The VLW Blog

Arlington County Circuit Judge Joanne Alper ruled that there was no 4th amendment violation when, without a warrant, police attached a GPS tracking device to a suspect’s van and followed his travels around the community.
According to the Arlington Connection, the judge will allow the GPS tracking data as evidence against a man charged in a [...]

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Lawyers who follow the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals know the Richmond-based court is not generous with published opinions.
According to a cover story in the June 2008 ABA Law Journal, the court, which has been short-handed for years, issued the lowest percentage of published opinions of all federal circuits in 2006 – 6 percent [...]

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For suspects who weren’t sure, you have no privacy interest in the way you smell.
The Virginia Court of Appeals didn’t have to hold its nose to embrace the “plain smell” doctrine, which gives cops the right to go into your pockets if you smell like marijuana.
“While some have questioned our willingness” to embrace the doctrine, [...]

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Our DC-based colleague over at Lawyers USA, Kim Atkins, was down at the U.S. Supreme Court today, listening to argument in a case from Portsmouth, Virginia v. Moore.
It’s a search case that has already been through the Supreme Court of Virginia, where the defendant prevailed.
But 18 attorneys general from other states have backed [...]

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Home is not where your Nintendo is, according to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Two men who sold cocaine together in Huntington, W.Va., were more than business partners. Joshua Gray and Terrence Askew hung out together at Gray’s apartment, watching TV and playing video games. Askew even kept a change of clothes and a [...]

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To an experienced narcotics detective, a dollar bill folded in a certain way can only mean drugs. A defense lawyer tries to get the fact-finder to see other possibilities.
In Snell v. Commonwealth, police found a folded-up dollar bill in the wallet of a runaway kid. Unfolding the bill, which contained cocaine, was [...]

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