Empty Your Pockets
Jeff Welty
Can a police officer order a suspect to empty his or her pockets during a Terry stop? The New York Times reports on claims that New York officers do so […]
September 29, 2011
Can a police officer order a suspect to empty his or her pockets during a Terry stop? The New York Times reports on claims that New York officers do so […]
Read post "Empty Your Pockets"August 30, 2011
I’ve written about traffic stops at some length, in this paper. One of the areas in which the law is unsettled is the extent to which officers may engage in […]
Read post "Fourth Circuit Adds to the Controversy over Traffic Stops"June 28, 2011
Suppose that a magistrate is asked to issue a search warrant for a particular residence. Based on the information presented to her by the applicant, the magistrate believes that there […]
Read post "Probable Cause: The Same for All Crimes?"June 14, 2011
Yesterday, in United States v. Portillo-Munoz, the Fifth Circuit held that illegal immigrants do not have Second Amendment rights. The defendant in the case was charged with being an illegal […]
Read post "Illegal Immigrants and the Fourth Amendment"May 18, 2011
The curtilage of a home is the area “directly and intimately connected with the [home] and in proximity” to it. State v. Courtright, 60 N.C. App. 247 (1983). In other […]
Read post "Do Multi-Unit Dwellings Have Curtilage?"May 17, 2011
Yesterday, the Supreme Court decided Kentucky v. King, a case that addresses — actually, eviscerates — the officer-created exigency doctrine. The facts are as follows: Officers investigating possible drug crimes […]
Read post "Kentucky v. King and the Officer-Created Exigency Doctrine"May 11, 2011
Last week, I posted a paper about warrantless searches of computers and electronic devices. Today, I’m posting its companion: this paper about warrant searches of computers, which I have just […]
Read post "Warrant Searches of Computers"May 9, 2011
I’ve had a couple of questions recently about something that I’d never considered before: whether a guest has “standing” to contest a search of the outbuildings associated with a host’s […]
Read post "Guests’ Expectation of Privacy in Garages and Outbuildings"May 3, 2011
I keep a list of cases from across the country on warrantless searches of computers and other electronic devices. It covers topics like searches of cellular phones incident to arrest, […]
Read post "Warrantless Searches of Computers and Other Electronic Devices"January 3, 2011
Happy new year! It’s great to be back at work after a relaxing vacation. I’ve written before about traffic stops. Recently, I returned to the subject and completed a pretty […]
Read post "Traffic Stops from Soup to Nuts"