Archives
-
Recent Posts
- W.D.Ark.: Parole search waiver moots lack of PC argument
- AR: RS shown for boating while intoxicated stop
- W.D.Mo.: Wrong address in SW wasn’t fatal where right house was searched
- NY: Failure to show independent source for officer’s observation of def required reversal
- VA: Outline of a gun in def’s pocket was RS
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
-
by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-24,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 425,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 45,000 posts since 2003 (26,730+ on WordPress as of 12/31/23) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
-
Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (2012)
ACLU on privacy
Privacy Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
Section 1983 Blog -
"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't."
—Me -
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
–Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw), Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things (1868) (erroneously attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, among others) -
“I am still learning.”
—Domenico Giuntalodi (but misattributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti (common phrase throughout 1500's)). -
"Love work; hate mastery over others; and avoid intimacy with the government."
—Shemaya, in the Thalmud -
"It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
—Charles Dickens, “The Old Curiosity Shop ... With a Frontispiece. From a Painting by Geo. Cattermole, Etc.” 255 (1848) -
"A system of law that not only makes certain conduct criminal, but also lays down rules for the conduct of the authorities, often becomes complex in its application to individual cases, and will from time to time produce imperfect results, especially if one's attention is confined to the particular case at bar. Some criminals do go free because of the necessity of keeping government and its servants in their place. That is one of the costs of having and enforcing a Bill of Rights. This country is built on the assumption that the cost is worth paying, and that in the long run we are all both freer and safer if the Constitution is strictly enforced."
—Williams v. Nix, 700 F. 2d 1164, 1173 (8th Cir. 1983) (Richard Sheppard Arnold, J.), rev'd Nix v. Williams, 467 US. 431 (1984). -
"The criminal goes free, if he must, but it is the law that sets him free. Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence."
—Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 659 (1961). -
"Any costs the exclusionary rule are costs imposed directly by the Fourth Amendment."
—Yale Kamisar, 86 Mich.L.Rev. 1, 36 n. 151 (1987). -
"There have been powerful hydraulic pressures throughout our history that bear heavily on the Court to water down constitutional guarantees and give the police the upper hand. That hydraulic pressure has probably never been greater than it is today."
— Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 39 (1968) (Douglas, J., dissenting). -
"The great end, for which men entered into society, was to secure their property."
—Entick v. Carrington, 19 How.St.Tr. 1029, 1066, 95 Eng. Rep. 807 (C.P. 1765) -
"It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people. And so, while we are concerned here with a shabby defrauder, we must deal with his case in the context of what are really the great themes expressed by the Fourth Amendment."
—United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 69 (1950) (Frankfurter, J., dissenting) -
"The course of true law pertaining to searches and seizures, as enunciated here, has not–to put it mildly–run smooth."
—Chapman v. United States, 365 U.S. 610, 618 (1961) (Frankfurter, J., concurring). -
"A search is a search, even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable."
—Arizona v. Hicks, 480 U.S. 321, 325 (1987) -
"For the Fourth Amendment protects people, not places. What a person knowingly exposes to the public, even in his own home or office, is not a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. ... But what he seeks to preserve as private, even in an area accessible to the public, may be constitutionally protected."
—Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351 (1967) -
“Experience should teach us to be most on guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
—United States v. Olmstead, 277 U.S. 438, 479 (1925) (Brandeis, J., dissenting) -
“Liberty—the freedom from unwarranted intrusion by government—is as easily lost through insistent nibbles by government officials who seek to do their jobs too well as by those whose purpose it is to oppress; the piranha can be as deadly as the shark.”
—United States v. $124,570, 873 F.2d 1240, 1246 (9th Cir. 1989) -
"You can't always get what you want / But if you try sometimes / You just might find / You get what you need."
—Mick Jagger & Keith Richards -
"In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me–and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."
—Martin Niemöller (1945) [he served seven years in a concentration camp] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew "The point of the Fourth Amendment, which often is not grasped by zealous officers, is not that it denies law enforcement the support of the usual inferences which reasonable men draw from evidence. Its protection consists in requiring that those inferences be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime."
