Search and Seizure | 4A

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is the latest court to wade in (or more accurately, re-wade in) to what we call the SWAT Takings issue.

The logic is sound: under a governmental power (police power), the government (SWAT) has physically invaded (deprived the owner of an essential stick of private property, the right to exclude) a home (private property), for public use (police apprehending suspects is a good thing), triggering the obligation to spread the burden of this public good to the entire public (Armstrong).

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Continue Reading CA7: No Taking For SWAT Destroying Property While Executing Valid Warrant

In 2021, the Iowa Supreme Court held that a police search of garbage left at curbside for pickup was unconstitutional under the Iowa Constitution’s search and seizure clause. A local ordinance made scavenging through someone’s garbage illegal, which to the court meant that the garbage owner possessed a government-recognized property right in the trash, and the police search was similarly illegal.  

In Iowa v. Amble, No. 23-2114 (June 13, 2025), the Iowa Supreme Court concluded that that was then, this is now. In the aftermath of the 2021 case, the Iowa Legislature adopted a statute which deemed curbside garbage to be abandoned property. The statute also forbade municipalities from enacting ordinances or adopting regulations which would create a “reasonable expectation of privacy in garbage placed outside of the person’s residence for waste collection in a publicly accessible area.”

Flash forward to today: Des Moines police searched garbage bags which…

Continue Reading Iowa: Govt-Granted Property Rights Can Be Altered By The Legislature

It’s been a couple of weeks, but we’re still trying to wrap our head around the Iowa Supreme Court’s opinion in Singer v. City of Orange City, No. 23-1600 (Dec. 20, 2024).

The court rejected a facial challenge under the Iowa Constitution’s search-and-seizure clause to a city ordinance requiring the owner of rental units to have a rental permit and to submit to “regular inspections” of those properties. The ordinance purports to create a “right of entry” for a “code official,” and if the owner refuses to voluntarily allow inspection, the inspector may obtain an “administrative search warrant” to enter and search. An owner can exempt itself from inspection by a city inspector if a unit is “inspected by a certified third-party inspection organization[.]” And the ordinance says nothing about probable cause.

Several owners sued, and after discovery, the court granted the plaintiff-owners summary judgment. It declared the ordinance…

Continue Reading Iowa: Mandatory Inspection Of Rental Units Without A Warrant Is Not Facially Unconstitutional, Because Private Inspectors Might Barge In

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Mr. Otis would be a P’Nut fan.

Our Pacific Legal Foundation colleague and search-and-seizure expert Daniel Woislaw quickly responded to the cultural zeitgeist and looked into l‘affaire P’nut le Squirrel with his keen legal eye.

That’s the case in which an internet narc dropped dime on the owner of a pet squirrel, resulting in New York state game officials obtaining a warrant, searching his home, confiscating said squirrel and his little buddy Fred the Raccoon, and then through a series of unfortunate events, putting both P’Nut and Fred down. Sad!

Here’s Daniel’s thoughts.

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Government kills pet squirrel P’Nut in Fourth Amendment horror story

Daniel Woislaw

In a small corner of New York State, a family’s quiet, peaceful home was shattered by an unthinkable intrusion. Environmental police stormed in, seized a rescued orphan squirrel named P’Nut, took him away, and put him down. All because his owner allegedly …

Continue Reading Guest Post: P’Nut, The Fourth Amendment, And Property Rights

Screenshot 2024-09-06 at 09-20-48 The Benefits of the Fourth Amendment's Property-Rights Baseline by Nicholas Alden Kahn-Fogel SSRN

Regular readers know that in addition to our focus on Fifth Amendment property rights, we’re also looking at the Fourth Amendment as a vehicle that protects and promotes property rights.

In that vein, here’s a forthcoming article that is worth reading,”The Benefits of the Fourth Amendment’s Property-Rights Baseline,” by lawprof Nicholas Alden Kahn-Fogel.

Here’s the Abstract:

Since 2012, Fourth Amendment claimants have had two alternative doctrinal tests available to establish that government investigative activity constitutes a Fourth Amendment search implicating their rights. First, if the government physically intrudes onto a person, house, paper, or effect to gather information, its conduct is a search, even if the claimant had no reasonable expectation of privacy against the government intrusion. The Court has referred to this directive as the “property-rights baseline.” Second, even in the absence of a physical intrusion onto a constitutionally protected area, if government surveillance infringes a person’s…

Continue Reading New Article: “The Benefits of the Fourth Amendment’s Property-Rights Baseline”

Screenshot 2024-08-09 at 09-59-51 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference 2024 Tickets Williamsburg Eventbrite

Come join us in Williamsburg, Virginia at the William and Mary Law School for the 21st edition of the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference. The Conference is unique, because its express purpose is to bring property legal scholars and property law practitioners together to discuss, what else, property and property rights law.

Yes, there’s a healthy dose of theory and academics, but also the real-world perspectives of practicing lawyers who bring the cases that put theory into practice. (New to this event and want a preview? Here’s our write-up of the 2024 Conference.)

More details here. Register here.

The days prior to the Conference launch on Thursday All that week, we’re putting on student-oriented programming.in conjunction with the WM Law Career Services Office. Sessions on “Careers in Dirt Law,” “Land Use and Real Estate Law in Practice,” and “Comparative Property Rights,” for example, presented by experienced practitioners…

Continue Reading Register Now: 21st Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference, William & Mary Law School, Sep. 12-13, 2024

On the surface, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Stavrianoudakis v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Svc., No. 22-16788 (July 25, 2024) is about Article III standing (a highly technical gateway issue that is very federal courts wonky).

But taking a deeper look offers an insight into ways other than the usual Fifth Amendment arguments for protecting property rights. [Before we go on, a disclosure: this is one of our cases, argued and won by PLF colleague Daniel Woislaw].

This is a case involving the sport of falconry. Can’t say that we knew too much about that — until maybe the occasional movie — until this case. First (and this may not come as a surprise to you who have been observing what things the government finds worthy of regulations and licensing), did you know that every state government except Hawaii has…

Continue Reading CA9: Unannounced Inspections As Condition Of Falconry License Are Subject To Nollan/Dolan Challenge