Articles

On December 20, 2012, the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”) became effective and repealed and replaced all prior versions of Megan’s Law. On July 19, 2017, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided in Commonwealth v. Muniz, that the new SORNA requirements are punitive (punishment) and cannot be applied to a defendant retroactively. Essentially, as […]

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that, in sentencing a defendant, a judge may restrict the use of a computer and electronic devices, but the restrictions must be narrowly tailored to the actual danger the defendant poses to society. The court also noted that only rarely would a complete ban be tailored to […]

Can public safety officers search a dorm room without permission or a warrant? In a recent case, Commonwealth v. Yim, the Pennsylvania Superior Court held the trial court committed no error of law or abuse of discretion in making its determination that Villanova University Public Safety Officers were not state actors for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. […]

On October 17, 2018 the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania held in Commonwealth v. Valdivia that a canine sniff of Defendant Randy Valdivia’s vehicle exceeded the scope of consent he had give police to search his car following a traffic stop. The Court held that for that reason the approximately 20 pounds of marijuana found in Valdivia’s […]

Can your social media posts be used against you in court? The simple answer is yes, but only if the posts are properly authenticated. In light of recent hacks to social media sites like Facebook, authenticating social media posts in court is becoming more challenging. There are two basic questions that need to be answered […]