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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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Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
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:
SCOTUSBlog
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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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Google Scholar | Google
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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: GPS / Tracking Data
NC reverse to satellite monitoring sex offender conditions for lack of findings
“The trial court ordered Defendant Aaron Lee Gordon to enroll in lifetime satellite-based monitoring following his eventual release from prison. Defendant appeals. Because the State cannot establish at this time that Defendant’s submission to satellite-based monitoring will constitute a reasonable … Continue reading
Ars Technica: Cheese danish shipping, warrantless GPS trackers, and a border doctrine challenge
Ars Technica: Cheese danish shipping, warrantless GPS trackers, and a border doctrine challenge BY Cyrus Farivar:
TN: Because a probation search doesn’t require PC, staleness of information is not an issue
A probation search does not require probable cause, so staleness is not an issue. State v. Ward, 2018 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 666 (Aug. 30, 2018). Defendant had a GPS put on his vehicle and thermal imaging of his building, … Continue reading
SC: GPS on a probationer has to be properly authenticated, and PO isn’t the way
Defendant was accused of robbing a Zaxby’s restaurant with a probationer wearing a GPS monitor. The probationer pled. Defendant went to trial, and the probation officer was used to authenticate the GPS information. It was inadequate. However, the court applies … Continue reading
CA8: Gratuitously drawing weapons after initial stop was unreasonable
The initial drawing of weapons at the beginning of a stop was not unreasonable under all the facts. Doing it again gratuitously without apparent justification was unreasonable. Wilson v. Lamp, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 24386 (8th Cir. Aug. 28, 2018). … Continue reading
NC: Failure to object in trial court to satellite monitoring of sex offender was waiver
Defendant didn’t object in the trial court to his satellite monitoring condition of his sentence as a violation of the Fourth Amendment, so it can’t be reviewed on appeal. State v. Lindsey, 2018 N.C. App. LEXIS 747 (Aug. 8, 2018). … Continue reading
CA2: Def wore GPS for two years for parole, but parole officers turned over monitoring to feds; monitoring not unreasonable
Defendant was on state parole and wore a GPS ankle monitor for two years. Parole turned over monitoring to the feds who monitored him to see what he was doing. The district court suppressed (United States v. Lambus, 251 F. … Continue reading
CA3: NJ bail reform act doesn’t violate 4A or 8A
New Jersey’s bail reform act which shifts emphasis away from money bail to other restraints and conditions to assure release and return to court does not violate the Fourth Amendment. Not all restraints are unreasonable, given a probable cause finding … Continue reading
OH9: ER’s blood draw for medical diagnosis didn’t require compliance with statute on DWI blood draws
Defendant was in a fatal accident and taken to the ER. The state trooper there tried to get him to consent to a blood test, and he declined. While the officer went to get a search warrant for this blood, … Continue reading
CA9: Prior illegal entry into home doesn’t void subsequent SW if observations removed from SW affidavit
Assuming, without deciding, the warrantless entry into defendant’s home was invalid, there still was probable cause for issuance of the search warrant based on the remainder of the affidavit, excising the product of the prior entry. Inclusion of information from … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: 28 days of warrantless GPS tracking of a boat suppressed under Jones
Defendant’s boat was adrift off West Palm Beach, Florida for a few hours when the Coast Guard found him and boarded the boat. It was towed to the Coast Guard station and a border search was conducted. Nothing was found, … Continue reading
SC: Failure to register offense didn’t justify electronic monitoring condition under Grady
Defendant was convicted of a sex offense in 1979. In 2011 he was convicted of a sex offender registration offense. An electronic monitoring condition was unreasonable and a violation of the Fourth Amendment on this record under Grady v. North … Continue reading