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Author Archives: Hall
N.D.Ohio: Heroin and three guns in plain view was exigency for entry with child alone inside
Police knowing that defendant’s 12-year-old son was in the house alone with a significant quantity of heroin and three firearms all in plain view was exigency for entry. There also previous complaints to Family Services. United States v. Woodard, 2024 … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: SW application redacted for discovery for now
For the time being, the search warrant application is redacted in discovery under Rule 6(e). “First, the Special Counsel opposes the disclosure of a search warrant application for Defendant De Oliveira’s Gmail account …. This includes the search warrant itself, … Continue reading
OH2: Police responding to report of shot dog who heard an animal had exigency to enter the curtilage
“Based upon the evidence presented, we conclude the trial court did not err in denying the motion to suppress. The search of the home and surrounding premises was reasonable because the officers believed an injured animal was on the premises … Continue reading
CA4: Court instructing that the legality of searches were questions for the court wasn’t error
Defense counsel asked a question about something being in plain view which led to discussion of whether those words were an effort to challenge the search before the jury. The court instructed the jury that the legality of searches was … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: No REP in a police interview room
There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in a police interview room that was recording defendant without his knowledge. Foster v. United States, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65874 (W.D.N.C. Apr. 9, 2024). Defendant can’t raise in his 2255 his Fourth … Continue reading
TX2: No SW needed to get IMEI number of an abandoned cell phone to trace the owner
“Officers may open a cell phone abandoned at a crime scene to view non-electronic identifying information, such as the phone’s international mobile equipment identification (IMEI) number, and then use that identifying information to obtain a search warrant for the phone’s … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Affidavit for SW doesn’t have to say CI was reliable when the facts and circumstances alleged showed it
Defendant’s allegations of the police not saying in the warrant affidavit the CI was reliable doesn’t matter because the affidavit for warrant shows otherwise why the CI was credited. There was probable cause. To the extent this would be considered … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: GJ subpoena for cell phone passcode quashed.
The government’s grand jury subpoena for defendant’s cell phone passcode is quashed because it seeks testimonial information in violation of the Fifth Amendment showing defendant’s knowledge of the contents of the phone. “The Court denies Gray’s Rule 41(g) motion. Even … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: There’s a privacy interest in a cell phone passcode, but its disclosure here under a ruse does not lead to suppression
There is a privacy interest in one’s cell phone passode protected by the Fifth Amendment. Here, however, defendant’s disclosure of the passcode in responding to a CBP ruse after a flight from Mexico was not compulsion. United States v. Shvartsman, … Continue reading
Newsday: Planned New York City subway body scans for weapons draw constitutional concerns
Newsday: Planned New York City subway body scans for weapons draw constitutional concerns (paywall)
FL5: Use of flashlight to look in screened-in porch was unreasonable violation of curtilage
Officers came to defendant’s home which was next door to a murder crime scene. They were looking for potential witnesses. They knocked on the screened-in porch door and got no answer. It was dark inside. The screened-in porch was a … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Drug dog sticking his nose in the open window of car was a search, and here without PC
The drug dog’s sticking his nose in the open window of defendant’s car was a search, and here without probable cause. United States v. Handley, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64531 (N.D. Iowa Apr. 9, 2024). This search warrant is particular … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Automobile exception doesn’t apply to car parked in owner’s garage
Under Collins, the automobile exception does not apply to a car parked in the owner’s garage. United States v. Dejoie, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64270 (M.D. La. Apr. 8, 2024). “The exclusionary rule does not apply to ‘physical evidence that … Continue reading
Automated License Plate Reader (ALPR) litigation
From today’s webinar by NACDL’s Fourth Amendment Center. Summary of materials here. The video will be posted on nacdl.org later.
E.D.N.Y.: The search of def’s house started about 6:10 am; the camera time hadn’t been adjusted for DST
Defendant submitted that the search of his house started at 5:00 am. The officers and virtually all the evidence showed it started at 6:10 am. The metadata on some photographs showed 5:16 am. The court finds the camera’s time hadn’t … Continue reading
WA: Failure to argue the state constitution to the trial court waived reliance on it on appeal
Failure to argue the state constitution to the trial court waived reliance on it on appeal. State v. Troutman, 2024 Wash. App. LEXIS 672 (Apr. 8, 2024). There was reasonable suspicion for lengthening this detention from the fact the LPN … Continue reading
CA9: QI for punching a resisting arrestee
The officer punching a resisting arrestee gets qualified immunity. “But these cases are too factually dissimilar to put the officers on notice that their conduct was unconstitutional. Unlike Ames’s proffered cases, where the plaintiffs were not resisting, it is undisputed … Continue reading
CA9: Officer stopping to check on an already stopped motorcycle wasn’t a seizure
Defendant’s motorcycle was already stopped on the side of the road. The officer pulling up to check on him wasn’t a seizure. United States v. Melgoza, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 8384 (9th Cir. Apr. 8, 2024). FISA warrants have a … Continue reading
CA7: Warranted strip search in a private secure setting was conducted reasonably
“Shaw raises three responses, but they are unavailing. First, he contends that the officers did not follow Wisconsin and local laws that instruct officers to obtain written authorization from a supervisor before a strip search. But a violation of state … Continue reading
OH5: A replevin action can’t be used to suppress evidence seized by SW
A replevin action can’t be used to suppress evidence seized by search warrant. Glass v. Del. Cty. Sheriff’s Office, 2024-Ohio-1301, 2024 Ohio App. LEXIS 1235 (5th Dist. Apr. 4, 2024). Defendant fails his Franks burden, and the warrant wasn’t stale. … Continue reading