Tag Archives: Fourth Amendment

A lawsuit headed by the ACLU of Northern California is challenging the right of police to confiscate the cell phones of people they arrest and search through them without first obtaining a warrant. The case began when activist Bob Offer-Westort was arrested while protesting an anti-camping law in San Francisco. While he was handcuffed, the arresting officer scrolled through his phone and read his text messages aloud, over Offer-Westort’s objections. That was a violation of his privacy rights and his …

Police cannot bring a dog to a private residence to sniff for drugs through the door, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today in a 5-4 decision. In Florida v. Jardines, the court upheld a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court that the area immediately around a person’s home is subject to Fourth Amendment protections against searches, and that using a drug dog to sniff around constitutes a search. Police officers were effectively trespassing when they walked to the front door …

The United States Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday on whether DNA samples can be collected from crime suspects without a warrant. In Maryland v. King, the court is expected to decide whether the policy of 28 states and the federal government to swab DNA from arrestees is a violation of privacy rights, in what Justice Samuel Alito called “the most important criminal procedure case this Court has had in decades.” At issue is whether taking DNA constitutes an invasive search …

In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court Monday ruled that an alert by a trained drug-sniffing dog constitutes probable cause for a police search under most circumstances. In Florida v. Harris, the court rejected the notion that law enforcement would have to produce a detailed record of a dog’s reliability in order for its detection process to stand up in court, deciding that simple proof of training was enough. “If a bona fide organization has certified a dog after testing …

  Did you know that the government can know your whereabouts by tracking your cell phone? Most police don’t even bother to get a search warrant. Your cell phone carrier will simply voluntarily turn over the information. Lawyers.com Editor-in-Chief Larry Bodine reports on how you can protect your privacy that’s surrendered by big phone companies. This privacy breach doesn’t involve just criminals but also law abiding citizens. In 2011, phone carriers responded to more than one million demands by law …