an Item that is Lawful to Possess
  • Impoundment and Inventory Searches of an Arrestee’s Vehicle

February 05, 2023 [View / Download]

  • Spotlighting Suspect Vehicles
  • Did Detectives Dodge a Bullet? When Giving Miranda Rights in English and Spanish, Do it By the Book

December 20, 2022 [View / Download]

  • Disturbing the Peace and Refusing to Identify
  • Talking an In-Custody Suspect into Changing his Mind Concerning a Prior Invocation
  • Fourth Waiver Searches of Vehicles

November 20, 2022 [View / Download]

  • Using a roadblock to stop a fleeing suspect is a Fourth Amendment seizure of the person
  • Prolonged Detentions and Franks Hearings

November 01, 2022 [View / Download]

  • Gang-Tackling an Arrestee and the Issue of Excessive Force; Qualified Immunity as it Relates to...
  • Immunity From Civil Liability For Law Enforcement Officers and Agencies
  • The Necessary Elements of a DUI/Marijuana Implied Malice Second Degree Murder Case

September 18, 2022 [View / Download]

  • The Use of Social Media and a Public Employee’s Freedom of Speech
  • An officer asking to check a driver’s license at a DUI checkpoint is lawful
  • The Use by Law Enforcement of Excessive Force and Civil Liability

August 14, 2022 [View / Download]

  • Prolonged pretextual traffic stops are a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
  • Coerced Confessions and Offers of Leniency
  • Search Warrants and Probable Cause

July 07, 2022 [View / Download]

  • Criminal History and Warrant Checks as a part of the “Mission” of a Traffic Stop.
  • Suing federal officers under authority of Bivens v. Six Unknown Fed. Narcotics Agents.
  • Miranda as a Prophylactic Rule and the Fifth Amendment:

June 10, 2022 [View / Download]

  • The Fourteenth Amendment Due Process and the Use of Deadly Force
  • The First Amendment Freedom of Expression and Retaliatory Arrest

May 09, 2022 [View / Download]

  • The Warrantless Seizure of an Automobile from Another’s Private Property
  • Pat Down for Weapons
  • Cruel and Unusual Punishment Imposed by Federal Correctional Officers

April 04, 2022 [View / Download]

  • Special Relationships and the Duty to Warn
  • Unconscious DUI Suspects and Warrantless Blood Draws
  • Turning Movements While Failing to Signal
  • The Use of Reasonable Force in Arresting Protestors Engaged in Unlawful Protests

March 15, 2022 [View / Download]

  • Medicinal Marijuana and the Due Process Clause
  • Forfeiting a Miranda Issue by Not Objecting: The Wearing of Facemasks and the Right to Confrontation.
  • Possession of a Controlled Substance While Armed and the Second Amendment Right to Bear Arms
  • Forfeiture and Coerced Confessions

February 05, 2022 [View / Download]

  • Illegal Detentions and Observations
  • An In-Custody Suspect’s Reinitiation of Interrogation after Repeated Invocations
  • Use of a Patrol Unit’s Digital In-Car Video System (“DICVS”) in a Police Disciplinary Proceeding

December 15, 2021 [View / Download]

  • The Private Search Doctrine and Computerized Hashing Technology
  • Sloppy investigations and unprepared prosecutions can result in sanctions and dismissal

December 01, 2021 [View / Download]

  • Officers Kneeling on an Arrestee’s Back and Civil Liability
  • Detaining Passengers in a Lawfully Stopped Vehicle.The Proof Requirements for Aggravating Circumstances
  • Questioning criminal suspects who are not in custody does not require a Miranda advisal or waiver.

October 25, 2021 [View / Download]

  • The Seibert Two-Step Interrogation Tactic
  • Robbery; the Force or Fear Element
  • Interrogating Minors and Beheler Admonishments

September 15, 2021 [View / Download]

  • Searches Within the Curtilage of a Home
  • Detentions, Consensual Encounters, and Patdowns for Weapons
  • Warrantless Searches of Vehicles; Searching Cellphones; Questioning In-Custody Witnesses

August 23, 2021 [View / Download]

  • Vehicle Searches and the Odor of Marijuana
  • Use of Force in Subduing an Unruly Arrestee / The Use of Force and Civil Liability
  • Qualified Immunity, A Suspect’s Right against Self-Incrimination, and Due Process

July 13, 2021 [View / Download]

  • Fleeing Misdemeanants and Hot Pursuits by Law Enforcement
  • Resisting Arrest
  • Body Cavity Searches of Jail Inmates

June 17, 2021 [View / Download]

  • Probation Fourth Waiver Searches & Good Faith Belief in the Existence of a Fourth Waiver
  • Searches of Vehicles Upon the Arrest of It’s Occupant
  • Residential Search Warrants
  • Questioning a Detained Suspect and the Necessity for a Miranda Admonishment and Wavier

May 27, 2021 [View / Download]

  • Brady Error and Suggestive Pretrial Identifications
  • Pen. Code § 148(a)(1); Resisting Arrest Pitchess Motions
  • The Community Caretaking Doctrine does not apply to the entry or search of a residence

April 18, 2021 [View / Download]

  • Shooting a Fleeing Suspect as a Fourth Amendment Seizure
  • Bivens Actions and a Federal Officer’s Civil Liability
  • Leaning into a Vehicle as a Fourth Amendment Search
  • A Prostitute’s Right to Privacy and P.C. § 632

March 22, 2021 [View / Download]

  • Deadly Force, the Fourth Amendment, and State Negligence Allegations
  • Police-Citizen Contacts on Less than a Reasonable Suspicion
  • Miranda Violations and Civil Liability

March 05, 2021 [View / Download]

  • Detentions for Investigation
  • Social Media and First Amendment Freedom of Speech Rights
  • Witness Tampering

January 17, 2021 [View / Download]

  • A Key Insertion into a Vehicle’s Door Lock as a Fourth Amendment Search
  • Booking Questions and Minors
  • Use of Force in Making an Arrest
  • Obstructing a Law Enforcement Officer in the Performance of his Duties

December 30, 2020 [View / Download]

  • Searches of Vehicles for Marijuana
  • The Use of a Ruse by Law Enforcement
  • Private Person Searches

November 30, 2020 [View / Download]

  • Detentions for Investigation; Bulges in a Person’s Clothing
  • Marijuana Vehicle Searches; California’s Marijuana Laws vs. Federal Law and more...
  • Warrantless Entries into Residence; The Attenuation Doctrine and Attenuation of the Taint: Fruit of ...
  • P.C. § 1538.5 Motions and Illegal Detentions: P.C. § 148(a)(1) When Perpetrated During an Unlawful ...
  • Prison Visitors’ Strip Searches

November 11, 2020 [View / Download]

  • Writ of Habeas Corpus; Miranda Waivers; Incomplete Admonishments; Confessions & Involuntariness of ...
  • Kelly Test Requirements and Dog Scent Trailing Evidence; Foundational Requirements for Dog Scent Traili
  • Brady v. Maryland and Undisclosed Impeachment Evidence: Statutorily Protected Confidential Records...

January 01, 2018 [View / Download]

  • Search Warrants and the Seizure of Electronic Devices
  • P.C. § 148(a)(1) and Refusing to Identify Oneself
  • The Danger Doctrine and Civil Liability; Leaving a DV Victim in more danger than found; Qualified Im...