Collect Call with Lawstache

In People v. Lee (2019) 40 Cal. App.5th 853 [253 Cal. Rptr.3d 512], the court held a defendant's possession of a small amount of marijuana could not justify a probable cause search. (Id. at p. 856.) After initiating a traffic stop, officers discovered a small amount of marijuana on the defendant during a patsearch. (Id. at p. 857.) Officers then searched the vehicle and uncovered cocaine and...

The  familiar  Mirandawarnings  are  required  for  the  “in-custody  interrogation  of persons suspected or accused of crime.” Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 467 (1966) (emphasis added).  And without those Miranda warnings, any statements made during a custodial interrogation are inadmissible in the prosecution’s case in chief.  United States v. Leshuk, 65 F.3d 1105, 1108 (4th Cir. 1995).  But...

Response to "Error to allow juror to participate in criminal trial remotely by Zoom?" at https://youtu.be/4YrIOHuMZMM The Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right…to be confronted with the witnesses against him." The right only applies to criminal prosecutions, no...

The Court of Appeals, Lasnik, District Judge, sitting by designation, held that:  district court's alleged error in permitting juror to participate in criminal trial remotely did not fall within limited class of structural errors that could not be waived, and defendant's waiver of his right to insist that all jurors be present in courtroom during his trial was knowing, voluntary, and int...

The following are the top 5 videos from LAWSTACHE in 2022 based on the number of views.  0:00 Introduction to top videos and cases 1:50 1. Is carrying a concealed knife or box cutter legal in California? Does the length of blade matter? 1:50 https://youtu.be/fzbfePRmpyQ A] morally blameless person carrying a concealed box cutter for innocent purposes, such as a grocery store worker, carpenter or c...

Appellant-Defendant Paulo Lara appeals his conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g (1). At the time of his arrest, Lara was subject to a term of probation that required him to submit his "person and property, including any residence, premises, container or vehicle" to search and seizure "without a warrant, probable cau...

Holding that "because the hotel did not actually evict [the defendant], he maintained a reasonable expectation of privacy in his hotel room," and explaining that "[b]eing arrested is different from being evicted, and being arrested does not automatically destroy person's reasonable expectation of privacy in his hotel room." Full case here: U.S. v. Young 573 F.3d 711 (9th C...

Evidence derived from video surveillance of a hotel room was suppressed by the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, Thomas S. Zilly, J., and the United States appealed. The Court of Appeals, James R. Browning, Circuit Judge, held that: (1) the Fourth Amendment protects citizens from secret video surveillance in another person's hotel room without a warrant or t...

This is a response video to a comment left by JO BR on "Can FBI record citizens in a hotel room with a secret hidden camera without a warrant? Nerber (2000)" video found at https://youtu.be/txO6CPt7JKk [Published on 12/14/2022] The Fourth Amendment protects you against government intrusions and does not restrict private citizens. Under the private search doctrine, when a private actor fi...

The Second Amendment is not a “second class right.” No longer can courts balance away a constitutional right. After Bruen, the Government must prove that laws regulating conduct covered by the Second Amendment’s plain text align with this Nation’s historical tradition. The Government does not meet that burden. Although not exhaustive, the Court’s historical survey finds little evidence that § 922(...

Every week, host Anton Vialtsin (California attorney and YouTuber) discusses legal cases from the Supreme Court, 9th Circuit, and California State Courts . We focus on the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Amendments. We make predictions and scrutinize the law. Anton Vialtsin handled hundreds of federal and state criminal cases. He has an in-depth knowledge of the Federal Sentencing Guideli...

Until recently, federal courts uniformly applied at least intermediate scrutiny to firearms laws and conducted a means-end analysis to determine whether the state’s interest in the regulation was sufficient to overcome whatever burden the law placed on one’s Second Amendment right. See, e.g., United States v. Carter, 669 F.3d 411 (4th Cir. 2012). In Bruen, however, the Supreme Court of the United...

