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CA6: Where state law says a judge has no jurisdiction to issue SW in another county, the Fourth Amendment is violated

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A Tennessee General Sessions court judge cannot issue a search warrant in another county outside his jurisdiction, and this is a Fourth Amendment violation. United States v. Master, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 18133, 2010 FED App. 0276P (6th Cir. August 31, 2010): Defendant's sole challenge to the motion to suppress is that because the Tennessee general sessions judge who signed the search warrant application presided in a different county from Defendant's residence, the judge had no authority under Tennessee law to authorize the warrant. It is uncontested by the government that the authorizing judge, Judge Faris, did not have jurisdiction under Tennessee law to authorize a warrant for property in a different county. The question becomes whether this lack of authority is relevant in a prosecution occurring in federal court...continue to full post

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