Another year is wrapping up and so it is once again time to consider the most interesting drug law stories of the last 365 days. Keep in mind that I’m a California oriented blogger and my interests have to do primarily with issues that are either in criminal law or in areas of our national […]
READ MOREPeople v. Laborde: Cruise Ship Searches At The Border Generally Require No Evidence
A search of a cruise ship stateroom conducted by customs officials in Long Beach after the ship had docked on arrival from a foreign location was a “routine” border search, requiring no suspicion of criminal activity, the Second District Court of Appeal concluded today in People v. Laborde, B199726. That decision meant that a guy […]
READ MORECA 1st: Police’s Warrantless Entry into Home Not Justified Merely Because Officer Sees Marijuana Smoking
A police officer who sees a person smoking marijuana inside their home is not justified in making a warrantless entry into that home on that basis alone, the First District Court of Appeal held Friday in People v. Hua, A116578. The police’s warrantless entry was justified, the trial court had believed, by “exigent circumstances.” However, the court […]
READ MORETwo Americas, Revisited: Perpetual Surveillance As “Reasonable” Police Activity
In today’s America, perpetual police surveillance has become the new “reasonable” status quo for certain sections of our society. Check out the lead of this weekend’s Los Angeles Times report on gang policing in L.A., for example: Saturday night, July 21, and it’s been slow in South Los Angeles, scary slow. Two Los Angeles police officers […]
READ MORESharks, Remoras and Arizona v. Johnson: Supreme Court Further Cuts Fourth Amendment Protections in Case With Implications for Drug and Gang Policing
It is reasonable for an officer to “pat frisk” a person in the context of a traffic stop if the officer believes that person is “armed and dangerous,” the United States Supreme Court held today in Arizona v. Johnson. This might seem to be a pretty common sense opinion. Surely, if we care about the […]
READ MORE3 UBS Execs Convicted of Municipal Bond Bid Fraud
Three former Union Bank of Switzerland–UBS–executives were convicted on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, as reported by NASDAQ. Peter Ghavami, Gary Heinz and Michael Welty were found guilty of fraud relating to bids to invest the proceeds from municipal bonds and other municipal finance contracts between 2001 and 2006. […]
READ MORE“You’re Gonna Do What I’m Gonna Say”: Further Police Follies
This video is about police response to bicyclists, not drug users. What’s astounding about it, from my point view, is simply the number of brazen lies that are told by police in their reports. The claims they make are not even remotely accurate but appear to have been, rather, an elaborate set of falsehoods generated […]
READ MOREArizona v. Johnson: SCOTUS To Roll Back 4th Amendment Protections?
A non-drug law case with important implications for Fourth Amendment restraints on drug law policing, Arizona v. Johnson, is being heard in the United States Supreme Court today. The case is about whether police may “pat frisk” people for weapons in the context of a traffic stop when they think they might be gang members […]
READ MORESecond Alleged Atlanta Terrorist Ehsanul Islam Sadequee Begins Trial; Representing Self
We closely followed the trial of Syed Haris Ahmed, who was convicted for providing material support to terrorism in early June–all of our posts may be found here. The trial of Ahmed’s alleged co-conspirator, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee on terrorism charges began yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Sadequee has apparently taken […]
READ MOREJudge alleges ‘fraud on the court’ by government attorneys in Dobyns case
Former ATF Agent Beats Federal Government in Court Take a former football player, mix in some motorcycles, add arson, murder, and smuggled guns and you the result is a former ATF agent who goes on to write the best selling book and is countersued by his former employer. Jay “Jaybird” Dobyns, born in Indiana in […]
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