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The Maryland state troopers had probable cause to search defendant’s car, so the district court erred in concluding that the officers exceeded the scope of consent and applied the wrong standard of what is probable cause. United States v. Ortiz, 2012 U.S. App. LEXIS 3896 (4th Cir. February 27, 2012):

This ruling erroneously elevated the probable cause standard to one more demanding than a preponderance. Probable cause requires an officer to have a "reasonable ground for belief of guilt"—"more than bare suspicion." Brinegar, 338 U.S. at 175 (emphasis added). A "reasonable ground" for belief is less demanding than a standard requiring a preponderance of the evidence for the belief. See Gates, 462 U.S. at 235; Humphries, 372 F.3d at 660 ("[T]he probable-cause standard does not require that the officer's belief be more likely true than false"). Thus, when the district court concluded that a search of the vehicle would "more likely than not" have uncovered contraband, it reached a conclusion that satisfied the probable-cause standard and authorized the Maryland State Police to search Ortiz's vehicle.

The trial court held that defendant was unlawfully stopped when he refused to stop for the officer’s flashing lights. There was no stop until defendant stopped, so the case is remanded for further fact finding. State v. Holohan, 2012 WY 23, 2012 Wyo. LEXIS 24 (February 22, 2012).

The state showed probable cause for the search warrant for defendant’s car and house in a shooting case. [Not a great amount of evidence, but enough for probable cause: matching car color, matching gun.] Robinson v. State, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 1483 (Tex. App. – Austin February 24, 2012)*:

In particular, with regard to Robinson's home and SUV, the affidavits state the following: (1) "a neighbor saw a black SUV drive away very fast" after the shooting; (2) Robinson's girlfriend "owns a small, black, SUV"; (3) an officer previously noted that Robinson kept a .38 caliber revolver in his home; (4) the bullets that were recovered from the crime scene were consistent with that of a .38 or .357 caliber revolver; and (5) the affiant's experience in criminal investigations leads him to "believe that items capable of collecting saturated blood [and other evidence], including but not limited to clothing, vehicle upholstery, carpet, [and] floor mats are located" in Robinson's home and SUV.

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S-510 Hits a Snag, But Be Wary, 12-7-10

Marquette Law School Faculty Blog: The Resurrection of the “Trespass” Element of Fourth Amendment Law by David Behm:

Recently, in United States v. Jones, the Supreme Court ruled that the attaching of a GPS tracking device to a suspect’s car without his knowledge and monitoring of the vehicle’s movements violated the suspect’s Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. See generally 132 S.Ct. 945 (2012). In so doing, the Court resurrected an idea relating to Fourth Amendment law that had been dormant for almost 50 years – the idea of common-law trespass as a test for violations of the amendment.

Server Woes

Due to the web server crashing and burning, and then repeating the crash and burn, this site has been down for most of the last week. I’m working on getting things restored from backup. Your patience is appreciated. Everything should be smoothed out within a week.

This also means that our email has been missing in action. So if you tried to write during the last week and didn’t get a response, resend now and it should get through.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch, we’ve had an even dozen litters of new piglets and there are about 15 to 20 more sows who will farrow soon. Piglets are popping out all over the place. The sap is rising. The sun is warming the land. Maybe in a month we will be mostly free of snow.

Tomorrow is Leap Day so get something extra done!

Cheers,

-Walter

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