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Wednesday, May 11th, 2016

Two Interesting District Court Civil Cases Regarding Informants

For the third day in a row, there were no criminal decisions or summary orders from the Second Circuit.

We thought these two civil cases related to government informants were interesting.

Last week, in Barone v. United States, 12-cv-04103, SDNY Judge Lewis A. Kaplan allowed a Bivens claim brought by a former FBI informant to proceed on a “theory that the FBI defendants purposeful and punitively leaked [the informant’s] status, which, in turn, caused the general prison population to be unsafe,” and required BOP officials to confine the informant in the special housing unit.  You can read Judge Kaplan’s opinion here.  The New York Law Journal has coverage here.

Yesterday, in In re Motion for Civil Contempt by John Doe, 12-mc-0557, EDNY Judge Brian M. Cogan ordered the unsealing of many documents related to civil contempt proceedings brought by a former cooperating witness against attorneys who …

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Tuesday, September 25th, 2007

SUPPRESS NOT THESE FRUITS

United States v. Acosta, Docket No. 05-1283-cr (2d Cir. September 5, 2007) (Pooler, Parker, Wesley, CJJ)

Last term, the United States Supreme Court held that the exclusionary rule does not apply to violations of the Fourth Amendment’s “knock-and-announce” rule. Hudson v. Michigan, 126 S.Ct. 2169 (2006). Here, the Circuit, unsurprisingly, holds that the same is true for violations of the knock and announce statute, 18 U.S.C. § 3109.

It is almost too sad to blog, but here, in brief, is the court’s reasoning. Both § 3109 and the Fourth Amendment’s knock-and-announce principle “share the same common law roots, overlap in scope, and protect the same interests, which necessitates similar results in terms of the exclusionary rule’s application.” Moreover, a civil remedy is available; a citizen can file a Bivens action. This, according to the Circuit, is an adequate deterrent to federal agents who might contemplate violating the knock-and-announce statute.

However …

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Categories: "knock-and-announce", Bivens, Fourth Amendment, rxclusionary rule, Uncategorized

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Categories: “knock-and-announce”, Bivens, Fourth Amendment, rxclusionary rule, Uncategorized

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