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- WaPo: U.S. autism data project sparks uproar over ethics, privacy and intent
- techdirt: Enter The Fourth Amendment, Yet One More Reason DOGE Is Such A Constitutional Nightmare
- N.D.Miss.: An actual “bare bones” affidavit for SW leads to suppression
- CA9: Electronic monitoring condition of pretrial release was essentially a contract between def and court, thus consent
- CA3: Plain feel of apparent drugs supported seizure from def’s pocket
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (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 -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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)
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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, Let it Bleed (album, 1969) -
"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: Prison and jail searches
D.Nev.: There’s no 4A claim from officers running the serial number of a gun found in plain view
There is no Fourth Amendment claim for officers running the serial number of a gun after it was lawfully encountered, so no ineffective assistance of counsel. United States v. Hylton, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71338 (D. Nev. Apr. 14, 2025). … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: A prison inmate has no standing in his cell
Correctional officers found 20 cell phones in defendant’s cell. He has no standing in his cell. As to the cell phone searches, even if he had standing, the warrants were not overbroad. United States v. Nasir, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Warrantless criminal investigative cell search was reasonable
Defendant was in pretrial detention arrested three days earlier in a murder-for-hire scheme. Jailors searched his cell, apparently as a part of the original criminal investigation, looking for cell phone which he attempted to destroy. He moved to suppress. “The … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: No REP in non-legal jail mail from being scanned for tablet viewing
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in non-legal mail in jail. Here, mail was scanned and made into a pdf for viewing on a tablet. Cecil v. Keller, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56313 (W.D. Va. Mar. 25, 2025).* A … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Ptf’s jail strip search on camera after contact visit was reasonable
Plaintiff’s jail strip search after a contact visit was reasonable, and the fact it was on camera doesn’t make it unreasonable. Parker v. Robert J. White Mich. Dep’t of Corr., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48519 (E.D. Mich. Jan. 27, 2025):
CA10: Cross-gender prison strip search of transgender woman stated claim
A cross-gender jail strip search of a transgender woman with gender dysphoria stated a claim. Griffith v. El Paso Cty., 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 3734 (10th Cir. Feb. 19, 2025). Defendant was involved in a head-on crash driving on the … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Sublessee of apartment had standing
Sublessee of an apartment had standing to challenge its search. This can’t be compared to burglars or squatters. United States v. Ephron, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28794 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 18, 2025). Defendant wasn’t seized during his encounter with the police … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Jail strip search for safety purposes was reasonable
This jail strip search under the jail’s policy for safety purposes was reasonable. United States v. Sutton, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10974 (N.D. Iowa Jan. 22, 2025).* Not the countervailing considerations:
CA3: Conviction for threats by internet justified supervised release condition of computer monitoring
Where defendant was convicted of making threats over the internet to a Congressman, a two year computer monitoring condition was reasonable and did not violate the First and Fourth Amendment. United States v. Hall, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 1109 (3d … Continue reading
E.D.Okla.: Search of lawyers and their cars coming into jail did not obstruct access to counsel
Stopping and searching the car and person of defense counsel coming into a USMS jail did not violate defendant’s right to access to counsel. The limitations were all reasonable. United States v. Freeman, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6745 (E.D. Okla. … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: No REP prison visit with nonlawyer wouldn’t be videorecorded on bodycam
Plaintiff had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his prison visit with his brother being recorded on body camera of a nearby correctional officer. Saunders v. Vilbrandt, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 989 (W.D. Va. Jan. 2, 2025).* “To the extent … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Successor habeas petition can’t be based on withheld information of a 4A violation
A successor habeas can’t be based on allegedly withheld evidence of a Fourth Amendment violation. Sanchez v. Cates, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 226067 (E.D. Cal. Dec. 12, 2024). Defendant can’t show that defense counsel was ineffective for not moving to … Continue reading
NY3: No REP in SHU surveillance
Defendant was in a special housing unit in a NY state prison. He knew he was under constant surveillance. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy in admissions he made caught on video. People v. Ashcroft, 2024 NY Slip Op … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Multiple counts of things seized under SW not severed
In a motion to sever counts for trial, it was significant that the stuff was seized under the same search warrant. United States v. Lewis, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 217086 (D.D.C. Dec. 2, 2024). There was probable cause and nexus … Continue reading
D.Alaska: No REP in cell of 48 hr detainee
A 48 hour pretrial detainee in a dry cell has no reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Burk, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209407 (D. Alaska Nov. 18, 2024).* Defendant’s Franks officer of proof with a proffered corrected affidavit for … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Use of coarse language during prison strip search didn’t make it unreasonable
Prison strip search was not unconstitutional. “Shepard has failed to allege facts to support that the November 2022 search was unreasonable. She acknowledges that such searches are routinely conducted before an inmate leaves the correctional institution for outside medical appointments. … Continue reading
OH7: Postal worker’s information about defendant’s cash and mail was PC for warrant
A postal worker’s information that defendant had lots of cash and was receiving packages that smelled like marijuana was probable cause for his house. State v. Middleton, 2024-Ohio-5172, 2024 Ohio App. LEXIS 3877 (7th Dist. Oct. 28, 2024).* The use … Continue reading
OH: Negligent disposal of def’s car in impound while he was in jail wasn’t done in bad faith
Police searched defendant’s car at the impound lot, and he was sent certified mail to tell him to pick it up or it would be disposed of. They mailed it to his house while he was in jail so he … Continue reading