The right against unreasonable searches and seizures was so important to the Founders that it appears in the Bill of Rights. Understanding police power to stop, search, and arrest is crucial to criminal practice. Do you think that the police violated your rights during a traffic stop, or when they arrested you, or searched your house or car? Oregon law usually prevents the prosecution from using illegally-obtained evidence against you. Call me if you have questions about how you were searched, arrested, or questioned by the police.
Would you rather trust Edward Snowden or the NSA?
As you know, unless you’re living under a rock, Edward Snowden is a former National Security Agency contractor who released records relating to the NSA’s PRISM project. Although PRISM’s scope remains obscure, it appears that the NSA has been mining all sorts of data from big tech and communications companies. That data surely includes so-called ‘metadata,’ which is information about phone calls and e-mail messages, such as the sender and recipient. Response to Mr. Snowden’s revelations has been mixed; the data sought is not...
read moreKnow your Fourth Amendment rights - searches, seizures, police powers, and constitutional law of traffic stops
This is a version of a talk I gave at the National Coalition of Motorcyclists (“NCOM”) meeting on October 15, 2011, in Federal Way, Washington. I spoke about the rights of a person stopped by the police, and the powers the police have to stop people, detain them, and search them. This talk was given to bikers, so I’ve removed some of the more colorful language from this version. Good morning, folks. My name is Rankin Johnson, and I’m a criminal and appellate lawyer from Portland. I’m here to talk about your rights when the police...
read moreIn Kentucky v. King, the US Supreme Court encourages sloppy police work as an excuse to skip getting a search warrant.
When the news gleefully announces that a bad guy has gotten off on a technicality, the technicality is usually an illegal search by the police, in other words, the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the supreme law of the United States. The Fourth Amendment prohibits “unreasonable searches and seizures,” and generally requires that the police get permission from a judge, in the form of a search warrant, before searching a private place, such as your house, your purse or briefcase, or your medical or bank records. Whether a...
read moreTowing your car is kind of like seizing it, right?
by Rankin Johnson IV Every now and then I notice a common fact problem or an obvious legal question which, for no apparent reason, is not answered under Oregon appellate law. Criminal defense attorneys tend to be pretty creative about the legal issues we’ll raise, because there’s no other way to win a lot of our cases. So, here’s an unanswered question: Why do the police get to tow your car when they stop you for, say, DWS? Towing your car is clearly a seizure under the Fourth Amendment and Article I, section 9 of the Oregon...
read more
