May Teachers Search Students’ Cell Phones?
I have a “friend” whose teenage son was caught using his cell phone in class. The teacher saw him using it and took the phone. She looked at the phone […]
February 27, 2017
How’s a Magistrate to Know Whether a Confidential Informant Is Reliable?
Search warrant applications are often based on information from confidential informants. Whether the informant is reliable is critical. Information from a reliable informant is often sufficient to establish probable cause, […]
January 24, 2017
North Carolina Supreme Court Upholds a Magistrate’s Finding of Probable Cause to Issue Search Warrant to Search Home for Drugs
On December 21, 2016, the North Carolina Supreme Court in State v. Allman upheld a magistrate’s finding of probable cause to search a home for drugs, and it reversed a […]
October 11, 2016
Drug Users, Drug Sellers, and Probable Cause
Here’s a common fact pattern: Officers find a person in possession of drugs. The officers say, in effect, “we won’t arrest you if you’ll tell us who sold you the […]
September 13, 2016
North Carolina Court of Appeals Rules That Statutory Exclusionary Rule Does Not Bar Admission of Evidence Seized Pursuant to a Search Warrant Based on Allegedly Vague and Inaccurate Inventory of Seized Items
The Fourth Amendment’s exclusionary rule generally bars the introduction of evidence seized in violation of its provisions. State constitutions, statutes, and rules also may bar the introduction of evidence even […]
January 12, 2016
N.C. Court of Appeals Rules That Affidavit For Search Warrant to Search Residence Failed to Link Residence to Drug Activity That Had Occurred Elsewhere
Last week a three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in State v. Allman (5 Jan. 2016), ruled (2-1) that a search warrant to search a residence for […]
September 21, 2015
State v. Perry, Cell Site Location Information, and the Exclusionary Rule
Last week, the court of appeals decided State v. Perry. It’s the appellate division’s first foray into cell site location information and a case that raises questions about the status […]
June 16, 2015
The DWI Year in Review, Part I
Don’t call the School of Government next week. We’ll all be out. Next week is conference-time for many of the court officials we serve, and we will be traversing the state (driving […]
December 4, 2013
Four hour delay to obtain search warrant an exigency, at least for now
The court of appeals decided its first post-Missouri v. McNeely alcohol exigency case yesterday. The court in State v. Dahlquist determined that the four to five hours that the arresting […]
February 26, 2013
U.S Supreme Court Declines to Extend Officer’s Detention Authority Incident to Execution of Search Warrant Beyond Immediate Vicinity of Premises
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 […]
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