Section Newsletters

Articles on Search & Seizure

Inventory searches: Before you may search you must have the right to seize By Hon. John McAdams Traffic Laws and Courts, May 2011 The threshold question in any inventory search is the validity of the original seizure of the vehicle. If the original impound was invalid, even if pursuant to a written or oral standardized police policy, the subsequent inventory search is unconstitutional.
People v. Smith and People v. Laake: A new exception to the 4th Amendment prohibition against warrantless seizures? By Larry A. Davis Traffic Laws and Courts, June 2004 Illinois courts have generally recognized only three circumstances under which police-citizen encounters in the absence of a warrant may be deemed permissible under the 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution:

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