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ABOARD A US MILITARY AIRCRAFT (AP) -- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is traveling through Asia this week, determined to show the U.S. is serious about shifting its focus to the region. His trip comes amid growing worries about China's increasingly aggressive posture and North Korea's nuclear ambitions....

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) -- Snigdha Nandipati heard a few words she didn't know during the National Spelling Bee, but never when she stepped to the microphone....

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) -- Snigdha Nandipati heard a few words she didn't know during the National Spelling Bee, but never when she stepped to the microphone....

Thomas K. Clancy, The Fourth Amendment's Exclusionary Rule as a Constitutional Right (Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, Vol. 10, 2012), posted on SSRN. Abstract:

I am a proponent of the view that the rule is constitutionally based and is an individual remedy for the violation of that person’s Fourth Amendment rights. Both sides of the exclusionary rule debate regarding whether it is a mere tool to enforce deterrence or whether it is an individual right-based remedy have weighty authority and supporters. In my view, the constitutionally-based argument is persuasive: in constitutional law, there can be no right without a remedy. Subsidiary arguments reinforce that view. Those include the absence of any rational or empirical justification for the rule if based on deterrence theory, the lack of authority of the Court to apply the rule to the states absent a constitutional basis, and the coherence of justification of exceptions to the rule’s application if constitutionally based, unlike the ad hoc deterrence rationale, which is a mere substitute for each justice’s subjective assessment as to whether to apply the sanction.

TheHill.com: ACLU backs Twitter's bid to hide user information by Brendan Sasso:

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a brief in a New York state court on Thursday supporting Twitter's effort to avoid handing over the personal information of one of its users to the police.

New York City prosecutors had served Twitter with a subpoena for its data on Malcolm Harris, who was arrested for disorderly conduct during an Occupy Wall Street protest. The prosecutors asked Twitter for Harris's email address and all of his tweets in a three-month period.

Twitter argued that police would need a search warrant to access the communications. The court had concluded that Harris lacked the legal standing to challenge the subpoena on his own, but Twitter argued that its users have the authority to protect their own tweets.

WSJ.com: U.S. Argues to Preserve GPS Tracking (paywall) by Julia Angwin and Jess Bravin:

The U.S. government told a federal appeals court Thursday that it still has the right to place Global Positioning System tracking devices on cars without obtaining a search warrant—despite a January Supreme Court ruling that the warrantless installation of such a device violated the Constitution.

In arguments aimed at preserving warrantless GPS tracking evidence in a case before the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department relied on the fact that the high court didn't specifically state that a search warrant would be required in other situations.

Fourth Amendment Search and Seizure, Qualified Immunity and the Technological Age by Muna Busailah and Stephen P. Chulak, 2012 (6) AELE Mo. L. J. 501 (June 2012):

This article examines two decisions, issued by the United States Supreme Court in January 2012, concerning the Fourth Amendment. The first, Ryburn v. Huff, #11-208, 132 S.Ct. 987 (2012), involves a civil rights action by homeowners against police officers from the City of Burbank, alleging that the officers’ entry into their home violated the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Court of Appeal and held that the officers had a reasonable basis for fearing violence was imminent, which entitled them to qualified immunity.

In the second case, United States v. Jones, #10-1259, 132 S.Ct. 945 (2012), the Supreme Court ruled that the attachment of a Global-Positioning-System (GPS) tracking device to a vehicle, and subsequent use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements on public streets, was a “search” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) -- The National Spelling Bee is - of course - all about words. But their faces say it all, too. The pondering, confusion, relief and ultimately - either triumph or defeat. The kids competing in the spelling bee were whittled down to 50 and eventually two and finally one on Thursday night....

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) -- The National Spelling Bee is - of course - all about words. But their faces say it all, too. The pondering, confusion, relief and ultimately - either triumph or defeat. The kids competing in the spelling bee were whittled down to 50 and eventually two and finally one on Thursday night....

SEATTLE (AP) -- Someone inside an artsy Seattle cafe where a gunman opened fire threw stools at the assailant during a shooting rampage police described as "callous, horrific and cold," a move that allowed others to run to safety....

SEATTLE (AP) -- Someone inside an artsy Seattle cafe where a gunman opened fire threw stools at the assailant during a shooting rampage police described as "callous, horrific and cold," a move that allowed others to run to safety....

SEATTLE (AP) -- Someone inside an artsy Seattle cafe where a gunman opened fire threw stools at the assailant during a shooting rampage police described as "callous, horrific and cold," a move that allowed others to run to safety....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican-controlled House approved legislation Thursday to boost health care spending for veterans and provide more money to compensate record numbers of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans claiming service-related disabilities as they return home....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican-controlled House approved legislation Thursday to boost health care spending for veterans and provide more money to compensate record numbers of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans claiming service-related disabilities as they return home....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Republican-controlled House approved legislation Thursday to boost health care spending for veterans and provide more money to compensate record numbers of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans claiming service-related disabilities as they return home....

OXON HILL, Md. (AP) -- Snigdha Nandipati heard a few words she didn't know during the National Spelling Bee, but never when she stepped to the microphone....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's Barack Obama's house now, but his predecessor and political foil, George W. Bush, stole the show at the White House on Thursday with his wisecracks and grin....

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) -- John Edwards' campaign finance fraud case ended in a mistrial Thursday when jurors acquitted him on one of six charges but were unable to decide whether he misused money from two wealthy donors to hide his pregnant mistress while he ran for president....

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- The Archdiocese of Milwaukee and a former priest who received money to leave the ministry following allegations of sexual abuse say that payment and others were a form of charity meant to help men transition to a new life following the priesthood....

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- The Archdiocese of Milwaukee and a former priest who received money to leave the ministry following allegations of sexual abuse say that payment and others were a form of charity meant to help men transition to a new life following the priesthood....