In this episode of Broadcast Blue, Bruce-Alan Barnard discusses the Fourth Amendment issues presented in United States v. Aiken. In this case, the First Circuit applies a three-prong test to determine if the guest of a guest in a motel room has a “reasonable expectation of privacy” in the motel room.

United States v Highbull Private search and recovery of defendant’s cellphone by ex-girlfriend does not constitute government action as to trigger Fourth Amendment applicability.

Carpenter v United States – Special Supreme Court Edition. The US Supreme Court holds that the Third-Party Doctrine does not apply to Cell Site Location Information (CSLI) and it may be reasonable to expect privacy in location information held by third-party cellphone service providers.

In this Special Supreme Court Edition of Broadcast BLUE, Bruce-Alan Barnard analyzes the recent United States Supreme Court decision in Collins v. Virginia where the court held that the Automobile Exception applies only to the vehicle and cannot be used to justify a warrantless entry into the curtilage where the vehicle is located.

US v Alexander 2nd Cir. 01MAY2018 Bruce’s Brownbag Wednesday 2018-15

The Second Circuit applied the Dunn factors to determine that an officer unlawfully searched within the curtilage where two sub-machine guns were found in a bag in a chair next to a shed a few feet from the back door. This is a good case for a review of what constitutes “curtilage” for the purposes of the Fourth Amendment.

This is a quick case summary of Byrd v. United States – USSC May 2018

Montanez v. Carvajal, 11th Cir. May 2018 – Bruce’s Brownbag Wednesday Webinar 2018-14

This case is about a detention that leads to an arrest outside of a dwelling in Deland, Florida. During the detention/arrest, law enforcement officers enter and leave a dwelling six times before obtaining a warrant for the seventh entry. The Eleventh Circuit ruled that the first two entries were lawful due to “exigent circumstances” created by the reasonable belief a home burglary was taking place. They further rules that the subsequent four warrantless entries were not searches under the Katz-Privacy test because there was “no surviving privacy” once the officers lawfully went in the first two times.

What did the court say about the Jones-Trespass test? … NOTHING!

BB2018-13 United States v. Flores (1st Circuit 25 April 2018)

This is a case about a tip that turns into a warrantless arrest outside of the hotel in Brunswick Maine that evolves into a warrantless search of the hotel room followed by a warrant application and a subsequent search pursuant to the warrant. The Fourth Amendment dominoes did not quite line up in this case, but because there was probable cause to arrest and the Independent Source Doctrine, the case was saved for the prosecution.