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

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

CA1: ATF could search defendant's FFL records on instigation of local police

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Defendant ATF agent had qualified immunity for a search of plaintiff’s gun store at the request of local police. Having an FFL means you are in a highly regulated industry and have a reduced expectation of privacy in your records. Giragosian v. Bettencourt, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 15670 (1st Cir. July 29, 2010): Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(1)(B)(ii), the government may conduct compliance inspections of gun shop premises without either a warrant or reasonable cause, as long as it does not do so more than once in any twelve-month period. The Supreme Court has explicitly upheld the constitutionality of this provision under the Fourth Amendment. Biswell, 406 U.S. at 317 (holding that the “urgent federal interest” in regulating firearms traffic outweighs any threat to gun dealers' privacy)...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on August 01, 2010 (boomark / email).