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TULSA, Okla. — One of two Oklahoma men accused of going on a racially motivated shooting spree in a predominantly black section of Tulsa this month says he has no ill-will toward black people and counts several of them among his friends.

"I always got along with everybody. It didn't ...

NEW YORK — Three former high school classmates, after getting terror training at an al Qaeda outpost, discussed bombing New York movie theaters, Grand Central Terminal, Times Square and the New York Stock Exchange before targeting the city's subways, a prosecutor said Monday at the trial for one of them.

Driven by high gas prices and an uncertain economy, Americans are turning to trains and buses to get around in greater numbers than ever before. But the aging transit systems they're riding face an $80 billion maintenance backlog that jeopardizes service just when it's most in demand.

The number of ...

If you think Obama has a clear advantage in 2012, think again.

While Obama won in 2008 by over 9 million votes, the fortunes of the GOP need only flip in a handful of states to take back the White House. Think: Florida, Ohio, and Virginia. Flip those three back into the GOP column and we might be welcoming in a new administration in 2013.

The Obama advantages of 2008 are now gone. His signature achievement is unpopular. The unemployment rate is still higher than when he took over and the number of people in the workforce is dropping dramatically. Gas prices have doubled. Unable to talk about his accomplishments, his plan for victory is to launch class, gender, and race attacks against Republicans. The presidential election is certainly either party's to win or lose. The Republicans are hoping the electoral trends of the last three years continue, while the Democrats will be hoping for a little change in that pattern. Read: The 2012 Electoral College: How Conservatives Can Defeat Obama

How Can Romney Defeat Obama? originally appeared on About.com Conservative Politics: U.S. on Monday, April 16th, 2012 at 22:27:29.

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The Free Speech Coalition’s case against the Attorney General for searches under pornography manufacturer’s recordkeeping requirements under 28 U.S.C. § 2257 stated a First and Fourth Amendment claim because of unannounced FBI visits to search records. On remand, the district court should consider the trespass implications ofJones. Free Speech Coalition Inc. v. Attorney General of the United States, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 7543 (3d Cir. April 16, 2012):

There are two ways in which the government’s conduct may constitute a “search” implicating the Fourth Amendment. First, a Fourth Amendment search occurs when “the person invoking its protection can claim a justifiable, a reasonable, or a legitimate expectation of privacy that has been invaded by government action.” Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 740 (1979) (citations and quotation marks omitted); see also Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27, 32-33 (2001) (“[A] Fourth Amendment search occurs when the government violates a subjective expectation of privacy that society recognizes as reasonable.”); Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 353 (1967) (“The Government’s activities in electronically listening to and recording the petitioner’s words violated the privacy upon which he justifiably relied ... and thus constituted a ‘search and seizure’ within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.”). Determining whether one’s expectation of privacy is justifiable involves two separate inquiries: (1) whether the individual demonstrated an actual or subjective expectation of privacy in the subject of the search or seizure; and (2) whether this expectation of privacy is objectively justifiable under the circumstances. Smith, 442 U.S. at 740 (quotation marks omitted); Katz, 389 U.S. at 361 (Harlan, J., concurring); United States v. Ferri, 778 F.2d 985, 994 (3d Cir. 1985).

Second, as the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Jones makes clear, a Fourth Amendment search also occurs where the government unlawfully, physically occupies private property for the purpose of obtaining information. See 132 S. Ct. at 949-52 (stating that the reasonable-expectation-of-privacy test set forth in Katz was “added to, not substituted for, the common-law trespassory test”) (emphasis in original). Under this analysis, we must determine whether the government committed common-law trespass when obtaining the information. See Jones, 132 S. Ct. at 949-52; see also Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 143 (1978) (explaining the common-law-trespass test employed prior to Katz). If such a trespass occurs, then the government’s actions constitute a search implicating the Fourth Amendment. See Jones, 132 S. Ct. at 949-52.

Here, the District Court erred in dismissing Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claim, as sought to be amended. Courts generally must consider the concrete factual context when determining the constitutional validity of a warrantless search. See Sibron v. New York, 392 U.S. 40, 59 (1968) (declining to hold whether a particular statute was facially invalid under the Fourth Amendment because the “constitutional validity of a warrantless search is pre-eminently the sort of question which can only be decided in the concrete factual context of the individual case”); United States ex rel. McArthur v. Rundle, 402 F.2d 701, 704-05 (3d Cir. 1968) (stating that in the case of warrantless searches, courts are required to consider the concrete factual context); see also United States v. $291,828.00 in United States Currency, 536 F.3d 1234, 1238 (11th Cir. 2008). Plaintiffs’ complaint, as amended, would allege that government officials searched and/or seized without a warrant—and in violation of the Fourth Amendment—the premises and effects of certain FSC members and others. The record, however, is not clear as to: which specific members of FSC were searched; when and where the searches of the FSC members and others occurred (i.e., offices or homes); and the conduct of the government during the search (e.g., what specific information the government reviewed and whether the government exceeded its authority under the applicable regulations).

