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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16)
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© 2003-19,
online since Feb. 24, 2003
WebPage Visits: real non-robot hits since 2010; approx. 25k posts since 2003~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and linksLatest Slip Opinions:
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FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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State courts (and some USDC opinions)
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $Research Links:
Supreme Court:
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Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
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General (many free):
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Lexis.com $
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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“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"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!”
"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."
---Pepé Le Pew
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock
2017 ABA Journal Web 100
Category Archives: Burden of pleading
D.Minn.: A generic motion to suppress should be denied for telling the court nothing
“[F]ailure to affirmatively provide the Court with support for the motion as it relates to the warrant is a sufficient basis for denial of the motion.” Even so, the court goes to the merits and finds probable cause. United States … Continue reading
D.Minn.: A vague allegation of no PC for SW is insufficient to get even a hearing; specifics needed
“Defendants’ earlier-filed motions fail to raise any specific deficiencies in the warrants, but rather generally allege that the warrants lack probable cause. Defendants have similarly failed to point to any specific shortcomings in the affidavits in support of each warrant. … Continue reading
D.Colo.: To just say a SW is “stale” in a motion to suppress says nothing; def has to show how or why it is stale
Defendant “cannot simply state general legal principles and expect the Court or the Government to figure out what he means to argue. Burciaga bears the burden here, and this ‘argument’ does not satisfy it. Accordingly, the Court will not inquire … Continue reading
MA: Bag of dope protuding from butt crack was seized in a strip search, not a body cavity search
“During a lawful strip search of the defendant following his arrest, police officers observed a plastic bag protruding from the cleft between his buttocks and caused him to remove it; it was revealed to contain individually wrapped plastic bags of … Continue reading
OK: Without a specific challenge to overbreadth, trial court errs in deciding it
Defendant moved to suppress his cell phone search for lack of probable cause. He did not challenge the scope of the warrant. Therefore, the district court erred in deciding that the search warrant was overbroad. “The District Court erred when … Continue reading
MN decides that gaps in the state’s version don’t preclude the CI being a material witness so the CI must be disclosed
“If a warrant to search a home relies on information from a confidential police informant about contraband inside the home, but the warrant application includes no facts indicating whether the informant could be considered a government agent who violated the … Continue reading
NY2: “Defense counsel’s equivocal, vague and conclusory statements that defendant had standing to challenge the searches” has no offer of proof or facts
“The court correctly denied, on the ground of lack of standing as well as on the merits, defendant’s motion to controvert two search warrants. Defense counsel’s equivocal, vague and conclusory statements that defendant had standing to challenge the searches of … Continue reading
AR: Claim of misstatement or incorrect fact in SW affidavit doesn’t state Franks claim without allegation it was reckless or intentional
Merely stating that information in the affidavit for search warrant was incorrect doesn’t preserve a Franks challenge without also alleging that it was recklessly or intentionally made. King v. State, 2019 Ark. 114, 2019 Ark. LEXIS 125 (Apr. 18, 2019). … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Boilerplate Franks claim fails on its face
“The defendant’s boilerplate claim that the ‘information used to obtain the search warrant from the Circuit Court judge was flawed with false allegation….’, … does not meet the Franks test for a hearing.” “While defendant did not explicitly argue that … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Pleading a constitutional violation without saying how preserves nothing for review
“Cruz next present a series of direct challenges, obviously hoping one will stick. He generally asserts that his ‘conviction and sentence are violative of the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution.’ (DE 32, at 7). … Continue reading
IA: The facts showing RS can also add up to PC
The facts supporting reasonable suspicion to stop defendant were enough for probable cause, and add to that the fact defendant slowed down and tossed a baggie of marijuana from the car. Mention in a search warrant of a Nevada drug … Continue reading
OH8: State had to argue plain view to trial court to argue it on appeal
The state’s plain view argument wasn’t pressed in the trial court, so it can’t be a basis for appeal. Even on the merits, the state loses because the stop was invalid, and the detention unreasonable all before the alleged plain … Continue reading
