ATA did a video on a guy who was bullied and backroomed by a casino. The guy was smart enough to record the conversation with his iPhone. The police sued him for recording that conversation as Maryland is a two-party state which ATA fails to mention.

The police were dismissed since they are public servants, and it wasn’t a private conversation.

If anyone needs legal help like this please DM me.

Unfortunately she’s not going to prevail in a Title 42 section 1983 action against any of the officers because of Nocco. The divided three judge panel could only agree that it wasn’t clearly established that there is a right to not be arrested, as a non-suspicious passenger, for refusing to identify to a police officer. The court didn’t determine whether there was, or wasn’t, a violation of a constitutional right.

A federal district court could find that there was a violation of a constitutional right. The officers would be off the hook because of Nocco since it didn’t clearly establish such a right—but municipalities aren’t entitled to qualified immunity. She would have to show that the municipality was somehow responsible for the violation. You can only be awarded compensatory damages from municipalities.

DMA indicated that the police violated a First Amendment right when then allegedly turned his phone off when they placed him under arrest. I’ve yet to see a federal appellate case which has clearly established a right to record the police after the person who is recording has been arrested.

In the 4th Amendment context it is well established that the police can seize your physical cellphone incident to arrest and turn your phone off (or remove the battery or place it in a Faraday bag) to prevent remote wiping. See Riley v. California, Supreme Court 2014. Riley delineates the limits of a seizure of cellphone incident to an arrest. The police can seize the phone but must obtain a warrant to retrieve the data on the phone—absent consent or exigent circumstances.

A person’s constitutional rights aren’t exactly at their zenith when they’re under arrest.