The recent news coming from a Baltimore Police corruption trial has unearthed appalling accusations that Baltimore Officers were fabricating search warrant affidavits to illegally search homes, possessed BB guns with the intent to plant them in case of unlawful police shootings, profiled various types of peoples and vehicles, and illegally tracked citizens with GPS devices,…
DUI Blood Draws Justified on grounds of Exigent Circumstances under the Schmerber and McNeely decisions. In Schmerber v. California (1966) 384 U.S. 757, the US Supreme Court determined that a warrantless compulsory seizure of blood for the purpose of a blood-alcohol test did not offend the Fourth Amendment if the procedure: (1) is…
Holiday season means DUI checkpoints increase across the State of California. DUI checkpoints are legal and police may use them in an effort to protect public safety, if they follow certain guidelines in setting up and operating the checkpoint. Vehicle Checkpoints and the Ingersoll Test The primary purpose of a sobriety checkpoint is to…
The Fourth Amendment: Warrant Required Unless Lawfully Recognized Exception The Fourth Amendment dictates that warrantless searches inside a home without warrant “are presumptively unreasonable.” Payton v. New York (1980) 445 U.S. 573, 586. In order to justify a warrantless search, the government’s interest in conducting the search must be rise to a level greater than…
The crimes of carrying a loaded firearm or possession of a concealed firearm both require that the firearm be carried by the person in a “public place”. But this is limited to what the Courts construe as the meaning of a “public place”. What the Jury Instructions Say Jury instructions are often a helpful way…
