ANNAPOLIS – Attorneys for Maryland and a driver accused of illegal drug possession battled at the state’s top court Friday over whether Montgomery County police were constitutionally justified in searching a car’s trunk after finding illegal drugs in the passenger’s ...

Tagged with: car search drug possession fourth amendment intent to distribute Maryland v. Pringle

In a decision addressing when police can constitutionally give chase, Maryland’s top court held Tuesday that officers were justified in seizing a person who ran from them while they were investigating who among a group drinking alcohol had thrown a ...

Tagged with: fourth amendment gun possession Illinois v. Wardlow Search and seizure

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined Maryland’s request that the justices review a the state high court’s decision that the pungent smell of raw, unsmoked marijuana emanating from car during a traffic stop does not in itself enable police ...

Tagged with: fourth amendment marijuana Supreme Court traffic stop unreasonable search

Urging judges to give police the benefit of the doubt, Maryland’s second-highest court has overturned a trial judge’s conclusion that a routine inventory of an impounded car’s contents violated the vehicle owner’s constitutional right against unreasonable searches. In its reported ...

Tagged with: fourth amendment impounded car inventory search

An El Salvadoran living in Maryland can proceed with her civil rights lawsuit alleging a Baltimore County traffic officer pulled her over because she looked to be Latina and subsequently detained her when a federal database erroneously listed her as ...

Tagged with: equal protection ethnic profiling fourth amendment unreasonable seizure

A strong smell of raw, unsmoked marijuana emanating from a car still justifies police frisking the vehicle’s passengers for weapons despite the increasing societal and legal acceptance of marijuana possession, Maryland’s attorney general stated in papers filed recently with the ...

Tagged with: fourth amendment frisking marijuana traffic stop

ANNAPOLIS – In a case addressing if canines need resumes, Maryland’s top court will consider the extent to which appellate courts can review a trial judge’s determination that a drug-sniffing dog was qualified to alert traffic police to an illegal ...

Tagged with: drug-sniffing dogs fourth amendment traffic stop

ANNAPOLIS — Maryland’s top court grappled Wednesday with just how crime-ridden a neighborhood must be to justify police officers giving chase and frisking for weapons an individual who runs away upon seeing them. The defense lawyer and prosecutor arguing before ...

Tagged with: fourth amendment Illinois v. Wardlow

Maryland’s top court on Wednesday opens the public sessions of its 2017-2018 term in which it will consider among its approximately 150 appeals the constitutional rights of individuals who flee from the police and of convicted criminals at sentencing. On ...

Tagged with: Court of Appeals due process fourth amendment Illinois v. Wardlow Payne v. Tennessee victims' rights

Maryland’s top court Thursday upheld warrants to search suspected criminals’ cellphones based on the training and experience of police officers who said evidence related to drug and violent activities are often found on the devices. In a pair of 5-2 ...

Tagged with: Cell phones fourth amendment search warrant