On September 23, 2022, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided the United States v. Grushko[i], which serves as an excellent review of the law related to home entry under the authority of an arrest warrant.  The relevant facts of Grushko are as follows: In late 2017, Target's fraud prevention team met with a United States Secret Service agent, Logan Workman, to brief the government about a fraud scheme that was directed at Target's South Florida stores. Target investigators explained the workings of the scheme to Agent Workman, detailing how a group of conspirators had been using stolen credit-card information, [...]

On September 7, 2022, the Supreme Court of Georgia decided Peacock v. State[i], in which the Court had to decide whether it violated the Fourth Amendment when investigators searched Peacock’s truck pursuant to a search warrant of a residence when the truck was not specifically described in the search warrant and Peacock was not a resident of the premises that was the subject of the search warrant. The incident that forms the basis of this case began on May 15, 2016, at 8:33 a.m., when Peacock called 911 to report his friends’ house was “fully engulfed” in fire and his [...]

On September 15, 2022, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decided the United States v. Dawson[i], which is instructive regarding what constitutes valid probable cause to support a search warrant.  The relevant facts of Dawson are as follows: FBI Agent James McCann spearheaded a year-long investigation into a drug conspiracy in Youngstown, Ohio. The investigation relied on wiretaps, confidential informants, and physical surveillance. With the information gathered from these efforts, Agent McCann determined that Dawson made up part of the base of a drug distribution pyramid that extended upward to his supplier, Sadiya Sow, and from Sow to her suppliers. [...]

On September 20, 2022, the Supreme Court of Georgia decided Jones v. State[i], which serves as an excellent review of the law related to plain view and the seizure of evidence from the curtilage of a residence.  The relevant facts of Jones are as follows: [O]n the night of April 7, 2015, Appellant and his girlfriend, Jamila Rena Allen, drove to the Dogwood Terrace apartment complex in Augusta in Allen's white Chevrolet Suburban for Appellant to look for his missing cell phone. When they arrived, Appellant parked the car in front of the apartment complex and got out of the [...]

On September 1, 2022, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided Jackson v. Cowan[i], in which University of Georgia (UGA) police officers arrested a man preaching an unpopular message in an area designated by the school for free expression when he made physical contact with a student, who was a protesting the preacher’s message.  The preacher subsequently sued the UGA police officers for violating his rights under the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. While the incident that formed the basis of the lawsuit occurred on October 11, 2016, it bears noting what occurred the day before.  On October 10, 2016, [...]

August 30, 2022, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided Robinson v. City of Huntsville[i], in which officers responded to a call of an emotionally disturbed woman with a gun.  The relevant facts of Robinson are as follows: On May 30, 2019, Officers Collum and Henderson were dispatched to an apartment complex in Huntsville, Alabama, in response to a "series of 911 calls about an erratic individual named Crystal Ragland who may have been armed." When they arrived, the officers spoke with the apartment manager, "who described Ragland as having a gun and who said other tenants stated she was [...]