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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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--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: geofence
MN: The state const. doesn’t bar geofence warrants, and this one was issued with PC under 4A and state constitution
Syllabus: “Geofence warrants, which authorize law enforcement to obtain location-history data of cellular devices that were within a defined area during a specified time frame, are not categorically prohibited by the United States and Minnesota Constitutions as general warrants, but … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Geofence warrant relied on in good faith
A geofence warrant was used to gather information to attempt to find the robber of a postal worker. Geofence warrants are novel, the defendant may not have shown standing, and the government gets to rely on the good faith exception. … Continue reading
D.D.C.: 1/6 geofence warrant was for phones within the crime scene and was reasonable
The 1/6 Capitol geofence warrant was issued with probable cause and was specific, limited to those within the Capitol or on the restricted grounds, not just near it. United States v. Easterday, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8978 (D.D.C. Jan. 18, … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: Google’s Location Data Move Will Reshape Geofence Warrant Use
Bloomberg Law: Google’s Location Data Move Will Reshape Geofence Warrant Use by Skye Whitley (“There are at least three cases seeking to suppress geofence-based evidence before federal appellate courts in the Fourth, Fifth, and District of Columbia circuits. Dozens more … Continue reading
Google obviating geofence warrants?
Google posted this yesterday: Updates to Location History and new controls coming soon to Maps. Google will not be keeping geolocation data. So, are geofence warrants going to be a thing of the past? Google says it won’t have the … Continue reading
techdirt: Don’t Want To Be Part Of A Geofence Warrant Line-Up? You Have Options.
techdirt: Don’t Want To Be Part Of A Geofence Warrant Line-Up? You Have Options. by Tim Cushing (“Shira Ovide’s article for the Washington Post first details everything that’s extremely questionable about law enforcement’s reliance on geofence warrants. In a typical … Continue reading
Real Clear Policy: Just the Facts on ‘Geofencing’
Real Clear Policy: Just the Facts on ‘Geofencing’ by Maggie MacFarland Phillips (“As worshippers gathered at the Calvary Chapel in 2020, they were being watched from above. [¶] Satellites were locking in on cell phones owned by members of the … Continue reading
D.Haw.: 11-month delay in getting DNA warrant was reasonable
An eleven month delay in the government obtaining a DNA warrant was reasonable. “Under the totality of the circumstances, the Court concludes that, while the search warrant perhaps could have been sought earlier, the eleven-month period between arrest and the … Continue reading
Guardian: TechScape: How police use location and search data to find suspects – and not always the right ones
Guardian: TechScape: How police use location and search data to find suspects – and not always the right ones (“It’s a practice public defenders, privacy advocates and many lawmakers have criticised, arguing it violates fourth amendment protections against unreasonable searches. … Continue reading
TX5 upholds geofence warrant on PC and nexus, and then with GFE
The geofence warrant here satisfied the requirements of both probable cause and the good faith exception. There aren’t a lot of cases on geofence warrants, but those reaching the merits (and not just GFE) fully support the process here of … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: Church Sues California County Over Alleged Covid-19 Geofencing
Bloomberg Law: Church Sues California County Over Alleged Covid-19 Geofencing by Jorja Siemons:
FL2: Knock-and-announce not violated by “peaceably” entering through open door
“The record establishes that the doors to Mr. Wallin’s room were ‘completely wide open’ and the officers entered without force to execute a valid arrest warrant. The knock-and-announce requirement in section 901.19(1) did not apply based on the statute’s plain … Continue reading
Cal.2: Geofence warrant issued before any case law showed PC, particularly, and good faith
Geofence warrant issued in 2019 before there were any reported cases satisfied probable cause, particularity, and the good faith exception. Price v. Superior Court, 2023 Cal. App. LEXIS 505 (2d Dist. July 3, 2023):
Bloomberg: Abortion Fears Spur Reverse Search Warrant Bill in California
Bloomberg: Abortion Fears Spur Reverse Search Warrant Bill in California by Titus Wu (“Privacy advocates are pushing California to be the first to crack down on a controversial investigative tool used by police that compels technology companies to turn over … Continue reading
Denver Post: Colorado Supreme Court hears first-of-its-kind challenge to police’s use of Google search terms to ID murder suspects
Denver Post: Colorado Supreme Court hears first-of-its-kind challenge to police’s use of Google search terms to ID murder suspects (“The groundbreaking legal case considers for the first time in Colorado — and, attorneys said, nationally — whether police can legally … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Geofence SW decided on GFE alone
In this Hobbs Act robbery case, ATF got a geofence warrant to attempt to isolate who was committing a string of robberies in the Tampa Bay area. Instead of even considering the merits, the court goes directly to the good … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: USMJ approves geofence warrant for 1.01 acre of area of crime
Geofence warrant to Google was reasonable and sufficiently particular and nonintrusive. In re Search of Info. That Is Stored At Premises Controlled By Google, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33651 (S.D. Tex. Feb. 14, 2023):
N.D.Miss.: Geofence warrant approved in 2018 USPS truck robbery
A geofence warrant is sustained on probable cause and particularity in a post office truck robbery where the driver was beaten in United States v. Smith, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22944 (N.D. Miss. Feb. 10, 2023). While some later steps … Continue reading
NBC: Men imprisoned for murder say police illegally used Google to find their location data
NBC: Men imprisoned for murder say police illegally used Google to find their location data by Jon Schuppe (“Geofence warrants allow police to comb through Google location data in search of suspects. Opponents say that violates the Constitution.”)