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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© 2003-21,
online since Feb. 24, 2003
WebPage Visits: real non-robot hits since 2010; approx. about 30,000 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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State courts (and some USDC opinions)
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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)
"On the Docket"–Medill
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General (many free):
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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)
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Category Archives: GPS / Tracking Data
W.D.Mo.: No co-conspirator standing in GPS cell phone tracking
One co-conspirator has no standing in GPS tracking of his co-conspirator’s cell phone. The officers also had probable cause to search their car based on: knowledge they were cell phone store burglars, a Snapchat video with defendants having numerous cell … Continue reading
LA1: Probationer wearing GPS ankle monitor has no REP in information about his movements
A probationer wearing a GPS ankle monitor has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the information that linked him to an armed robbery while he was on probation. State in the interest of T.B., 2021 La. App. LEXIS 188 (La. … Continue reading
NPR: Maryland Man Arrested After GPS Unit Allegedly Shows He Was At Capitol Riot
NPR: Maryland Man Arrested After GPS Unit Allegedly Shows He Was At Capitol Riot by Austin Austermuhle (“A Silver Spring man who prosecutors say is a professed white supremacist has been charged for illegally entering and remaining in a restricted … Continue reading
NC: GPS tracking warrant affidavit showed PC
The warrant for installing a GPS tracker on defendant’s vehicle showed probable cause, the subject of the tracking to places he’s been and to locate potential conspirators. State v. McNeill, 2020 N.C. App. LEXIS 947 (Dec. 31, 2020).* Not having … Continue reading
NC: Mere visitor on the premises shouldn’t have been searched without articulatable RS
Defendant was a visitor on the premises when a search warrant was executed. A full search of his person was unreasonable because there were no facts shown justifying a belief he was armed or dangerous. The dissents view would hollow … Continue reading
CA11: Even if warrantless monitoring of a package in def’s home violated 4A, inevitable discovery applies
Even if warrantless monitoring of a package into defendant’s house violated the Fourth Amendment, inevitable discovery applies. There was an intensive investigation and time was of the essence. The exclusionary rule should not be applied. United States v. Watkins, 2020 … Continue reading
NY3: CI showed PC; GPS warrant corroborated the CI
The CI appeared and testified to the probable cause. A separate search warrant for GPS tracking corroborated the CI. People v. Jackson, 2020 NY Slip Op 07251, 2020 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7450 (3d Dept. Dec. 3, 2020). The CI … Continue reading
MA: Home confinement and GPS monitoring as a condition of release pending sentencing was reasonable
Home confinement after conviction but pending a motion for new trial was not an unreasonable seizure. It was discretionary on conviction. GPS monitoring as well was a search under Grady, but, on a balancing of interests, it was reasonable on … Continue reading
FL1: No REP in GPS installed in car def borrowed from a friend
Defendant had taken a car from a friend, and the car had a GPS installed by agreement between the owner and the finance company. The car owner didn’t know whether it had been stolen, and reported it to the police. … Continue reading
CT: Pretrial GPS monitoring didn’t violate right to counsel and is 4A reasonable
Pretrial GPS monitoring that can tell when the accused is at his attorney’s office doesn’t violate the right to counsel, and it’s reasonable when merely monitoring whether defendant is abiding by her pretrial travel restrictions. State v. Troconis, 2020 Conn. … Continue reading
GA: Even if GPS tracker was unconstitutionally placed, it didn’t affect later SW for vehicle
Defendant first claimed the vehicle was his when the officer asked, and he consented to a search of it. After a few loose rounds of ammunition were found, he disavowed ownership. It turned out there was also a tracking device … Continue reading
CNS: Seventh Circuit Examines Lifetime GPS Tracking of Sex Offender
CNS: Seventh Circuit Examines Lifetime GPS Tracking of Sex Offenders by Joe Kelly (“The Seventh Circuit on Friday weighed the intrusiveness of a Wisconsin statute that institutes lifetime GPS monitoring of certain convicted sex offenders against the necessity of preventing … Continue reading
CA9: There is no exhaustion requirement for other investigative techniques for a tracking warrant, but failure to adequately brief it is waiver anyway
The affidavit for this GPS tracking warrant said that other investigative techniques had been exhausted, and defendant claims it was false. “Colldock also contests the affidavit’s statement that law enforcement had, before seeking a GPS tracking warrant, ‘exhausted its investigative … Continue reading
Techdirt: Government’s ‘Reverse’ Warrant Rejected By Two Consecutive Federal Judges
Techdirt: Government’s ‘Reverse’ Warrant Rejected By Two Consecutive Federal Judges by Tim Cushing (“Warrants are supposed to have a certain amount of particularity. These warrants have none. All they have are some coordinates and a clock. Fortunately, as the EFF … Continue reading
FoxNews: Google CEO says tech giant deletes this information used by police
FoxNews: Google CEO says tech giant deletes this information used by police by Brooke Brothers (“Google now sets a time limit on data used by police for tracking suspects, the CEO said at Wednesday’s congressional hearing with tech giants. The … Continue reading
Slate: Customs and Border Protection Can Track Cars Nationwide Via Commercial Database
Slate: Customs and Border Protection Can Track Cars Nationwide Via Commercial Database by Hannah Klein (“It turns out that U.S. Customs and Border Protection could now keep an eye on your car without even getting a warrant. This month, we … Continue reading
