Court Cases We Should be Familiar With

[Statkowski]

From a CalGuns posting:

Arizona v. Hicks - precludes police access to or recording of serial numbers as a matter of Fourth Amendment law.

Kolender v. Lawsen- a state cannot mandate people identify themselves with credentials even if they want to.

Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada- Quoted in Kolender v. Lawsen as supporting case law. Limits police interaction to stating my name with no requirement to show ID when I am stopped and detained for suspicious activity, e.g. articulable suspicion that I was involved in a crime.

Terry v. Ohio- Police can stop and search a person if and only if "specific and articulable facts" are present. Police hunches and searches based on one exercising one's Constitutional rights are not included.

Other things to consider

1) Law states that serial numbers cannot be obliterated or altered, not obscured or hidden. If the obscured or hidden rule were to be followed, then a lot of revolvers could be considered illegal since the serial number is oftentimes hidden beneath the grip. Likewise with Glocks and a mounted accessory on the accessory rail, Mossbergs and sidesaddles, etc.

2) In Arizona vs. Hicks, the police removed moved objects in order to record a serial number, an action which requires a search warrant as the serial numbers were not plainly visible. Likewise, removing tape to reveal a serial number is grounds for a 4th amendment violation.

[TaePo]

Good find/info. We will next want to get actual links. To be honest, I don't know how to do that I would have.

Maybe we can eventually sticky and add others with brief description plus some of the PA cases such as Ortiz, Hawkins and Bolden; three biggies off the top of my head.

Or just add links to the current reference library with brief summary description like you offer above.