Orin Kerr
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orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr
@orinkerr.bsky.social
33K followers 930 following 2.5K posts

Professor, Stanford Law School.
Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution.

Author, The Digital 4th Amendment:
https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Fourth-Amendment-Privacy-Policing/dp/0190627077/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0

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Orin Samuel Kerr is an American legal scholar known for his studies of American criminal procedure and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as well as computer crime law and internet surveillance. He has been a professor of law at Stanford Law School since 2025. Kerr is one of the contributors to the law-oriented blog titled The Volokh Conspiracy. .. more

Political science 35%
Law 28%
Posts Replies Media Videos

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 12h
Motion to suppress granted for unlawfully delaying a stop when officers muted their microphones and spoke for several minutes before sending the drug detection dog to sniff the driver—who had drugs in his fanny pack. US v. Green, 2026 WL 413864 (D.Conn. 2/15) (Oliver, J.)

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 13h
100%

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 13h
The Supreme Court's rules, as of 1803.
www.supremecourt.gov/pdfs/rules/r...

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 1d
Should the CFAA legalize hacking back? Herb Lin and I agree that the answer is, well, no.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElI0...
Hacking Back? | Balancing Act with John Katko
YouTube video by Balancing Act with John Katko
www.youtube.com

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 2d
Nickname his mother and his wife used for him.

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 2d
On this light factual record, police helicopter flying very low over property, where marijuana plants were seen, is not a search, Tenn. Ct. Crim. App. rules.
www.tncourts.gov/sites/defaul...

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 2d
I don’t like Cardozo’s work as a Justice. At least in the areas I encounter, his opinions generally beg the question, often buried in pompous abstractions.
Justice.as

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 2d
Bunny?

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 2d
TFW you're trying to understand how courts understood a doctrine 100 years ago, and you come across an old reference to a "leading case," which you look up, and it's by Learned Hand—and it explains beautifully exactly what you were trying to understand.

Lesson: L. Hand delivers.

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 3d
And that raises the inevitable discovery issue, which the judges may have been unsure of whether they could reach.

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 4d
Years ago, soon after I had moved to a new neighborhood, an elderly neighbor had passed and her surviving relatives had put several old books in a box by the street to be recycled. I found this very tiny book of poems in the box, and I loved the inscription. I have kept it ever since.

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 4d
This should be good.

Sign up: stanford.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Reposted by Orin S. Kerr

ericcolumbus.bsky.social
Eric Columbus @ericcolumbus.bsky.social · 5d
Come for our deep dive into the Don Lemon indictment and stay for our companion piece about the deeply weird process that led up to it!
www.lawfaremedia.org/article/when...
'When Life Gives You Lemons': A Minnesota Case Study in How the Trump Administration WarpsJustice Anna Bower, Eric Columbus, Troy Edwards Wednesday, February 11, 2026, 2:43 PM Share On: f X in & 6 B The bizarre saga that unfolded in the weeks leading up to Don Lemon's indictment illustrates just how far the Justice Department has fallen.

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
As I say on the podcast, I am a simple country Fourth Amendment lawyer compared to the two of them, but I thought our mix of theory and focus on discreet cases made for a particularly interesting conversation (and Jonathan and Jud are just always fantastic).

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
I really enjoyed this podcast conversation about originalism in the lower courts, with experts on originalism @jgienapp.bsky.social and Jud Campbell. Thanks to the Short Circuit crowd for having us.

Reposted by Orin S. Kerr

shortcircuitij.bsky.social
Short Circuit @shortcircuitij.bsky.social · 5d
Our Latest Podcast: Originalism at Stanford

With @jgienapp.bsky.social @orinkerr.bsky.social & Jud Campbell!

ij.org/podcasts/sho...
Short Circuit 415 | Originalism at Stanford - Institute for Justice
An all-star conversation among Stanford professors, recorded live before Stanford students, about originalism and how it interacts with recent cases from the federal courts of […]
ij.org

Reposted by Orin S. Kerr

rparloff.bsky.social
Roger Parloff @rparloff.bsky.social · 5d
Just noticing that the Fulton Co election records search warrant affidavit entirely omits the mental state (“willfully”) required to commit the 1st of the 2 crimes cited. The FBI agent makes it sound like a strict liability crime, which it's not. (Sorry if this has already been widely reported.)
Title 52, United States Code, Section 20701 requires election officers to retain election records for 22 months following an election for a federal office. The statute’s retention requirement applies to “all records and papers which come into his possession relating to any … act requisite to voting in such election.” Violation of this statute is a misdemeanor. Any officer of election or custodian who willfully fails to comply with this section shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
At the time, they were the Miles quintet together, but I take it Herbie was the star at that point: He had a huge hit with Watermelon Man in 1963.

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
Yes, I'll be writing a lot about it, I suspect.

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
The complication, I think, is that the driver had a suspended license. So you don't have the situation in Rodriguez in which the stop ends and the driver drives off. The timing of that is somewhat tricky, I think. (I gather you think it's easy, which is fine.)

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
CA3 rejects 1A challenge to NJ law that limits sharing of computer code used to make ghosts guns, per Krause. Splitting w/ other circuits: 1A regulates only expressive uses of code, and plaintiffs failed to plead sufficient facts relevant to expressive use.
www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/233...

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
This wasn't an obvious case, and I can see why it took a while. But yikes, look at that.

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
Yep.

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
Should last about an hour.

Reposted by Paul M. Schwartz

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
United States v. Chatrie, the geofence warrant case, is now scheduled for oral argument on Monday, April 27th.
www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docke...
Docket for 25-112
www.supremecourt.gov

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
Apologies if I'm missing something, but I thought the 6th Circuit had 16 active judges, with three (Ritz, Moore, Griffin) on the panel.

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
GOP-nominated judges split 8 yes on rehearing 2 no, Democratic judges voted 0 yes, all 6 no.

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
Sorry, working link for the denial en banc.
www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf...
www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
Panel opinion is here:
cases.justia.com/federal/appe...
cases.justia.com

orinkerr.bsky.social
Orin Kerr @orinkerr.bsky.social · 5d
Sixth Circuit denies rehearing en banc 8-8 in excessive force case, over the dissents of 8 of the 10 GOP-nominated judges. (Sutton and Kethledge did not join them.)
opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf...