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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© 2003-18,
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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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)
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General (many free):
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Lexis.com $
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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: Computer searches
OR: Search of browser history limited to the PC, and here it was one day
Police received a call that defendant’s infant son had died at home. In his interview with the police, defendant admitted a computer search about it. The police got a search warrant for his computer search history. The probable cause here … Continue reading
D.Md.: SW for drug evidence on a computer allowed cursory look at each file, and CP was validly found
Once officers were in defendant’s computer with a search warrant looking for drug evidence, they could cursorily look at each file, and, in the process found child pornography. [This is akin to a plain view.] With that, the search stopped, … Continue reading
D.D.C.: BOP employee had no REP in BOP owned work cell phone even though personal information was on it
BOP IG issued an administrative subpoena for respondent to produce her BOP owned cell phone, and she refused claiming a reasonable expectation of privacy in it. First, the standard of review is narrow and limited, and the subpoena is enforceable. … Continue reading
NACDL: Riling Up the Border Search Doctrine: Litigating Searches of Digital Content at Our Ports of Entry
NACDL, The Champion: Riling Up the Border Search Doctrine: Litigating Searches of Digital Content at Our Ports of Entry by Aisha J. Dennis, The Champion 40-46 (Mar. 2018)
MA: Removing paint chips off a car under the automobile exception was reasonable
There was probable cause that defendant’s car was involved in a shooting such that its stop and search was reasonable under the automobile exception. That included removing paint chips from it when it had been removed to the police station. … Continue reading
Gizmodo: Paul Manafort Learns That Encrypting Messages Doesn’t Matter If the Feds Have a Warrant to Search Your iCloud Account
Gizmodo: Paul Manafort Learns That Encrypting Messages Doesn’t Matter If the Feds Have a Warrant to Search Your iCloud Account by Matt Novak: Federal prosecutors have accused Paul Manafort of witness tampering, alleging that he used WhatsApp and Telegram in … Continue reading
Lawfare: Summary: Circuit Split on Device Searches at the Border in US v. Touset
Lawfare: Summary: Circuit Split on Device Searches at the Border in US v. Touset by Grayson Clary:
D.Minn.: Def lacked standing to challenge SW to YouTube for search history and videos viewed in terrorism case
Defendant was indicted for providing material support to a terrorist organization and planned to travel to Afghanistan, and there were nine search warrants. She communicated with Afghanistan on digital devices and by a gmail account. The search warrants for all … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Consent to giving up passwords at border irrelevant since CBP can search anyway
In a border search case, defendant’s consent to produce his passwords doesn’t matter because the government has the authority to conduct a search of incoming electronic equipment. United States v. Vallerius, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 85620 (S.D. Fla. May 1, … Continue reading
The Marshall Project: Your Home is Your…Snitch?
The Marshall Project: Your Home is Your…Snitch? by Daniel Zwerdling: When your appliances work as police informants.
N.D.Ga.: No 4A requirement of a computer search protocol in the SW
This search warrant was for steroids and misbranded drugs and included computers and defendant’s home. The warrant was issued with probable cause and was as particular as possible. As to the computer search, there was no constitutional requirement for a … Continue reading
Volokh Conspiracy: Suspect Can Be Compelled to Decrypt Devices If Government Proves He Has The Ability To Do So, Court Rules
United States v. Spencer, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70649 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 26, 2018) Volokh Conspiracy: Suspect Can Be Compelled to Decrypt Devices If Government Proves He Has The Ability To Do So, Court Rules by Orin Kerr: The right … Continue reading
