Category Archives: Fourth Amendment

Fourth Amendment triumphs over warrantless DUI blood tests
Fourth Amendment triumphs over warrantless DUI blood tests.

By: Carlington

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Fourth Amendment triumphs over warrantless DUI blood tests - Video

Rand Paul Third Party Records Should Get Fourth Amendment Protection OReilly Factor 6 11 2013 YouT
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Rand Paul Third Party Records Should Get Fourth Amendment Protection OReilly Factor 6 11 2013 YouT - Video

The Fourth Amendment in Extraterritorial and National Security Contexts
Topics: The Fourth Amendment, extraterritoriality, national security exception, foreign intelligence exception Source: This video is archived from Surveillance Law, first offered by Stanford...

By: Jonathan Mayer

Excerpt from:
The Fourth Amendment in Extraterritorial and National Security Contexts - Video

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a brief supporting a challenge to the use of a cellphone tracking device in a federal case in Maryland, arguing that the technology raises "serious Fourth Amendment concerns" and that authorities misled a judge in obtaining a court order.

The case involves a murder-for-hire sting conducted by Baltimore police and the FBI this year, according to court records. Police gave a cellphone to Derrick Smith so he could communicate with an undercover officer, and later used a device known as a stingray to locate the phone.

The device, which was developed for the military, mimics a cellphone tower to force all phones in range to connect to it. Civil liberties advocates say it exposes the information of bystanders.

The stingray helped police pinpoint the phone inside the home of Robert Harrison, who along with Smith is now facing murder-for-hire charges.

The disclosure by authorities that they had used a stingray was a rare admission regarding a technology that police across the country have sought to keep secret, The Baltimore Sun reported this week.

Harrison's attorney, C. Justin Brown, is fighting to suppress the phone evidence on the grounds that its use amounted to a search that was not clearly authorized by a court order.

The government, in its response to Brown's filing, said it could not discuss the technology in detail but that the court order police obtained was appropriate.

In its supporting brief, the ACLU adds to Brown's arguments, saying the device's ability to locate phones inside homes raises questions about whether it is subject to sufficient court oversight.

"No search warrant would permit the police to search the homes of every house in a neighborhood," the ACLU atorneys wrote. "Yet, with the stingray, the police can do just that, searching every home, vehicle, purse and pocket in a given area without anyone ever learning that their devices were searched by the police."

The organization cites two recent cases, reported by The Baltimore Sun, in which police said they were able to locate a phone inside a home or moving vehicle. Prosecutors in two other Baltimore cases withdrew evidence recently after police told a city judge they couldn't discuss the device.

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ACLU joins Md. federal case over cellphone tracking

Updated: Wednesday, November 26 2014, 09:34 PM CST

A new rule in Texas will stop a warrantless search of a DWI suspect's blood. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals says the move violates the Fourth Amendment.

"We hold that a nonconsensual search of a DWI suspect's blood conducted pursuant to the mandatory-blood draw and implied-consent provisions in the Transportation Code, when undertaken in the absence of a warrant or any applicable exception to the warrant requirement, violates the Fourth Amendment," the court said in its decision released Wednesday.

This shouldn't impact Austin's "no refusal" blood draws during DWI crackdowns because those blood draws are done with a warrant by having a judge present.

CLICK HERE to read the court's decision.

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Court: Texas Warrantless DWI Blood Draws Unconstitutional

Updated: Wednesday, November 26 2014, 09:34 PM CST

A new rule in Texas will stop a warrantless search of a DWI suspect's blood. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals says the move violates the Fourth Amendment.

"We hold that a nonconsensual search of a DWI suspect's blood conducted pursuant to the mandatory-blood draw and implied-consent provisions in the Transportation Code, when undertaken in the absence of a warrant or any applicable exception to the warrant requirement, violates the Fourth Amendment," the court said in its decision released Wednesday.

This shouldn't impact Austin's "no refusal" blood draws during DWI crackdowns because those blood draws are done with a warrant by having a judge present.

CLICK HERE to read the court's decision.

We'll have more on this story in our 5 and 6pm newscasts.

Follow us on Twitter @keyetv and LIKE us on Facebook for updates!

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Court: Texas Nonconsensual DWI Blood Draws Unconstitutional

LAGRANGE A looming settlement in a federal class-action lawsuit has forced some Indiana jails to change the way they handle bookings, even as similar lawsuits work their way through the states courts.

Lawsuits have been filed in at least five counties alleging violations of Fourth Amendment rights. A lawsuit involving a LaGrange County man and woman who were arrested in 2008 near a meth lab is expected to be the first to be settled. Suits also are pending in Allen, Whitley, Clark and St. Joseph counties.

The cases have focused largely on the cost of loss of liberty and have exposed jail policies that violate the Constitution, The Times of Northwest Indiana reported.

In Whitley County, for instance, Huntington resident Lawrence Bickel sued the sheriff in 2008 after he was arrested without a warrant on a Thursday in 2006. Bickels detention was not judged to have probable cause until the following Monday, because the county had a policy of taking arrestees to court just once a week regardless of when they were detained.

