Archives
-
Recent Posts
- Bloomberg Law: Texas’ 100-Plus Year Investigatory Tool Ruled Unconstitutional
- D.Minn.: State law permits POs to conduct “unannounced visits” and that includes unannounced warrantless searches
- E.D.Va.: Three images from ALPR in 30 days wasn’t enough for a Carpenter violation
- CA5: The 4A doesn’t limit the number of officers that show up for an administrative search
- D.Idaho: The exclusionary rule does not apply in pretrial release revocations
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
-
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 (27,400+ on WordPress as of 7/23/24) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
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 -
"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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Category Archives: Video surveillance
EFF: You Really Do Have Some Expectation of Privacy in Public
EFF: You Really Do Have Some Expectation of Privacy in Public by Matthew Guariglia & Lisa Femia:
CA8: Breaking a cell phone to avoid its search and seizure justified obstruction enhancement under USSG § 3C1.1
Defendant attempting to thwart a search of cell phones in his car tried to break one such that it had to be forensically reviewed to get information off of it. He wasn’t under arrest. Still, his actions qualified for a … Continue reading
E.D.La.: SW for def’s surveillance video had no PC for weapons search; suppressed
Police got a search warrant for the DVR and storage for defendant’s surveillance camera that likely could have caught a homicide across the street. The warrant included weapons and ammunition when there was no justification for it. The warrant lacked … Continue reading
CNN: Amazon’s Ring to shutter video-sharing program popular with police
CNN: Amazon’s Ring to shutter video-sharing program popular with police by Brian Fung [“shutter” isn’t quite correct, is it?:] (“ Amazon’s Ring will no longer let police and other government agencies request doorbell camera footage from within the company’s Neighbors … Continue reading
MA: Officer recording drug deal on cell phone governed by state wiretap law
An officer’s surreptitious recording of a drug deal with a cell phone is an interception of a communication under the state wiretapping law. Commonwealth v. Du, 2023 Mass. App. LEXIS 143 (Oct. 6, 2023). The publicly available address (SoS, website, … Continue reading
S.D.Ind. Warrant for video surveillance required under Title III
A warrant for CCTV surveillance of the defendant came under the wiretap statute, Title III, and necessity and probable cause was shown. United States v. Jones, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178457 (S.D. Ind. Oct. 4, 2023). The totality of information … Continue reading
Interesting Engineering: AI cameras are watching millions of cars in the US to nab criminals
Interesting Engineering: AI cameras are watching millions of cars in the US to nab criminals by Sejal Dharma (“A drug trafficker was arrested last year after an AI camera watched it move across states for two years.”)
WIRED: Why We Don’t Recommend Ring Cameras
WIRED: Why We Don’t Recommend Ring Cameras by Adrienne So (“They’re affordable and ubiquitous, but homeowners shouldn’t be able to act as vigilantes.”):
WaPo: The dos and don’ts of using home security cameras that see everything
WaPo: The dos and don’ts of using home security cameras that see everything by Heather Kelly (“Those same cameras can also put the people who own them at risk. They’re vulnerable to hacks, can collect personal data, and their sensitive … Continue reading
ADG: Little Rock police moving into second phase of real-time crime center integrating citizen video feeds
Ark. Dem.-Gaz.: Little Rock police moving into second phase of real-time crime center by Grant Lancaster (new LRPD HQ “Crime Center will use cameras of residents” feeding into central video database). Networking video surveillance and doorbell cams. If we are … Continue reading
Wired: Face Recognition Software Led to His Arrest. It Was Dead Wrong
Wired; Face Recognition Software Led to His Arrest. It Was Dead Wrong (“Alonzo Sawyer’s misidentification by algorithm made him a suspect for a crime police now say was committed by someone else—feeding debate over regulation.”)
NYT: Can My Neighbor Point a Video Doorbell at My Apartment Door?
NYT: Can My Neighbor Point a Video Doorbell at My Apartment Door? by Ronda Kayse (“Ubiquitous in many suburban neighborhoods, the devices have been slow to catch on in city apartments, but that is changing as New Yorkers warm to … Continue reading
CA6: SW for home DVR failed to allege criminal evidence would be found and violates 4A
There was a fire in a shed that was likely caught by defendant’s home surveillance camera. He declined to turn it over to investigators investigating the cause of the fire. They don’t even know that the fire was arson. The … Continue reading
Intelligencer: Amazon’s New Car Cam Takes Personal Surveillance on the Road
Intelligencer: Amazon’s New Car Cam Takes Personal Surveillance on the Road by John Hermann (“Amazon on Thursday opened preorders for a long-awaited addition to its vast catalogue of Ring personal surveillance devices: the Car Cam. Starting at $200, the car … Continue reading
D.Mass.: No REP in video surveillance in an apartment building hallway that covered def’s door
“Defendants may have held a subjective expectation that activity in and around the doorway of the apartment would remain private but such an expectation was not objectively reasonable because their activity took place in a common area exposed to the … Continue reading
WaPo: Lawsuit alleges D.C. Housing’s cameras could ‘capture intimate details’
[I don’t normally bother to mention lawsuits until resolved, but SCOTUS is considering a pole camera case for conference in the next month or so.] WaPo: Lawsuit alleges D.C. Housing’s cameras could ‘capture intimate details’ by Justin Wm. Moyer:
WaPo: They got a Ring doorbell alert, then opened fire on a bystander, police say
WaPo: They got a Ring doorbell alert, then opened fire on a bystander, police say by Justine McDaniel (“The incident may provide an extreme example of the type of neighborhood vigilantism sometimes cited by critics of doorbell cameras, the benefits … Continue reading
The Guardian: Surveillance shift: San Francisco pilots program allowing police to live monitor private security cameras
The Guardian: Surveillance shift: San Francisco pilots program allowing police to live monitor private security cameras (“The trial would give law enforcement access to live footage by consenting residents, a departure from the city’s previous stance.”)
Wired: The ‘Surveillance Solutionism’ of Putting Cameras in NYC Subways
The ‘Surveillance Solutionism’ of Putting Cameras in NYC Subways (“When ‘if you see something, say something’ becomes ‘we see everything,’ everyone loses.”) WMATA in DC has cameras everywhere. Presumably all the others do. All major subway systems in the world … Continue reading