Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

CA6: "A criminal may assert a violation of the Fourth Amendment just as well as a saint."

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The government's apparently straight-faced argument that a criminal has no expectation of privacy when he commits a crime is his own property is rejected. "A criminal may assert a violation of the Fourth Amendment just as well as a saint." (The government also argued that the defendant became a trespasser because the rent was a little behind even though the landlord had done nothing about it.) United States v. Washington, 08-3317 (6th Cir. July 22, 2009): Next, the government contends that society does not recognize Washington’s expectation of privacy as reasonable because he was engaged in criminal activities in the apartment. See Br. Appellant at 31. Although it is certainly true a person cannot acquire an expectation of privacy in a structure that has been legally condemned such that any presence is forbidden, United States v...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 22, 2009 (boomark / email).