This factual context is necessary for determining whether the government’s conduct was a “search” under the Fourth Amendment pursuant to either the reasonable-expectation-of-privacy test set forth in Katz or the common-law-trespass test described in Jones. ...

Apparently there has been a little glitch recently and all comments were getting marked as spam. Fortunately someone emailed me and I found the problem. Those comments are now unspammed and hopefully the problem is fixed. Sorry about that!

NEW YORK — The Associated Press won a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting Monday for documenting the New York Police Department's widespread spying on Muslims, while The Philadelphia Inquirer was honored in the public service category for its examination of violence in the city's schools.

The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. ...

TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A judge entered not-guilty pleas Monday for two Oklahoma men accused of going on a racially motivated shooting spree in which three people were killed and two others wounded in a predominantly black section of Tulsa this month.

Jake England and Alvin Watts appeared in Tulsa ...

“Even if an individual is found to have validly consented, he can still challenge a search on the basis that it exceeded the scope of his consent. See United States v. Canipe, 569 F.3d 597, 604 (6th Cir. 2009).” Quoting United States v. Carter, 378 F.3d 584, 587 (6th Cir. 2004), also on consent in general: “‘Fundamentally, Carter asks us to hold as a matter of law that consent must be given verbally, perhaps by some ‘magic words’ formula. This we decline to do. Although a man’s home is his castle, trumpets need not herald an invitation. The police may be kept out or invited in as informally as any other guest. Carter invited the police in and cannot undo his act in court.’ Id. at 589.” Defendant was actually showing the police he wanted to cooperate, so the consent was voluntary. Since the object of the search was a stolen firearm, the search could be anywhere the gun might be found. United States v. Murphy, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52246 (E.D. Tenn. March 26, 2012), R&R 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52245 (E.D. Tenn. January 10, 2012).*

The officer applying for the telephonic search warrant was not the officer with the most information, but that did not make his hearsay application void. The Franks issue fails: “None of the claimed omissions, if included in the affidavit, would have negated the probable cause determination.” Some of the claimed omissions were actually incriminating. United States v. Salisbury, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51998 (D. Nev. February 3, 2012).*

A frantic woman was worried about her children locked in the house with defendant. The district court’s finding of consent to enter was supported by the evidence. Moreover, there was sufficient evidence of exigency and the entry was not made to arrest or investigate a crime. State v. Morin, 2012 ND 75, 2012 N.D. LEXIS 80 (April 10, 2012).*

On staleness, “evidence of the manufacture of methamphetamine is closer to a regenerating conspiracy than a chance encounter in the night. On the continuum of long-versus short-term criminal operations, the manufacture of methamphetamine lies somewhere between growing marijuana and selling or consuming drugs.” It was at a residence, “the alleged criminals were entrenched rather than nomadic.” United States v. Redmond, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 7504, 2012 FED App. 0405N (6th Cir. April 13, 2012).*

NEW YORK — A New York auction house has sold an original ticket to the launch of the Titanic and a dinner menu from the ill-fated ocean liner.

On the block Sunday at Bonhams were various items offered to mark the centennial of the sinking of the Titanic. The historic ...

The good news that U.S. teen birthrates are continuing to fall has resurrected the debate about how much credit for the trend should go to contraception and how much to abstinence.

The recent declines in teen birthrates can be linked "almost exclusively" to improvements in teens' contraceptive use, the Guttmacher ...

At least 75 bills to restrict abortion passed one state legislative chamber in the first quarter of 2012, the Guttmacher Institute said Friday.

While this wasn't quite the flurry seen in 2011, when a record 127 abortion-restricting bills passed one chamber, it was "still higher than usual for an election ...

HANOI — Vietnamese businessman Pham Dinh Nguyen flew to the U.S. for the first time, drove to a tiny, frigid trading outpost and bought his own piece of the American dream: Buford in Wyoming - population 1.

Mr. Nguyen's name was not released when he won the auction for Buford ...