Federal law prohibits certain people from possessing firearms. 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). Among them are convicted felons, fugitives from justice, and—relevant here—anyone “who is an unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance.” Id. As the parties agree, Florida’s medical marijuana users are “unlawful user[s] of . . . [a] controlled substance,” so this law makes it a crime for them to posses...

The "single-purpose container" exception to the warrant requirement originated in the United States Supreme Court's decision in Arkansas v. Sanders, 442 U.S. 753, 99 S.Ct. 2586, 61 L.Ed.2d 235 (1979), overruled on other grounds by California v. Acevedo, 500 U.S. 565, 111 S.Ct. 1982, 114 L.Ed.2d 619 (1991). The central question in Sanders was "whether, in the absence of exigent...

Although parents may choose to grant their minor children joint access and mutual use of the home, parents normally retain control of the home as well as the power to rescind the authority they have given. "It does not startle us that a parent's consent to a search of the living room in the absence of his minor child is given effect; but we should not allow the police to rely on the cons...

Yuen contends, inter alia, that Officer Kline's opening the rear cargo door without his permission violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and, therefore, all evidence the government obtained through exploitation of that illegality must be suppressed as “ ‘fruit of the poisonous tree.’ ” Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 488, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963)....

Defendant Hall was arrested at approximately 2:30 p.m. on May 14, 2008 after he exited a house trailer at 2233 East 8th Street, Lot 340, Pueblo, Colorado. Agents had an active arrest warrant and there is no dispute the arrest itself was legal. Immediately before the arrest, agents had observed Hall and a female companion leave another residence and travel on Hall's motorcycle to the house tra...

In this case, a highway patrol officer announced he was going to search a suspect's backpack. That search would have violated the Fourth Amendment, because the officer did not have a warrant to search the backpack, and no exception to the warrant requirement applied at the time the officer made his announcement. In response to the officer's threat, the suspect confessed to being a felon...

As mentioned at the outset, the dialogue between Ruffin and Howard on the side of the road had a certain unreality to it. A number of times, Ruffin seemed to go out of his way to tell Howard that he was not under arrest—even when Howard was in handcuffs and would not likely have believed he was free to terminate the encounter. Why did Ruffin go to such great lengths to communicate this message to...

Search Incident to Arrest A search incident to a lawful arrest is an exception to the general rule that warrantless searches violate the Fourth Amendment. The exception allows a police officer making a lawful arrest to conduct a search of the area within the arrestee's “immediate control,” that is, “the area from within which [an arrestee] might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evi...

Early one October morning, defendant Isaiah Hendrix walked up to a house in **281 Oxnard, knocked on the door, and rang the doorbell. Hearing no response, Hendrix walked around the house to the backyard, opened a screen door, and attempted to open the locked glass door behind it. Then, failing that, Hendrix sat down on a bench and stayed there. Hendrix was sitting on the bench when police arrived....

Wilke contends that the district court erred by denying him the adjustment solely because of the time and money the Government spent before and at trial. According to Wilke, § 3.E1.1(a) of the Guidelines focuses only on whether, in its words, “the defendant clearly demonstrates acceptance of responsibility for his offense,” not on whether he saves Government resources. Saving the Government resour...

In a per curiam opinion, the panel affirmed the district court’s denial of Sergio Guerrero’s motion to suppress because of the consistent conclusions of Judge Gould and Judge Bea, which represent a majority of the panel, even though the reasoning of Judge Gould and Judge Bea in their separate concurrences is different. The panel noted that one exception to the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of sea...

The Fourth Amendment specifically requires a warrant to include a description of the “place to be searched.” The police officers here—at first—complied with that requirement, obtaining a warrant that listed a motel room suspected of being a hub for drug trafficking. The officers then decided to search the suspect’s home as well, and asked the judge over the phone to expand the scope of the warrant...

The purpose behind the decision to impound is crucial because of the reason for condoning inventory searches of impounded cars. "In the interests  of public safety and as part of what the Court has called `community caretaking functions,' [citation], automobiles are frequently taken into police custody." ( Opperman, supra, 428 U.S. at p. 368.) "When vehicles are impounded, loca...