Articles Posted in Search and Seizure

How prosecutors use automatic license plate reader data, what Commonwealth v. McCarthy requires, and how the defense challenges the search and the accuracy of the reads.

The Massachusetts SJC rejected a fixed deadline for police to seek a search warrant after seizing a cell phone and upheld delays of 109 and 123 days under the specific facts of two cases.

In a Massachusetts prosecution that begins with a motor vehicle stop, the motion to suppress is often the filing that decides the case. Firearms, drug, and operating under the influence charges typically rest on what the police saw and seized in the minutes after the blue lights came on, and each item of evidence depends…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 On June 29, 2026, the United States Supreme Court held in Chatrie v. United States, No. 25-112, 609 U.S. ___ (2026), that police conducted a Fourth Amendment search when they acquired a suspect’s Google Location History data, because a person…

One of the most common questions after a Massachusetts traffic stop that leads to a drug charge or a firearms charge is whether the police had the right to search the car. The answer is fact specific, but the framework is settled. A traffic stop does not authorize a search of the vehicle. The Commonwealth…

When Massachusetts law enforcement seizes a digital device and asks for the passcode, many people comply out of panic, a wish to appear cooperative, or a belief that refusing will look like guilt. That choice has consequences, and the law governing it is more precise than most summaries suggest. Three situations are frequently run together,…

By Attorney Joe Serpa | Georgetown University Law Center | Massachusetts Criminal Defense Since 1995 June 2026. Updated July 2026 for the Supreme Court’s geofence ruling in Chatrie v. United States. A Massachusetts search warrant for a digital device, whether a smartphone, laptop, tablet, or cloud storage account, is not a general license to search…