Police Can Not Search Cell Phone Without a Warrant
Police may seize a cell phone during a lawful arrest, but they generally cannot search its digital contents without first obtaining a warrant. Modern phones contain messages, photographs, financial information, location history, medical records, and years...
4th Amendment Terry Stop and Frisk Explained. Boilerplate Analysis
Police cannot detain and frisk someone merely because the person appears nervous, is present in an area associated with crime, or refuses to cooperate with an officer. A Terry stop requires reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, and a protective...
4th Amendment Search and Seizure REVERSAL: Police May NOT Legally Stop a Vehicle That Left Site of Suspected Drug Activity
Police cannot stop a vehicle merely because it leaves a house or property associated with suspected drug activity. A vehicle stop is a Fourth Amendment seizure, and officers ordinarily need particularized reasonable suspicion directed at the...
4th Amendment Search and Seizure: Six Day Delay by Police to Get Search Warrant for Cell Phone Is Not Unreasonable
Police generally need a search warrant before examining the digital contents of a cell phone. But obtaining a warrant does not automatically make every seizure reasonable. Officers must also act diligently after taking the...
Inevitable Discovery Rule Car Stop Inventory Search: Boilerplate Search and Seizure Analysis
Police cannot use an inventory search as a pretext to search a vehicle for evidence. The government must establish that impoundment was lawful, the inventory followed standardized procedures, and the challenged evidence inevitably would have been discovered through those...
Search and Seizure and the Collective Knowledge Doctrine: Boilerplate Rules
A police officer may sometimes stop, search, or arrest a person based on information known by another officer. This principle is called the collective knowledge doctrine. But the doctrine does not allow police to combine unrelated hunches...
Franks Hearing: Negligent Police Affidavit Not Enough For Suppression. Police Affidavit Must Be Reckless and Deceitful
A search warrant does not protect an unlawful search when police intentionally or recklessly mislead the judge who issued it. Under Franks v. Delaware, a defendant may challenge material false statements and omissions in a warrant affidavit and seek...
Consent to Search Home: Boilerplate Rules to Determine Voluntariness
A person does not have to allow police to search a home merely because officers ask for permission. When the government relies on consent instead of a warrant, prosecutors must prove that the consent was voluntary and...
Anticipatory Search Warrants Are Constitutional
Police may obtain a search warrant before evidence arrives at the location to be searched. This is known as an anticipatory search warrant. The warrant is generally executed only after a specified future event, called the triggering condition, establishes that...
Phone Tap Surveillance – Have Other Investigative Procedures Been Exhausted?
Federal agents cannot obtain a wiretap merely by showing that intercepted conversations might produce useful evidence. Title III requires the government to explain why ordinary investigative procedures have failed, appear unlikely to succeed, or would be too dangerous.