Incarcerated pro bono client wins suppression of evidence under Fourth Amendment
Client(s) Client A.M.
Jones Day secured an appellate victory for a federal inmate in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
K-9 units from the Illinois State Police stopped the client on the interstate and searched his semi-truck. Although the police stopped the client based on a tip regarding alleged criminal activity, they did not claim that the tip provided enough individualized suspicion to stop the truck. Instead, the police claimed they were conducting an administrative search of his commercial-vehicle paperwork. The client moved to suppress evidence gleaned from the search, contending that police used the ostensible administrative search as a pretext to further an unrelated criminal investigation. The district court denied the motion.
The client appealed to the Seventh Circuit, where Jones Day was appointed to represent him. In a published decision, the court agreed that the police's singling out of the client's truck under the guise of an administrative inspection violated the client's Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. The court remanded with instructions that the evidence gleaned from the search be suppressed.
