fourth amendment

After Taking A Couple Of Steps Towards Trimming Back Qualified Immunity, The Supreme Court Regresses To The Mean 25 October 2021 The Supreme Court spent decades making it all but impossible for citizens to successfully sue law enforcement officers for violating their rights. The Supreme Court...

Montana Supreme Court Unanimously Overturns a Pot Conviction, Saying Cops Stopped the Defendant for No Good Reason 25 October 2021 During a 2017 trip to Montana, Hoang Vinh Pham was heating up a bowl of noodles at a Conoco station on Interstate 94 when he looked out the window and saw...

Man wins $2.5 million verdict in excessive force lawsuit against Denver police sergeant and city 4 October 2021 A jury has awarded more than $2.5 million to a man who sued a Denver police sergeant and the city in 2015 when he was shot in the back and hand while he lay facedown with his hands...

Court Tells Arkansas Troopers That Muting Anti-Cop Terms On Its Facebook Page Violates The 1st Amendment 18 October 2021 When government entities use private companies to interact with the public, it can cause some confusion. Fortunately, this isn't a new problem with no court precedent...

The second case bothers me: The guy was cornered and hiding in a garage. There was no need to rush in and tangle with him immediately. A bit of patience and a qualified negotiator would probably have saved his life, or just back out and wait patiently. But with qualified immunity on your...

School Resource Officer Kevin Brunner Mom Sues Cops Who Arrested Her for Leaving 14-Year-Old Daughter Home Alone 11 October 2021 A federal judge has ruled that two cops who work at a public school in Midland, Texas, can be sued for seizing a 14-year-old from her family's apartment because...

Note: The headline is a bit of a stretch. Failure to grant certiorari, i.e. declining to hear an appeal, does not mean that the U.S. Supreme Court concurs with the lower court's decision. As it turns out, Jeriel Edwards attorneys didn't present any evidence of record in response to the...

Connecticut Supreme Court Says Cops Need Warrants To Run Drug Dogs Around Motel Room Doors 8 October 2021 Drug dogs are man's best friend, if that man happens to be The Man. "Probable cause on four legs" is the unofficial nickname of these clever non-pets, which give signals only their...

Sniper killer Justin Rapp A Cop Killed an Innocent Man After a 'Swatting' Prank Call. The City Can't Be Sued. 7 October 2021 On a chilly December evening in 2017, a group of Wichita cops surrounded a modest house on West McCormick Street. They were there in response to what was purportedly...

If the Police Lie, Should They Be Held Liable? Often the Answer Is No. 12 September 2021 In 2010, Officer Heather Weyker of the St. Paul Police Department in Minnesota had the biggest case of her career: a child sex-trafficking ring said to have spanned four states and involved girls as young...

Jeffrey Overton Arizona Police Broke into Unarmed Schizophrenic Woman’s Home with Guns Drawn and Tased Her in Her Own Bedroom: Lawsuit 29 September 2021 A trio of police officers in Arizona broke into the home of a woman they knew was mentally ill, held her at gunpoint, and tased her while...

In a California Desert, Sheriff’s Deputies Settle Schoolyard Disputes. Black Teens Bear the Brunt. 29 September 2021 Barron Gardner, a high school history teacher in Southern California’s Antelope Valley, stared down Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies during an online meeting in...

Massachusetts Supreme Court Being Asked To Decide Whether Cops Can Engage In Warrantless Surveillance Of Social Media Users 23 September 2021 The top court in Massachusetts is asking itself (and legal counsel representing both sides) questions that -- on the surface level -- don't really...

A New Lawsuit Says Wilmington Is Running an Unconstitutional Towing and Impound Racket 24 September 2021 A new lawsuit accuses the city government of Wilmington, Delaware, of running an unconstitutional towing and impound program that strips owners of their vehicles over petty ticket debts...

The DHS Agent Who Tried To Kill Kevin Byrd Can't Be Sued—Because He Works for the Federal Government 22 September 2021 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent Ray Lamb was not acting in his professional capacity when he approached Kevin Byrd in the parking lot of a Texas bar and allegedly...