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Search Results: warrantless (25)

Texas High Court Rules Warrantless DWI Blood Draws Are Unconstitutional

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By on News

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld a lower court’s ruling that warrantless blood-drawing in DWI cases is unconstitutional.
In a split 5-4 decision last week, the majority justices disagreed with prosecutors’ argument that driving on Texas roads is a privilege — not a right — and that “the driving public” is presumed to have read the statute outlining no-refusal blood draws. (We must say, there are plenty of roads in Houston that don’t really feel like a “privilege” to drive on.)
More at the Houston Press.

Supreme Court Looks At Warrantless Blood Tests In DUI Cases

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By on News

Wikipedia

The United States Supreme Court is considering whether police must get a warrant before ordering a blood test on an unwilling DUI suspect. The case has potentially major ramifications in Washington state, where voters in November approved a marijuana legalization scheme which institutes a strict five nanograms per milliliter (5 ng/ml) blood level for THC, above which drivers are automatically considered impaired.

The justices on Wednesday heard arguments in a case involving a disputed blood test from Missouri, reports The Associated Press. After stopping a speeding, erratically driving car, the driver — who had two previous drunken-driving convictions — refused to submit to a breath test to measure the alcohol in his body.
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Supreme Court Upholds Warrantless Search Based On Pot Smell

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: Voice Of Detroit
Step One, knock and announce your presence. Step Two, claim you hear someone “destroying evidence.” Step Three, knock the door down. Voila, no Fourth Amendment protection!

​Police who claimed they heard sounds of “evidence being destroyed” after knocking on the door of an apartment that smelled of marijuana were entitled to knock down the door and search the place, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

In an overwhelming 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the warrantless search of an apartment in Lexington, Kentucky, ruling the search was legal because of “exigent circumstances.” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for the majority. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cast the lone dissenting vote.

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Court Allows Warrantless GPS Tracking In Marijuana Case

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By on Legislation, News

Graphic: Animal

​In a bizarre and unsettling decision, a federal court has ruled that government agents may sneak onto your property, put GPS devices on your vehicles, and follow you around 24/7 — without bothering to obtain a search warrant.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers California and eight other western states, issued the ruling — which basically means the government can monitor you anytime that it wants — in a case involving a suspected marijuana grower, reports Linda Young at All Headline News.
Among the biggest casualties of the court’s ruling is the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, part of the original Bill of Rights, which just took some major damage. The Fourth Amendment states:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
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WA Supreme Court: Pot Smell Not Cause For Warrantless Search

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: Criminal Justice Collaboratory

​The strong odor of marijuana coming from a stopped vehicle is not sufficient cause for a warrantless search, the Washington Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 majority on Thursday.

Six years of pro bono work by attorney Sharon Blackford paid off, as the court reversed rulings that had been made at the District Court, Superior Court, and Court of Appeals, all of which had upheld the search under the “exigent circumstances” exception to the search warrant requirement.
“We hold the search State v. Tibbles… was not justified by exigent circumstances and the evidence obtained as a result of the search should have been suppressed,” the court ruled. “Accordingly, we reverse the Court of Appeals.”
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Massachusetts Supreme Court: Smell of raw marijuana not enough to justify search of a car

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By on News


In a move that has state police in an uproar, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court yesterday ruled that the smell of unburned pot in a car isn’t enough of a reason for cops to search it because the state decriminalized small amounts back in 2008. Basically: because some amounts of pot possession aren’t a crime, the cops can’t use the smell of weed to justify their search.
Not only that, but the court pointed out that they made a similar ruling three years ago, deciding that the smell of raw weed wasn’t enough to justify the search of someone on the street. According to the judges: the police should “focus their attention elsewhere.”

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Judge rules GA couple can sue cops after being taken to jail naked over a pile of weed ashes

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By on Legalize It, News, Say what?

V1ctorCasale/Flickr


There is only one thing worse than a judge cracking jokes, and that’s a southern judge cracking jokes in a Georgia courtroom. Unless, of course, he is busting the balls of some crooked local cops.
That was the case in Athens, Georgia last week when U.S. District Judge Clay Land ruled that sheriff’s deputies might’ve violated the civil rights of two young suspects during a warrantless witch hunt for weed.

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Cops in Florida searching unoccupied vehicles without warrant or consent

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By on Legalize It, News, Say what?

jlwelsh/FlickrCommons
Sign posted at the Ritz Ybor Amphitheater in Tampa, FL


Matthew Heller is a Florida business owner with a company by the name of HornBlasters. He sells air-horns to folks who feel that their vehicle just needs more horn. He cruises around the Tampa area in a massive blue pickup truck with his company’s name emblazoned on the sides, and his namesake product wired smartly throughout for ultimate horn-honking capabilities.
Mr. Heller likes his horns loud, and his rap music even louder, so one night this past February, he hopped in his big blue truck and made his way over to the local music venue to catch a hip hop concert. Though no doubt confident that the implied threat of an infernal racket of horns going off if any alarm should be sounded would ward off any would-be car thieves, Heller had no idea who might end up snooping around his truck that night.

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Kicking a cop in the balls is not best way to avoid marijuana ticket

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By on Say what?

Laketta Ransom.

It’s 3 a.m. You’re driving around a Dallas suburb hot-boxing your car when the cops pull you over for a minor traffic violation. Smoke billows from the window as the officer approaches. The smell of marijuana is unmistakable. What do you do?
NORML, the national pot-advocacy group, has a handy primer on its website, also printable as a wallet-sized “Freedom Card”, that gives some tips. Hide the weed, as well as any paraphernalia; refuse any warrantless search of your person; be polite, and don’t physically resist. Laketta Ransom, 38, carries no such card in her purse. Dallas Observer has the full, ridiculous tale.

Marijuana Dispensaries Sue Long Beach

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By on Dispensaries, News

The Daily Chronic

Nine medical marijuana collectives are claiming in court that the Long Beach Police Department is using illegal, unconstitutional tactics to put them out of business.

The nine collectives and two men are seeking an injunction and damages for Fourth Amendment violations and “judicial deception,” reports Matt Reynolds at Courthouse News Service.

Lead plaintiff Green Earth Center sued the city of Long Beach and five of its police officers — David Strohman, Oscar Valanzuela, Aldo Decarvalho, Chris Valdez and Douglas Luther — in federal court.
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