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Tire chalking is a common way for police or other parking ticketers to monitor whether a vehicle has overstayed the maximum duration for a parking space. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer I know that any incursion of government employees onto one's property might implicate the...

Prolonged police traffic stops too often fly in the face of the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that police try to use traffic stops as a pretext to investigate for such more serious and unrelated...

Challenging showup identifications is a must for criminal defendants whose guilt or innocence rises or falls on post-crime identification by the alleged crime victim or witnesses to the incident. Daquan Lamar Scott's lawyers knew about and pursued challenging showup identifications, but Scott nonetheless got convicted...

Fortunately, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has this month confirmed that the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution bars ordering a male criminal suspect to produce an erection.

For decades, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit bucked the path of eight circuits now, by generally barring a Fourth Amendment lawsuit claim in federal court over unlawful pretrial detentions. Today the United States Supreme Court corrected that erroneous Seventh Circuit...

This police state still exists because too many people support and tolerate it, and because it has taken on a life of its own. The police state can still be reversed, but we need to work together and doggedly to reverse it.

Usually I am in trial court when Supreme Court oral arguments are held. Somehow, ordinarily with trial date continuances, court proceedings ending unexpectedly early, and matters scheduled for the afternoon (leaving me available for morning Supreme Court oral argument), I get a chance to observe at least...

Praised be Virginia’s top court for reminding the lower courts that even the most heinous crimes do not rob convicts of all rights against government searches while on probation. Last Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court reversed a child rape convict’s probation conviction allowing police and...

Recently, Kimberly Atkins at LegalNews.com interviewed me on the Prado Navarette v. California Supreme Court decision eroding the Fourth Amendment by giving too much credence to 911 callers. The reporter contacted me after reading my blog entry on the case.  Here is the article that followed the interview, including a couple...

No matter how non-plussed, at best, that I am overall about President Obama, his two Republican opponents doubtlessly would have placed much bigger threats on the federal bench than Obama would ever nominate. On April22, 2014, the dangers of Ronald Reagan’s, George Bush I’s and...