Dan Sewell reports: A federal appeals panel ruled Friday staffers at an Pike County vocational school can be sued by high school nursing students who were strip-searched after a reported theft. The three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected immunity for the school officials, standing by an earlier conclusion that the…
Category: U.S.
Judge unseals affidavit in iPhone prototype case (update 1)
Joshua Melvin reports: A judge this morning agreed to make public the justification for raiding the home of a tech-site writer at the heart of the iPhone prototype case. San Mateo County Superior Court Judge Clifford Cretan said the basis for the warrant to search Gizmodo writer Jason Chen’s home should be released because some…
Lower Merion permanently banned from webcam monitoring (update 2)
John P. Martin reports: A federal judge Friday permanently barred the Lower Merion School District from using webcams or other intrusive technology to secretly monitor students through their school-issued laptops. The five-page injunction signed by U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois also requires the suburban district to adopt transparent and expansive policies by September to…
Do Computer Searches Distort the ‘Plain View’ Doctrine?
Leonard Deutchman writes: The “plain view” doctrine of the Fourth Amendment holds that law enforcement properly authorized to be in a certain area can lawfully search and seize evidence seen in plain view from that vantage point. It is seen as an “exception” to the Fourth Amendment because, under it, searches and seizures are authorized…