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Inventory searches of impounded cars are impermissible if they do not follow previously-implemented and Constitutional inventory procedures. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I am delighted that the Virginia Court of Appeals this month reversed a firearm conviction, where a handgun was found without probable cause under...

Secondary traffic offenses in Virginia are traffic violations that expressly do not permit the issuance of a traffic citation, summons or ticket unless in conjunction with a primary offense, which is a violation of one of more other traffic or criminal laws of the commonwealth....

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...

Nearly two generations of Americans, born since 1980, knows of no life other than that under the drug wars spurred during the Reagan administration, complete with metal detectors and other intrusive searches in schools without particularized suspicion; draconian drug sentencing regimes involving lengthy mandatory minimum...

Mere momentary, short and limited weaving is not sufficient for a police traffic stop. Moreover, Virginia has not recognized a community caretaking ground to allow a police traffic stop (to assure the welfare of the driver of a car driving less than perfectly). Barrett, 250...

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.

On April 21, 2015, the United States Supreme Court resolved a federal circuit court split by ruling 6-3 that traffic stops must be concluded in a reasonable timeframe (already settled Supreme Court caselaw), and may not be prolonged without an independent lawful basis to do...