Do you want the police to keep a record of everywhere you’ve ever been? It would be awfully convenient for the police to have that information. Law enforcement could simply make a list of places where illegal things are likely to happen or where certain people are not...
search warrants
Wisconsin Supreme Court allows end-run around lack of warrant
When the founders decided to require warrants before the government could search someone, what rights were they trying to protect? They wanted to free Americans from an intrusive government seeking to take their liberty without due process. They wanted to protect our...
Supreme Court: Cops in hot pursuit may still need a warrant
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects Americans from “unreasonable” searches and seizures by the government. That doesn’t always mean that police officers need a warrant before they can search you, but courts start with the base assumption that a...
The IRS is buying and using location data without a warrant
In 2018’s Carpenter v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement is generally not entitled to use cell site location information unless it obtains a warrant for the information. This means that state and federal law enforcement agencies cannot...
Can police follow you into your home over an alleged misdemeanor?
Arthur L. was playing his music loudly and honking his horn. That got the attention of a California highway patrol officer, who began following Arthur from a distance. The officer intended to initiate a traffic stop but didn’t take any action like activating his...
You should fear a geofence warrant even if you did nothing wrong
It's easy for law enforcement to overreach their powers in their efforts to stop crime. As the police use ever-more-intrusive methods for tracking people, they often raise the argument that the innocent people caught up in their dragnets have nothing to fear.The fact...
Court: Border agents need reasonable suspicion to search devices
At the border and in international airports, ICE and the Customs and Border Protection service have been routinely rifling through people's computers and smart phones. Away from the border, law enforcement needs a warrant before it can search your phone or another...
Appeals court limits reach of search warrants for cellphones
The mere fact that someone is under suspicion for a crime is not enough to justify a warrant for that person's cellphone. The mere fact that most people have a cellphone is not enough to justify a warrant. A warrant issued with no more specific reason than those is...
Search of Green Bay home leads to arrests related to death
A homicide charge against a person is one of the most severe in criminal law. To be arrested for homicide, or any other criminal charge, the police must have probable cause, a legal requirement of sufficient reason from the facts and circumstances of the situation,...