The smell of burnt marijuana emanating from a car may give police probable cause to search the vehicle but not to arrest and search the occupant unless the officers had probable cause to suspect he or she possessed at least ...

Tagged with: decriminalization fourth amendment marijuana probable cause search incident to arrest vehicle search

The U.S. Supreme Court will not review whether drug-sniffing dog Simon’s failure to give a definitive alert to Ocean City police nevertheless gave the officers probable cause to search a car for illegal contraband. The justices on Monday let stand ...

Tagged with: canine search drug-sniffing dog drugs fourth amendment k9 probable cause

Maryland Public Defender Paul B. DeWolfe  has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review and overturn the state high court’s decision requiring appellate courts to defer to trial judges’ determinations – unless clearly wrong —  that a drug-sniffing dog was ...

Tagged with: drugs fourth amendment k-9 maryland court of appeals probable cause Supreme Court

Police officers have probable cause to arrest someone for marijuana possession if they smell the drug clearly on the person -- even though possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana is not a crime in Maryland, the state’s second-highest court very reluctantly ruled Thursday.

Tagged with: decriminalization fourth amendment marijuana probable cause

The Supreme Court let stand without comment Monday a $2.3 million jury award to a man wrongfully jailed for 15 months as the “Charles Village rapist” in Baltimore.

Tagged with: Charles Village rapist fourth amendment probable cause Supreme Court

A man wrongfully jailed for 15 months as the “Charles Village rapist” is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to let stand a $2.3 million award he received from a jury that concluded Baltimore police lacked probable cause to arrest him.

Tagged with: Charles Village rapist fourth amendment probable cause

Citing the city’s violence, attorneys for Baltimore are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out a $2.3 million jury award to a city resident who was wrongfully held in jail for 15 months as the “Charles Village rapist,” saying ...

Tagged with: Freddie Gray probable cause Supreme Court

ANNAPOLIS – Appellate courts should review anew the qualifications of drug-sniffing dogs when determining if police had probable cause to search a vehicle based on the canines’ whiff, a defense attorney said Thursday in urging Maryland’s top court to question ...

Tagged with: drug-sniffing dogs fourth amendment probable cause

The smell of marijuana emanating from a car gives police officers probable cause to search the vehicle, Maryland’s high court unanimously rules.

Tagged with: fourth amendment marijuana probable cause smell of marijuna

Constitutional Law Qualified immunity BOTTOM LINE: Although it was clearly established that intrusive prison employee searches require reasonable suspicion, it was far from clear that the body-scanning devices at issue here could not meet that standard. CASE: Braun, et al., ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Law maryland opinions probable cause qualified immunity