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Gunreference1
12-06-2011, 06:51 PM
Supreme Court weighs suit against deputy in Los Angeles house raid

Justices are deciding whether a Los Angeles sheriff's deputy can be sued over the seizure of guns at a home where a wanted gang member was thought to be living.

By David G. Savage, Washington Bureau

December 5, 2011, 10:52 p.m.

Reporting from Washington— The Supreme Court heard arguments over whether Los Angeles sheriff's deputies went too far when they obtained a search warrant and seized all the guns from a home in South Los Angeles where a wanted violent gang member was thought to be living.

Usually, police officers are protected from lawsuits if they enter a home with a search warrant issued by a judge.

To read the rest of the story click the link below.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-search-20111206,0,6222586.story

Steve

LAGC
12-07-2011, 04:07 AM
The case of Messerschmidt vs. Millender brought together some strange bedfellows when it reached the Supreme Court. The American Civil Liberties Union, the National Rifle Assn. and the California Rifle and Pistol Assn. joined in supporting the Millenders, whose personal guns were seized. The Obama administration joined with Los Angeles County in arguing for the suit against the detective to be dismissed.

While I tend to sympathize with the ACLU and NRA on this, I'm not sure the individual cop is the prime person to blame here. Sounds like the judge who signed off on the bogus search warrant should be the primary focus, if anything the county perhaps ought to be liable for violating an innocent family's Fourth Amendment rights. Although the detective really should have exercised better discretion and left the guns alone once it was established that the suspect didn't live there, and wasn't in control of them.

I presume the innocent family who was raided got their firearms back unmolested? The article doesn't say...

It will be interesting to see how the SCOTUS rules on this indeed.

Gunreference1
12-19-2011, 11:07 AM
Friday, December 16, 2011

Gun Ownership Rights Violated in Messerschmidt v. Millender

11:12 AM ET

JURIST Contributing Editor Stephen Halbrook (http://www.stephenhalbrook.com/), Counsel for the National Rifle Association (http://home.nra.org/#/home/) in the case of Messerschmidt v. Millender, argues that the police violated clearly established gun ownership rights in seizing the guns of all those present within the searched premises without verifying that the suspect was among those persons...

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In Messerschmidt v. Millender (http://jurist.org/paperchase/2011/12/supreme-court-hears-arguments-on-drug-patents-search-warrants.php), the victim of an assault gave the police photographs of the assailant and the black shotgun with a pistol grip he used in the assault. She also said that the assailant "might" be hiding at the house of Augusta Millender, who had been his foster mother years before. Police obtained a general warrant to seize all firearms from the Millender residence, claiming to the magistrate that the assailant actually lived there and not relating that 10 people resided in the house.

An amici curie brief was filed by the National Rifle Association and the California Rifle and Pistol Foundation arguing that the warrant and search violated clearly established rights under the Second Amendment (http://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/html/amdt2_user.html), which guarantees the right to keep and bear arms, as well as the Fourth Amendment (http://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/html/amdt4toc_user.html), which requires probable cause to seize things that must be particularly described.

To read the rest of the story click the link below.

http://jurist.org/hotline/2011/12/stephen-halbrook-gun-rights.php

Steve

Gunreference1
02-22-2012, 07:38 PM
Supreme Court throws out gun search suit against LA County sheriff's deputy

2:53 p.m. | By Kitty Felde (http://www.scpr.org/about/people/staff/kitty-felde/) | KPCC

The U.S. Supreme Court has tossed out a lawsuit against a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy. The case involved a search for weapons, criticized as too broad.

Deputy Curt Messerschmidt filled out the paperwork for a search warrant to look for guns and evidence of gang affiliation at the L.A. home of Augusta Millender. Her foster son was suspected of firing five shots at a former girlfriend, telling her, "I told you never to call the cops on me."

To read the rest of the story click the link below.

http://www.scpr.org/news/2012/02/22/31347/supreme-court-throws-out-lawsuit-against-la-county/

Steve