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- Cal.1st: Minor in possession of MJ is PC for search of car
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- D.Kan.: Preliminary hearing moots claim of lack of PC for arrest
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
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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) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
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"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)
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Category Archives: Border search
D.P.R.: Secondary border inspection of def’s cell phone for evidence of dog fighting was reasonable
Defendant’s alleged fighting dogs and his cell phone were validly the subject of secondary border inspections in San Juan. United States v. Castro-Correa, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90966 (D.P.R. June 12, 2017).* Defendant didn’t have standing to challenge the search … Continue reading
Law.com: Fourth Amendment Exception Allows Customs to Search Personal Devices
Law.com: Fourth Amendment Exception Allows Customs to Search Personal Devices by Joe Martini & James Glasser: CBP agents can search cellphones, laptops and other electronic devices of those entering or leaving the country, regardless of citizenship and despite the vast … Continue reading
ABAJ: ABA expresses concern about border searches of lawyer laptops and other electronic devices
ABAJ: ABA expresses concern about border searches of lawyer laptops and other electronic devices by Debra Cassens Weiss: ABA President Linda Klein is expressing serious concern about standards that permit searches of lawyer laptops and other electronic devices at the … Continue reading
Yahoo! Tech: A Former NSA Lawyer Explains Why Searching Phones at the Border Is a Waste of Time
Yahoo! Tech: A Former NSA Lawyer Explains Why Searching Phones at the Border Is a Waste of Time by Brian Feldman
Forbes: US Immigration Splurged $2.2 Million On Phone Hacking Tech Just After Trump’s Travel Ban
Forbes: US Immigration Splurged $2.2 Million On Phone Hacking Tech Just After Trump’s Travel Ban by Thomas Fox-Brewster:
WaPo: Border agents can look at everything on your cell phone. Congress should change that (editorial)
WaPo: Border agents can look at everything on your cell phone. Congress should change that (editorial): PRETTY MUCH everyone can agree that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents should be able to freely search travelers’ bags at the border. Their … Continue reading
NYTimes: Border Officers Nearly Double Searches of Electronic Devices, US Says
NYTimes: Border Officers Nearly Double Searches of Electronic Devices, US Says by Ron Nixon:
NPR: U.S. Border Patrol Agents Step Up Cell Phone Searches
NPR: U.S. Border Patrol Agents Step Up Cell Phone Searches: The border patrol has almost tripled the number of people it demands turn over their cell phones coming into and leaving the U.S. Some in Congress now want to require … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Def’s actions gave RS for cell phone and computer searches when he came into O’Hare from the Philippines; he’d already been selected for secondary inspection
Defendant arrived at O’Hare on a flight from the Philippines. The government described how they took the passenger manifest of incoming flights and looked for likely candidates for a secondary search of computers and cell phones. Defendant had been there … Continue reading
LATimes: Op-Ed My phone was searched at LAX, which apparently is the new normal
LATimes: Op-Ed: My phone was searched at LAX, which apparently is the new normal by Lubana Adi: One of the happiest moments in my life was the day in 1999 when I became an American citizen. Studying for the citizenship … Continue reading
techdirt: Bipartisan Bill Would Require A Warrant To Search Americans’ Devices At The Border
techdirt: Bipartisan Bill Would Require A Warrant To Search Americans’ Devices At The Border by Mike Masnick:
EFF: The Bill of Rights at the Border: Fourth Amendment Limits on Searching Your Data and Devices
EFF: The Bill of Rights at the Border: Fourth Amendment Limits on Searching Your Data and Devices by Stephanie Lacambra:
EFF: Border Agents Need A Warrant to Search Travelers’ Phones, EFF Tells Court
EFF: Border Agents Need A Warrant to Search Travelers’ Phones, EFF Tells Court (press release): The Border Isn’t a Constitution-Free Zone Richmond, Virginia—Border agents must obtain a warrant to search travelers’ phones, tablets, and laptops, which contain a vast trove … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Cell phone border search valid, here with RS
A cell phone can be searched at the border with reasonable suspicion, and the facts of this case rise to this standard. The court doesn’t have to decide whether the search could occur without in the Ninth Circuit. United States … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Opening car door to check the Nader sticker for the VIN on RS was not unreasonable
Opening a car door to check the Nader sticker for the VIN was not unreasonable and did not involve invading a space inside the car. By the time that happened, there was reasonable suspicion. Then there was consent to search … Continue reading
The Root: US Border Agents Can Search Your Cellphone, New Senate Bill Would Require a Warrant First
The Root: US Border Agents Can Search Your Cellphone, New Senate Bill Would Require a Warrant First by Monique Judge: The Department of Homeland Security has reported that searches of cellphones by border agents increased five-fold in just one year, … Continue reading
WaPo: Can federal agents detain citizens at border checkpoints until they disclose their smartphone passcodes?
WaPo: Can federal agents detain citizens at border checkpoints until they disclose their smartphone passcodes? by Orin Kerr: The Verge has a story about the recent border-crossing experience of a U.S. citizen, Sidd Bikkannavar, who is an employee at NASA’s … Continue reading
Fortune: Social Media at the Border: Can Agents Ask for Your Facebook Feed?
Fortune: Social Media at the Border: Can Agents Ask for Your Facebook Feed? by Jeff John Roberts:
W.D.Tex.: Border search cursory search of defendant’s cell phone was reasonable
A border search cursory search of defendant’s cell phone was reasonable, even under Cotterman. They also had more than reasonable suspicion. United States v. Escarcega, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 185466 (W.D. Tex. July 29, 2015):
W.D.Tex.: A cell phone may be searched under the border search exception [CA5 to decide soon]
A cell phone may be searched under the border search exception. While the Fifth Circuit hasn’t decided the issue yet, it soon will be [see quoted n.4, infra]. United States v. Molina-Isidoro, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183368 (W.D. Tex. Oct. … Continue reading