by Kirsten E. Small
May 1, 2009 was a bad day for Melvin Taylor, but it could have been a worse day for the 4-year-old daughter of Taylor's girlfriend. A cab driver found the child wandering on a busy street in Richmond, Virginia, and contacted the police. Officer Anthony Ratliff responded, and the girl took him to a nearby--and apparently empty--row house. Ratliff followed her inside, shouting "hello" periodically as he looked for an adult who might be responsible for the child.
The adult Ratliff found was Taylor, who was sleeping in an upstairs bedroom. The bag of bullets on the bedside table gave Ratliff some pause as to the "responsible" part, so he asked Taylor his name (he gave a false one) and if he knew the address of the house he was in (he claimed not to). Ratliff's concerns not having been allayed, he performed a protective sweep and found a handgun under Taylor's mattress.
About that time, Taylor's cell phone rang with a call from "Baby's Mama," who helpfully provided Ratliff with the name "Orlando Taylor," which Ratliff then traced back to Melvin Taylor, who turned out to have a prior felony which made his possession of the gun illegal.
Taylor appealed his subsequent conviction, arguing that Ratliff was required to have a search warrant, or at least probable cause, before entering the house. The Fourth Circuit rejected this argument, holding that a warrant was unnecessary because there was no criminal investigation afoot--just an attempt to reunite a lost child with her parents. Aside from the warrant requirement, the court concluded that the search was reasonable, in its occurrence and its scope, in light of the exigent circumstances.
The case is United States v. Taylor.
Showing posts with label Fourth Amendment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fourth Amendment. Show all posts
Friday, November 5, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
A mom tomato and a dad tomato are walking down the street ...
Kirsten E. Small
Time to play a little "ketchup." While I have been busy vacationing and brief writing (thankfully, not at the same time), the Fourth Circuit has been busy issuing published opinions. Most of them have not been terribly noteworthy, but there are a few worth pointing out, to wit:
United States v. Richardson: Holds that AOL was not acting as a government agent when it reported (pursuant to a mandatory reporting statute) information it had acquired by use of an internally-developed, non-mandatory filtering program. The panel distinguished Skinner v. Railway Labor Execs. Ass'n, 489 U.S. 602 (1989), on the basis that Skinner involved a regulatory scheme that dictated certain procedures by the railway that were designed to preserve evidence for government use. The regulatory scheme challenged by Richardson was entirely passive ("If you find something, do please let us know") and thus did not create the kind of government involvement that sparks Fourth Amendment protections.
United States v. Joshua: Holds that a person is "in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons" for purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 4248 (authorizing indefinite civil commitment of sexually dangerous persons) only when in the BOP's legal custody. Joshua, who was convicted by a military tribunal and merely housed at a BOP facility as a "contractual boarder," was not in the BOP's legal custody and therefore not subject to civil commitment under § 4248.
In Norfolk Southern Railway v. City of Alexandria, the court held that the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act (ICCTA) preempted the City's attempts to regulate Norfolk Southern's transport of bulk ethanol. At least, I think that was the holding. It was kind of hard to stay awake all the way through.
Did you know there is a statute that provides a damages remedy for the wrongful conviction of an innocent person in federal court? Neither did I. The Fourth Circuit considered the application of the statute in United States v. Graham. Interesting stuff.
Time to play a little "ketchup." While I have been busy vacationing and brief writing (thankfully, not at the same time), the Fourth Circuit has been busy issuing published opinions. Most of them have not been terribly noteworthy, but there are a few worth pointing out, to wit:
United States v. Richardson: Holds that AOL was not acting as a government agent when it reported (pursuant to a mandatory reporting statute) information it had acquired by use of an internally-developed, non-mandatory filtering program. The panel distinguished Skinner v. Railway Labor Execs. Ass'n, 489 U.S. 602 (1989), on the basis that Skinner involved a regulatory scheme that dictated certain procedures by the railway that were designed to preserve evidence for government use. The regulatory scheme challenged by Richardson was entirely passive ("If you find something, do please let us know") and thus did not create the kind of government involvement that sparks Fourth Amendment protections.
United States v. Joshua: Holds that a person is "in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons" for purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 4248 (authorizing indefinite civil commitment of sexually dangerous persons) only when in the BOP's legal custody. Joshua, who was convicted by a military tribunal and merely housed at a BOP facility as a "contractual boarder," was not in the BOP's legal custody and therefore not subject to civil commitment under § 4248.
In Norfolk Southern Railway v. City of Alexandria, the court held that the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act (ICCTA) preempted the City's attempts to regulate Norfolk Southern's transport of bulk ethanol. At least, I think that was the holding. It was kind of hard to stay awake all the way through.
Did you know there is a statute that provides a damages remedy for the wrongful conviction of an innocent person in federal court? Neither did I. The Fourth Circuit considered the application of the statute in United States v. Graham. Interesting stuff.
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