Today we filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a deeply flawed decision of the Virginia Supreme Court involving the Fourth Amendment. The cased involved different ways that courts evaluate the constitutionality of searches and seizures. The search in this case was of a motorcycle under a tarp located what is known as the “curtilage” of a home, or the area
Graham v. United States
Today our firm filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a petition for certiorari in a case involving a Fourth Amendment violation where a person’s whereabouts were tracked for months by seizing his cell site location information. We argued against the Supreme Court’s “third-party doctrine,” which holds that a person does not have a “reasonable
Article: “Manuel v. Joliet: Blocking the Courthouse Door to Victims of Police Misconduct”
This morning, the American Thinker published Jeremiah Morgan’s article about the amicus brief we filed in Manuel v. City of Joliet. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral argument in this case on Wednesday, October 5. The article explains why victims of police misconduct should be able to bring a Fourth Amendment based suit when police fabricate evidence to obtain an indictment.
Manuel v. City of Joliet
Today we filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court defending the right of a person who was unlawfully incarcerated for several weeks to be able to bring an action under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 based on a violation of the Fourth Amendment.
Article: “Drive a Car — Waive Your Constitutional Rights”
CNS News carried our article discussing our recent amicus brief in Birchfield v. North Dakota, supporting the right to refuse warrantless breath and blood tests at traffic stops.
Wikimedia Foundation v. National Security Agency
Today,we filed our third brief opposing NSA’s program of “Upstream” Internet surveillance of Americans. Our brief urges the Fourth Circuit to reverse the decision of the District Court in Maryland which found that neither Wikimedia Foundation — which runs Wikipedia — nor the other plaintiffs in the case, had standing to challenge that surveillance.
Birchfield v. North Dakota
Today we filed a brief in the U.S. Supreme Court urging the High Court to reverse decisions from the Supreme Court of North Dakota and Minnesota which authorized police to force drivers to submit to warrantless blood and breath tests. We urge the Court to apply to principles of its prior decisions in United States v. Jones, and Florida v. Jardines, which re-established the property basis of the
United States v. Graham
Today our firm filed a brief supporting a Fourth Amendment challenge to the warrantless use of cell site location information.
The brief was filed on behalf of DownsizeDC.org, Downsize DC Foundation, United States Justice Foundation, Gun Owners of America, Inc., Gun Owners Foundation, Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Institute on the Constitution.
Herb Titus Speaking at CLE on Fourth Amendment
Today, Herb Titus spoke at a Conference on Eminent Domain and Land Value Litigation sponsored by the American Law Institute in San Francisco, California.
Herb’s topic was the reemergence of the private property principle in the Fourth Amendment, as reflected in two recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. In United States v. Jones and Jardines v. Florida, the Court ruled that the rights
Los Angeles v. Patel — Amicus Brief
Our firm filed yet another amicus curiae brief in our continuing effort to revitalize and extend the property basis of the Fourth Amendment. Here the case involved applying the Fourth Amendment to protect certain commercial records of hotels — guest registers.
Our brief was filed on behalf of Gun Owners of America, Inc., Gun Owners Foundation, U.S. Justice Foundation, Lincoln Institute for Research
SCOTUSBlog discusses our Brief in Rodriguez v. United States
SCOTUSblog published a preview of the oral argument in Rodriguez v. United States, and discussed our amicus brief:
“One amicus brief was filed in support of each side. While the parties avoid the question whether a dog sniff is a “search,” the U.S. Justice Foundation argues in support of Rodriguez that the Jardines and Jones decisions should call Caballes into question on this point,
Article: American Thinker article mentions our Heien Brief
Mark Fitzgibbons article: “Lazy, Incompetent Bureaucrats Will Celebrate the Heien Decision for Years”.
Rodriguez v. United States — Amicus Brief
Today, our firm filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court, urging that the Fourth Amendment be applied to all searches and seizures of automobiles. We asked the Court to leave no latitude for judges to compromise away the constitutionally-protected civil liberties of Americans to serve the “needs” of law enforcement.
In Rodriguez,
Article: World Net Daily covers our Heien Brief
Bob Unruh article “Lawsuit: Ignorance of Law no excuse for Cops”.
Heien v. North Carolina — Amicus Brief
Today, our firm filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a North Carolina man who challenged the constitutionality of his traffic stop. A police officer pulled Heien over because his car’s right rear brake light was not functioning properly. However, North Carolina law requires only one working rear “lamp.”
The Supreme Court of North Carolina had ruled that the Fourth
Herb Titus speaks on Search and Seizure Law
Herb Titus was a featured speaker on May 2, 2014 at the 8th Annual Conference on Eminent Domain held at Tides Inn, Irvington, Virginia on May 1 and 2. Consistent with the theme of this year’s conference – Charting New Territory — Herb’s topic was “Can a 4th Amendment Search and Seizure Become a 5th Amendment Taking?”
Drawing on the work of the firm featuring its
American Thinker publishes article — The Wurie Case: Restoring the Property Basis of the Fourth Amendment
This morning, the American Thinker published an article by Robert Olson, Herb Titus, and Bill Olson about the property rights basis of the Fourth Amendment and how it bears on the U.S. Supreme Court’s consideration of warrantless searches of cell phones. We previously filed an amicus brief in the case addressing this issue — United States v. Wurie.
U.S. v. Wurie — Amicus Brief
On April 9, 2014, we filed an amicus curiae brief in the case of United States v. Wurie. The issue before the court is whether arresting officers can search the cell phone of a person arrested without a warrant. However, the underlying issue in Wurie and its companion case, Riley v. California, is whether the Court will continue to apply its evolving reasonable
Western Center for Journalism article on United States v. Wurie
Our amicus brief in United States v. Wurie was the subject of an article by the Western Center for Journalism.
Gun Owners of America & Gun Owners Foundation Comments to ATF on “Adjudicated as a Mental Defective”
President Obama announced that his Administration would do all in its power to stop gun violence. By that he seems to have meant reducing private ownership of firearms. Now, it turns out that he is not just doing things within his presidential power to achieve that objective – he is usurping legislative power to amend statutes unilaterally.
On January 7, 2014, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,
Quinn v. Texas Brief Filed Opposing No-Knock Home Raids
Every day we read about SWAT teams serving arrest warrants or search warrants at people’s homes, using no-knock raids in the middle of the night. Many of these police home invasions go wrong, with innocent people being shot, and sometimes killed, just because they were trying to defend themselves. Even criminals have learned to claim that they are the police while breaking into homes, to discourage
Howard Wesley Cotterman v. US — Amicus Brief
Today our firm filed an amicus brief in the case of Howard Wesley Cotterman v. United States in the United States Supreme Court in support of petitioner.
In this case, the Ninth Circuit determined that the federal government may seize, copy, and forensically analyze the hard drive of a laptop of a U.S. citizen returning to the country, without a warrant, based merely on “reasonable suspicion.”
U.S. v. Jones: Reviving the Property Foundation of the Fourth Amendment
Case Western Reserve University School of Law Journal of Law, Technology & the Internet
Herb Titus and Bill Olson co-authored a law review article which explains the importance of the victory won in the Supreme Court case, U.S. v. Antoine Jones. This law review article is based on an amicus
Bill Olson & Herb Titus Article Explains Fourth Amendment Significance of Clapper v. Amnesty International
Today both the U.S. Justice Foundation and the Western Center for Journalism published an article by Bill Olson & Herb Titus on the implications of Clapper v. Amnesty International which was argued this morning in the U.S. Supreme Court. On September 24, 2012, our firm filed an amicus brief in the case, which involves the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.
Our firm has been focused for some time on