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WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta both called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to express their condolences after an American soldier in Afghanistan wandered off base and allegedly gunned down 16 villagers. Panetta vowed to "bring those responsible to justice."...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Paul Clement used to argue for the federal government's power until he started arguing against it....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It took only a year to set up Medicare. But if President Barack Obama's health care law survives Supreme Court scrutiny, it will be nearly a decade before all its major pieces are in place....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It took only a year to set up Medicare. But if President Barack Obama's health care law survives Supreme Court scrutiny, it will be nearly a decade before all its major pieces are in place....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In 16 appearances before the Supreme Court, Donald Verrilli has advocated for the rights of death row inmates and has successfully argued fine points of telecommunications law in cases with billions of dollars in the balance....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In 16 appearances before the Supreme Court, Donald Verrilli has advocated for the rights of death row inmates and has successfully argued fine points of telecommunications law in cases with billions of dollars in the balance....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In 16 appearances before the Supreme Court, Donald Verrilli has advocated for the rights of death row inmates and has successfully argued fine points of telecommunications law in cases with billions of dollars in the balance....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In 16 appearances before the Supreme Court, Donald Verrilli has advocated for the rights of death row inmates and has successfully argued fine points of telecommunications law in cases with billions of dollars in the balance....

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and comedian Jeff Foxworthy team up in Alabama to encourage people to vote.

Speaking before the Gulf Coast Energy Summit, Newt Gingrich says the U.S. must dramatically rethink its energy policy.

Use of defendant’s husband’s probation status to conduct a “probation search” led by the police was unreasonable and violated Griffin and Knights. Hensley v. State, 2012 Ind. App. LEXIS 89 (March 8, 2012):

This evidence reveals that the search was not conducted as a probation search, nor was it truly conducted for probation reasons. Instead, the police were pursuing their own agenda and conducted an investigatory search under the guise that it was a probationary search. The search was prompted by the police officers, not by the probation officer. Stuckey agreed that the police could join her in the search, as officers often do for the reason of safety. Instead of acting as Stuckey's backup, however, the police entered the home and left Stuckey alone with Hensley, without conducting a safety sweep of the home that purportedly contained a firearm. The police did not ask Hensley about the ownership of the home and failed to follow the lead of Stuckey, from whom they could have learned that Robert slept in the living room and not the bedroom. This search did not meet the guidelines for a valid search under Griffin.

. . .

To qualify as a constitutional search under Knights, the police would have needed to have reasonable suspicion that Robert had engaged in criminal activity. In the State's response to Hensley's motion to suppress, the State makes no mention of the reasoning in Knights, nor does it contend that these unsubstantiated tips provided "reasonable suspicion" to believe that Robert was engaging in criminal activity. Furthermore, the evidence found in Hensley's home was discovered under her bed and in her dresser drawer. Hensley was not on probation nor was she the person suspected of criminal activity. The search by Officer Tharp, which uncovered the marijuana and generic Xanax violated her Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure under Knights.

Officers went to defendant’s property to conduct a knock-and-talk suspecting a commercial marijuana grow operation. After smelling growing marijuana and actually seeing it, one officer left to get a search warrant. While they were waiting, defendant came home and seemingly but equivocally consented, but the consent came into dispute. In the meantime, the search warrant issued, and this was an independent basis for the search. Starkey v. State, 2012 Alas. App. LEXIS 38 (March 9, 2012):

This distinction is explained by Professor LaFave: "[T]he inevitable discovery [doctrine] is hypothetical in nature, [and] it does not apply if [an] alternative, legitimate source is actually used to seize the evidence". Wayne R. LaFave, Search and Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment (4th ed. 2004), § 11.4(a), Vol. 6, p. 265, n. 55. 1 This distinction was also addressed by the Alaska Supreme Court in Smith v. State, 948 P.2d 473 (Alaska 1997):

[P]roperly applied, the "independent source" exception [to the exclusionary rule] allows the prosecution to use evidence only if it was, in fact, obtained by fully lawful means. ... The "inevitable discovery" exception ... differs in one key respect[:] ... the [challenged] evidence ... [was] not actually ... obtained from an independent source, but rather would have been discovered as a matter of course if independent investigations [had been] allowed to proceed.

Smith, 948 P.2d at 479-480 (emphasis added, and citations omitted).

One further aspect of the "independent source" doctrine must be emphasized: the doctrine applies to situations like the one in Starkey's case — situations where the police initially discover the evidence unlawfully, but ultimately take possession of the evidence through a lawful means that is untainted by the prior illegality. ...

Search incident of defendant’s vehicle was invalid because it was for a traffic offense and there was no evidence of the crime. Since this arrest was custodial, the vehicle was improperly impounded because it was lawfully parked and the officer made no effort to see if the passenger would drive the vehicle, thus obviating impoundment. Canino v. State, 2012 Ga. App. LEXIS 252 (March 7, 2012).*

A visitor to a house ran the risk that the host would consent to admitting the police who came in and saw the visitor’s suitcase and seized it. The police got a search warrant for the seized suitcase on probable cause. United States v. Cruz, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 4986 (3d Cir. March 9, 2012) (unpublished).*

The officer’s seeing defendant cross the center line was credited as the basis for the OVI stop, and the fact the video didn’t catch it didn’t make the stop unreasonable. State v. Lemaster, 2012 Ohio 971, 2012 Ohio App. LEXIS 846 (4th Dist. March 2, 2012).*

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has a PR problem when it comes to Afghanistan, to say the least....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta both called Afghan President Hamid Karzai to express their condolences after an American soldier in Afghanistan wandered off base and allegedly gunned down 16 villagers, and Panetta vowed to "bring those responsible to justice."...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is trying to make some bucks off March Madness with its own version of the NCAA Tournament office pool....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is trying to make some bucks off March Madness with its own version of the NCAA Tournament office pool....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama's re-election campaign is trying to make some bucks off March Madness with its own version of the NCAA Tournament office pool....

SAN FRANCISCO — The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. The Fallingwater home in southwestern Pennsylvania. But a child's doghouse?

Frank Lloyd Wright designed hundreds of landmark buildings and homes during a prolific career that spanned more than seven decades. But in what is widely considered a ...

A Planned Parenthood affiliate in Texas knowingly sent in about $6 million in false claims to Medicaid and took steps to cover up its acts, says a federal "whistleblower" lawsuit that was unsealed Friday.

Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast submitted more than 87,000 reimbursement claims for services that were "false, fraudulent, ...