A federal appeals court, in Vasquez v. Lewis, has ruled that members of Kansas Highway Patrol cannot stop motorists and search their vehicles for marijuana merely because the vehicle has plates from a state with legalized marijuana use. Very late one night in mid-December 2011, Peter Vasquez was driving into eastern Kansas on I-70 in […]
The Criminal & College Discipline Blog
An attorneys blog about criminal law and procedure, college discipline, Title IX and cases of Interest
Article: Mandatory Arrest in Domestic Violence Cases
NYS Domestic Violence = Mandatory Arrest New York dramatically changed its criminal law procedures when it implemented a “mandatory arrest” law for cases involving domestic violence. If the police are called for a potential domestic violence incident and they have probable cause to believe you committed an act of domestic violence, they are required to […]
Article: Crack Down on Free Speech, Federal Bureaucrats Tell University
Remember when government agencies proclaimed their devotion to American values like independence and the right to speak your mind freely? Ah, those were the days… but no sense living in the past. Nowadays, you’re far more likely to find federal agencies trying to force U.S. educators into combatting outbreaks of outmoded ideas like the First […]
Article: New California Law Could Send Misbehaving Prosecutors to Prison
Prosecutors Who Falsify or Withhold Evidence Now Face Felony Risk Last year Governor Jerry Brown (D) signed into law a measure making it a felony for a prosecutor in California knowingly to falsify or withhold evidence. Other state laws already made falsifying or withholding evidence a misdemeanor for members of the general public, and a […]
Article: New State Law Will Keep Most 16- and 17-Year-Olds from Being Tried as Adults
Advancing goals advocates have sought for a dozen years, on April 10 New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law a measure that will keep most, but not all, 16- and 17-year-olds from being tried as adults in state criminal courts. The so-called “Raise the Age” measure, added to the state’s 2017-2018 budget bill, will […]
Article: Glazed Doughnut Leads to Florida Man’s Arrest on Drug Charges
From time to time, you may have treated yourself to a delicious Krispy Kreme glazed doughnut – but after you hear of a Orlando man’s experience last year with police in that city, you may want to rethink that indulgence, at least when you’re visiting that Florida vacation spot. Shortly after driving away from a […]
Article: Should College Transcripts Report Accusations of Sex Offenses?
New York Universities Must Report Sex Offenses in College Transcripts Virginia and New York in 2015 became the first states to require academic transcripts from their colleges to show whether a student has been disciplined for sexual assault, but other states have considered following suit, and some members of Congress support a federal law to […]
Article: DOJ Sets New Guidelines for Using Photos to Identify Suspects
2017 Photo Array Guidelines Champion Modern Police Technique The Department of Justice (DOJ), for the first time in nearly two decades, has issued new guidance for federal prosecutors and DOJ law enforcement agencies — which include the FBI, DEA, ATF and the U.S. Marshals Service — on best-practices procedures for conducting photo arrays, the most […]
Article: Does Police Storing of License Plate Scans Violate Privacy Rights?
A case headed for the Virginia Supreme Court raises the issue: do police violate government information disclosure laws by storing license plate numbers captured by their increasingly common equipment, automatic license plate readers (ALPRs). The devices, now used about 75% of police forces in the nation, either fixed on stationary locations, such as phone poles, […]
Article: What is Your Right to Film the Police?
Whether you are being questioned by police or are witnessing a police encounter with another person, you may consider recording the interaction. The news has shown how a police recording can provide evidence of whether a police officer has acted lawfully in making an arrest. However, depending on how and where you are filming the […]