MEDIA REVIEWS

Warrantless Search & Seizure

PBy Diane Burch Beckham
Published by Texas District and County Attorneys Association
Paperback, 240 pages, $40.00

Reviewed by DON ROGERS

There Warrantless Search & Seizure is a handbook designed for quick reference to federal and Texas law addressing searches and seizures conducted without a warrant issued by a magistrate. Published by the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, this book is written for prosecutors and officers, and presents a comprehensive look at all aspects of warrantless searches and seizures.
Divided into nine chapters, the book first sets out the basics of Fourth Amendment law. The first two chapters discuss fundamental concepts and legal standards pertaining to police encounters with and seizure of citizens by detention or arrest. In addition, the chapters examine broad legal concepts relating to searches, including probable cause, warrants, and common law exceptions to the warrant requirement. Chapter 3 rounds out the handbook’s discussion of exceptions by addressing federal and Texas exclusionary rules and the exceptions to those rules.
The next five chapters apply the Fourth Amendments standards and correlative concepts of searches and seizures to a variety of specific domains. For example, Chapter 4, entitled “On the Streets,” focuses on searches and seizures in connection with automobiles and other vehicles, including those operated by common carriers, that result from traffic stops, border checkpoints, roadblocks, and other scenarios. The handbook also discusses admissions and custodial confessions, required legal warnings, and consequences of lack of compliance with the laws concerning interrogation and confessions. Chapter 6, entitled “In the Home,” discusses specific application of warrantless search and seizure concepts to private residences. The chapter addressing administrative searches examines the requirements for an administrative warrant and a subpoena, and addresses the use of information obtained from such searches in criminal prosecutions. The handbook also applies the search and seizure concepts to schools and the workplace. This discussion includes a comprehensive assessment of medical tests for drugs and alcohol that are not directly initiated by law enforcement personnel.
The handbook’s final chapter, entitled “Trial Issues,” discusses pretrial motions to suppress evidence obtained from warrantless searches and seizures, jury instructions under Article 38.23 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, and the use of confessions and statements for impeachment. The book includes extensive references to constitutional provisions, statutes, and cases decided by both federal and Texas state courts. All in all, Warrantless Search & Seizure is an excellent quick-reference guide for issues regarding warrantless searches and seizures that commonly face both prosecutors and criminal defense lawyers alike at the trial and appellate levels.

Don Rogers is an assistant district attorney assigned to the Appellate Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. He received his J.D. and LL.M degrees from the University of Houston, and is board certified in criminal law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers are Going Broke

By Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi
Published by Basic Books
Paperback, 253 pages, $14.00

Reviewed by ANN D. ZEIGLER

This is not a trick question: What is the leading indicator of bankruptcy in the United States? Answer: The location of your child’s school. Or more precisely, that you are a middle-class parent struggling to get your child into a good school by buying a house in a neighborhood near such a school.
If you already knew that, then you don’t need this book. If that answer surprises you, then you — as well as your clients — need to know what this book is telling you about the precarious financial position of the American middle-class family.
Harvard Law School bankruptcy professor (and former University of Houston Law Center faculty member) Elizabeth Warren and her daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi researched the question of why middle-class families are the biggest group of bankruptcy filers. This book answers this question in detail, but not in heaps of boring statistics. Instead, the authors focus on economic data and extensive interviews to support their argument that the two-parent, middle class, working family is teetering on the edge of financial ruin. And these financial troubles are not the product of over-consumption or spending on luxuries or other non-essentials. Contrary to the belief of most skeptics, the incomes of both parents are often consumed by house and car notes, health care insurance premiums, and their child’s education costs, with little or no disposable income. When the family suffers a job loss, serious illness or divorce, there is no savings account on which the couple can rely.
This year, a two-income family will make 75 percent more than a single-income family a generation ago. However, the new, two-income family will have less to spend. Furthermore, today’s average family cannot own a home unless both parents work. Because parents try to get their children into the best schools available, they often cannot afford the neighborhoods where those schools are located.
And sadly, more children will live through their parents’ bankruptcy this year than through their parents’ divorce.
Warren and Tyagi sought to find the real facts behind the proposed bankruptcy reform legislation, that “immoral” individuals are fraudulently using the bankruptcy courts to “beat the system” by walking away from their debts. What the authors found was that other, more innovative solutions were called for. Included in the authors’ suggestions for reform are caps on credit card interest rates, and open access for public schools. While some might believe that the authors’ suggestions are short-sighted or impossible to apply in large metropolitan areas, their arguments are supported by thorough research and analysis of decades of socioeconomic facts and figures. Theirs is a fresh perspective to resolving the financial crisis facing an increasing number of American families.

Ann D. Zeigler is a bankruptcy lawyer at Hughes, Watters & Askanase, LLP, and a member of the editorial board of The Houston Lawyer.

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