Search and Seizure

Because small-time marijuana possession is decriminalized in California, a state appeals court has ruled that even if police see you smoking a joint in your living room, they still can't search your place without a warrant -- unless you let them.

In the latest installment of the Chronicle's occasional series on the day-to-day workings of the drug war, we go to Florida, where a drug interdiction exercise disguised as a traffic enforcement effort, some sheriff's radio shenanigans, a suspicious Bible, and a drug dog left one Key West man wondering what hit him.

It was the biggest heroin bust in California history, but thanks to overzealous law enforcement, the charges have now been dropped.

The Arizona Supreme Court has limited the ability of police to search the vehicles of people they have arrested outside the vehicle.

Passengers in vehicles stopped by police are effectively "seized" and may challenge the constitutionality of that seizure, the Supreme Court ruled in an unanimous opinion Monday.

Atlanta police have virtually stopped seeking drug search warrants in the six months since narcs executing a fraudulent "no-knock" warrant shot and killed a 92-year-old woman.

Driving While Black continues to be problematic in Missouri -- and it's getting worse.

Police need a search warrant to peruse the contents of a cell phone, even if its owner has been arrested or is being booked, a federal court in San Francisco held.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has upheld the use of drug dogs to sniff the exterior of residences based on the "articulable suspicion" -- not the higher level of proof required by probable cause.

Two Atlanta narcotics officers have pleaded guilty in the November drug raid death of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston, but it looks like that's just the beginning of problems for the Atlanta narcotics squad.