Dealing with the police can be a stressful experience, especially when you know you have done nothing wrong. The important thing to remember in any police encounter, whether it is a traffic stop or an officer approaching you on the street, is to remain calm, understand your rights, and be firm-yet-polite in asserting those rights. The Importance of the...
Continue ReadingI vividly remember sitting in Professor Fletcher Baldwin’s Criminal Procedure at the University of Florida and learning about the warrant requirements of the Fourth Amendment. I seem to recall that without a warrant searches are presumed to be invalid. The issuance of a search warrant requires probable cause which must be demonstrated to a neutral magistrate. I bring this...
Continue ReadingOn July 30, 2013, a dividing U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that authorities do not need a warrant to obtain records detailing a cellphone location. The Court conducted a full evaluation of the Fourth Amendment rights in these circumstances. The authorities will have to obtain a court order as opposed to a warrant; a court...
Continue ReadingOur society increasingly functions via portable electronic devices. Emails have largely replaced letters, cellphone calls have largely replaced those made on landlines and an individual’s wireless Internet search history can reveal a great deal about what he or she loves, hates and does on a day-to-day basis. As convenient as portable electronic devices are, they can also reveal incriminating...
Continue ReadingA federal judge in Miami has ruled that the mandatory drug testing of government employees pursuant to Governor Scott’s Executive Order is unconstitutional. You can read Judge Ungaro’s opinion here. The Judge ruled that requiring drug testing of government employees violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution which prohibited unreasonable searches and seizures. Judge Ungaro wrote that “The fundamental flaw...
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