On September 12, 2018, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided Glasscox v. City of Argo et al.[i], in which the court examined whether repeated use of the Taser after a vehicle pursuit amounted to excessive force. The relevant facts of Glasscox are as follows: Mr. Glasscox, who lives with Type 1 diabetes, suffered a severe hypoglycemic episode while driving his pickup truck on Interstate 59 South near the City of Argo, Alabama. His condition caused him to begin driving erratically. After other drivers on the interstate reported his erratic driving, the Argo City Police dispatched Officer Moses to the [...]

On September 20, 2018, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals decided Walker v. Coffey et al.[i], in which the court discussed whether state law enforcement officials should be entitled to qualified immunity for intentionally using an invalid subpoena to get an employer to provide one of its employee’s emails as evidence in a criminal prosecution. The relevant facts of Walker are as follows: In October 2015, before her trial had been scheduled, Coffey and Zimmerer sought to obtain Walker's work emails from her employer, Penn State, as part of their investigation. Coffey and Zimmerer initially asked Penn State to produce [...]

On September 19, 2018, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided Alston v. City of Darien et al.[i], which serves as an excellent review of the law related to Fourth Amendment false arrest and excessive force claims and First Amendment retaliation claims. The relevant facts of Alston are as follows: City of Darien Police Officer Anthony Brown conducted a traffic stop of a car he saw driving on the highway with a dark tint on its windows. As Brown approached the stopped car, he noticed that portions of its license plate were obstructed, including the county's name, the expiration date, [...]

On August 21, 2018, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decided Hansen v. Aper[i], which is instructive regarding the Sixth Circuit’s requirements for a Fourth Amendment claim when handcuffing a suspect too tightly.  The relevant facts of Hansen are as follows: On September 28, 2013, Aper observed Hansen driving almost twenty miles per hour over the speed limit on U.S. Highway 2 in Michigan and initiated a traffic stop. Hansen was accompanied by another passenger. As he was talking with Hansen and his passenger, Aper smelled marijuana. Aper asked Hansen to get out of the car and Hansen complied. Aper [...]

On August 21, 2018, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided the United States v. Schram[i], in which serves as instructive regarding whether a person who has been barred from a residence by a court order, can possess a reasonable expectation of privacy at that residence.  The relevant facts of Schram, taken directly from the case, are as follows: On September 24, 2014, detectives from the Medford Police Department were called to investigate the robbery of a local U.S. Bank branch. After interviewing eyewitnesses and further police work, the detectives had probable cause to believe that Schram was responsible. A [...]

On August 17, 2018, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided the United States v. Reddick[i], in which the Fifth Circuit decided a case of first impression that stemmed from a detective viewing images from Reddick’s computer files that were downloaded to Microsoft SkyDrive and sent to law enforcement via a tip line.  The relevant facts of Reddick, taken directly from the case, are as follows: Henry Reddick uploaded digital image files to Microsoft SkyDrive, a cloud hosting service. SkyDrive uses a program called PhotoDNA to automatically scan the hash values of user-uploaded files and compare them against the hash [...]