In LaGrange County, where Amanda Strunk and Joshua Cleveland were held for three and seven days, respectively, Sheriff Terry Martin blamed the violations on the countys prosecutor and two judges.

We found out there was a problem. We corrected the problem, Martin said of a new policy he said was crafted with the cooperation of everyone but outgoing Prosecutor Jeff Wible. Everybody agreed on it except for one person.

The new policy requires his officers to sometimes lengthen their shifts to finish paperwork related to arrests by not only their departments officers, but others, as well.

Theres a lot of paperwork in law enforcement as it is, Martin said. Weve just added on.

Attorney Christopher Myers, of Fort Wayne, the lead attorney for plaintiffs in the lawsuits, said case law makes it clear that a sheriff is responsible for enforcing Fourth Amendment rights because he holds the key to the jail.

Myers said his law firm researched the issue after hearing from inmates around the state complaining their jail stints were too long.

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Suit brings change in jail bookings

Private Members #39; Business | Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (No. 3) Bill 2014
Deputy ine Collins speaking in Private Members #39; Business on the Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution, November 2014.

By: Aine Collins TD

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Private Members' Business | Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (No. 3) Bill 2014 - Video

Family tased, assaulted, pepper sprayed

A court in Missouri has ruled a raid staged against a homeschooling family in 2011 violated their constitutional rights.

Police entered the home of Jason and Laura Hagan without a search warrant. The couple were shot with tasers and Laura Hagan was slapped in the face by a police officer. Police also threatened to shoot the family dog when the couple refused to cooperate with social service workers. Pepper spray was also used on the couple.

The Hagans were charged with child endangerment and resisting arrest following a previous visit by state officials who claimed their home was messy. The family complied with a first inspection but refused a second, resulting in the police raid.

The Hagans lost custody of their children for months following the raid. The children witnessed the police assault on their parents.

The court ruled the police raid was unconstitutional. The court will not allow [an] exception to sanction warrantless entry into a private residence by pepper spray and Taser. If the officer had a warrant in hand and such force was necessary, that is a different story, but those are not the facts of this case, the court stated.

The Fourth Amendment strikes a carefully crafted balance between a familys right to privacy and the governments need to enforce the law, a report by the Home School Legal Defense Association states. In most situations, government agents cannot simply force their way into a home. Instead, they must explain to a neutral magistrate why they need to enter the home, and they must provide real evidence to support that need.

This rule applies to all government agents. Court after court has agreed that there is no social services exception to the Fourth Amendment.

All too often, law enforcement officers and child-welfare workers act as if the Fourth Amendment does not apply to CPS investigations. They are wrong. The Fourth Amendment is a legal shield that protects people from exactly the kind of mistreatment the Hagans endured.

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The Fourth Amendment | Nwo Report

An attorney has filed a motion to dismiss all charges stemming from the arrest of the Lake County Leader editor on Oct. 1 while he was taking photographs of an accident on Montana 35.

Editor Vince Lovato, of Polson, was charged with resisting arrest, obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct. An omnibus hearing is scheduled Monday morning.

Lovatos attorney, Mike Meloy of Helena, filed the motion to dismiss Nov. 6 on the basis of his clients First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights.

Meloy claims that Lovato, as a photographer, had a right to record, through his photographs, the actions of the police officer, the accident scene and the driver of the vehicle.

Meloy alleged that the arresting officer, Montana Highway Patrol Trooper Anthony Isbell, had no probable cause to make a warrantless arrest and he arrested the defendant for the sole purpose of preventing him from exercising this well-settled constitutional right.

In addition, Meloy said there was no yellow crime scene tape nor any other visible boundaries demarking an investigation site, and that at no time did anyone advise the defendant that he had entered a crime scene.

Deputy Lake County Attorney James Lapotka, in the states response to the motion to dismiss filed Nov. 21, said that the motion must be denied because there is probable cause to charge and arrest the defendant for obstruction of justice and even if there were not, dismissal of the case is not an appropriate remedy.

Lapotka argues that officers on scene were still trying to evaluate the danger of a leak from a truck involved in the accident a diesel cargo tanker hauling hazardous flammable material that was leaking brake fluid when emergency vehicles arrived. The tanker had been hit head-on by an allegedly drunk woman driving a Toyota Camry on Montana 35 northeast of Polson that afternoon.

Lapotka states that emergency personnel were working to extricate the drunk driver and ensure there was no leak of potentially hazardous material onto the roadway creating a risk to the public and to Flathead Lake. He also says that the stability of the dangerous tanker had yet to be determined and the drunk drivers injuries had yet to be assessed.

The states response continues, Trooper Isbell noticed several items of evidence inside the drunk drivers vehicle and was attempting to control the scene, preserve evidence, protect public and environmental safety and assist with an ongoing medical emergency. Officers from the Montana Highway Patrol and Lake County Sheriffs Office had blocked traffic on the highway and parked patrol cars with flashing lights on the road to create a perimeter.

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Polson editor wants charges dismissed