March 26, 2013
Today, most Supreme Court watchers are focused on the oral argument in the same-sex marriage cases. But the Court also released an important opinion in Florida v. Jardines, ruling that […]
Read post "Florida v. Jardines: Bringing a Drug Dog to the Front Porch Is a Search"February 26, 2013
In Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692 (1981), the U.S. Supreme Court upheld an officer’s authority under the Fourth Amendment to detain—without reasonable suspicion or probable cause—people at a residence […]
Read post "U.S Supreme Court Declines to Extend Officer’s Detention Authority Incident to Execution of Search Warrant Beyond Immediate Vicinity of Premises"January 24, 2013
I’m eagerly awaiting the Supreme Court’s ruling in Missouri v. McNeely. I want to know whether the exigency created by the dissipation of alcohol in the body, without more, permits […]
Read post "No, Virginia, there is no implied consent"October 9, 2012
Last week, I wrote about the North Carolina Court of Appeals’ holding in State v. Smith, ___ N.C. App. ___, 729 S.E.2d 120 (2012), that a drug dog’s positive alert […]
Read post "Dog Sniffs of People and the Fourth Amendment"August 9, 2012
May an officer prolong a routine traffic stop for four and a half minutes to allow a drug dog to sniff the exterior of the vehicle–even if the officer lacks […]
Read post "State v. Sellars: De Minimis Delay for Dog Sniffs Permissible"May 3, 2012
I’m just getting back to work after a leave of absence, and I’m still getting caught up on some major cases that were decided while I was out. One such […]
Read post "Strip Searches of Arrestees at the Jail after Florence"February 7, 2012
A recent en banc decision from the Supreme Court of Missouri adds to the growing divide among state appellate courts regarding whether the exigency created by the dissipation of blood-alcohol […]
Read post "Warrantless Blood Draws and the Fourth Amendment (Again)"January 24, 2012
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court decided United States v. Jones, the important GPS tracking case I previously blogged about here. (The case was captioned United States v. Maynard at […]
Read post "The Supreme Court on GPS Tracking: U.S. v. Jones"December 5, 2011
At the start of the fall semester, the Daily Tar Heel reported that Chapel Hill and Carrboro police officers have combined forces with UNC campus police in an effort to […]
Read post "PBTs and the Fourth Amendment"October 26, 2011
I’ve recently been asked by several people whether it is lawful to require officers to issue a certain number of citations, or to make a certain number of arrests, per […]
Read post "Are Ticket or Arrest Quotas Lawful?"