Fourth Amendment
Virginia adopts the police collective knowledge doctrine
Today, the Virginia Court of Appeals adopted the police collective knowledge doctrine that already applies in federal courts. Edmond v. Virginia, ___ Va. App. ___ (Aug. 2, 2016). Under the collective knowledge, "an officer is justified in acting upon an instruction from another officer if...
Stop non-lawyer Virginia magistrates from approving search warrant applications and insert teeth into judicial search warrant application reviews
Virginia has a sad state of affairs that allows magistrates -- who are not required to be law school graduates unless they are a chief magistrate -- to review and approve search warrant applications. Virginia non-chief magistrates only need to have bachelors degrees.
Pounce on warrantless police searches of bags in motel rooms and other residences
Appellate opinions on search and seizure repeatedly uphold warrantless police searches of nearly innumerable varieties. Fortunately, today Virginia's Court of Appeals underlined the continued sanctity of the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, by requiring the exclusion of illegal drugs found in Lashant...
The lengths to which the courts allow the Fourth Amendment to be stretched to its breaking point
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.
Virginia Supreme Court rules 4-3 on the wrong side of the law for exigent searches
Praised be the three Virginia Supreme Court justices who on September 17, 2015, dissented from the four-justice majority that affirmed a warrantless apartment search purportedly conducted pursuant to exigent circumstances. Evans v. Virginia, , ___ Va. ___ (Sept. 17, 2015). The search found a substantial...
Virginia- Police may not inventory-search cars with unfettered discretion
When police claim the accused possessed contraband, a key path of attack is to seek to suppress evidence of the seizure and search that turned up the alleged contraband. Praised be Virginia’s intermediate appellate court for recently overturning a contraband-bearing car inventory search, because: “[W]e...