Changing of the guard.

Tarrant County District Attorney Tim Curry passed away early this morning after a fight with lung cancer. He was first elected Tarrant County District Attorney in 1972. That made him the longest serving District Attorney in Texas according to the Star Telegram article this morning. Mr. Curry was not active in trying cases since about 1977 and the Cullen Davis murder trial. As a result, I never had the pleasure of meeting the District Attorney. He was in charge of a very large staff and for all practical purposes the largest law firm in Tarrant County. I do know that the lawyers that worked for Mr. Curry thought highly of him and I think highly of many of them. My condolences to the family and the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office.

After 36 years of one man being in charge of the Tarrant County DA Office, there is clearly going to be a changing of the guard. Apparently Criminal Division Chief Alan Levy was appointed by Curry as his first assistant to conduct the affairs of the office until a successor qualifies. The political posturing will begin to receive an appointment by the governor to serve until the next election. Democrats need not apply. The day to day operation of the office will continue much the same. However, we in the Tarrant County Criminal Defense Bar will likely face new "office policies" to have to explain to our clients. The changing of the guard at the DA's office will be interesting to watch from outside.

Finally, Good News Out of Washington!

Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court issued the opinion in Arizona v. Gant. For the first time in a long time the supremes put a limit on the government power to skip around the 4th Amendment requirement of a search warrant. Once upon a time, the 4th Amendment meant that the general rule was that to search a person or their property the government needed a search warrant. Only certain narrow exceptions were allowed. Over the years the exceptions grew to the point that the general requirement for a search warrant was a joke to law enforcement. Examples of exceptions included, hot pursuit, plain view, plain touch, probable cause + exigent circumstances, consent, apparent consent, third party consent, good faith, incident to arrest, open fields, abandoned property, independent source, community caretaking, protective searches, inventory searches, and my personal favorite...inevitable discovery!

In a 5-4 opinion with strange bedfellows in the majority and minority, the court limited the search of vehicles incident to arrest only if it is reasonable to believe that the arrestee might access the vehicle at the time of the search or that the vehicle contains evidence of the offense of arrest. The facts were that Gant was arrested for the horrible offense of driving on a suspended license. He was handcuffed and locked in the rear of the patrol car before officers started searching his car. They found cocaine in a jacket pocket in the car. Clearly Gant had no ability to access the car while handcuffed and locked in the patrol car. Also the police could have towed the car and searched it under an inventory policy or other valid exceptions. However, thinking "we don't need no stinking warrant" they searched the car for their safety or evidentiary purposes. Turns out the 4th Amendment was only sleeping and not dead.

Justice Stevens wrote the opinion in which Souter, Ginsburg (now your thinking the usual liberal Justices ... wait for it) Scalia, and Thomas made up the majority. Justice Alito filed a dissenting opinion in which Roberts and Kennedy joined with Breyer joining in a part of the dissent. Scalia's concurring opinion, as always, is good for some zingers. For people who believe in limitations on government authority like the 4th Amendment, it was finally good news out of Washington.