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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, other
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
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LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
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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“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: On remand from Grady, realtime satellite based monitoring of a sex offender on release was unreasonable under 4A
On remand from Grady v. North Carolina, 135 S. Ct. 1368, 191 L. Ed. 2d 459 (2015), the state failed to prove that continuous realtime satellite based monitoring of defendant was unreasonable. The lack of a warrant requirement without any … Continue reading
OH9: GPS tracking previously imposed for parole wasn’t a violation of 4A
GPS tracking as a condition of parole was based in substantial part on findings in a prior sentencing involving defendant, and that did not violate the Fourth Amendment in imposing those release conditions. That GPS information was used in this … Continue reading
CA10: Three CIs corroborated each other and were independently corroborated
The affidavit for the arrest warrant was based on three CIs who corroborated each other and which were independently corroborated by the police. A Franks challenge was included that a prior search resulted in finding drugs that were not mentioned … Continue reading
OH8: No standing in a package neither sent nor to be received by def
Defendant lacked standing to challenge the placing of the GPS tracking device on the package because she was neither the sender nor addressee of the package and demonstrated no reasonable expectation of privacy in the package. The police could validly … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: SW for premises for “other evidence of distribution” of drugs permitted search of def’s pockets
The search warrant was for “drugs, drug paraphernalia, owe sheets, cell phones, firearms, stolen merchandise, or other evidence of distribution of a controlled substance.” That permits a search of defendant’s pockets, and the cash found there was subject to potential … Continue reading
DE: Totality showed nexus for court ordered GPS on def’s car as suspect in burglaries
The totality of the circumstances showed a logical nexus among burglaries, defendant’s vehicle, and defendant for placement of a GPS by court order. There was a sufficient basis for finding probable cause that defendant was the person who committed the … Continue reading
CO: Def had no REP in the GPS his bondsman made him wear
The defendant was on bail, and his bondsman monitored him by GPS. The police obtained the GPS information to connect him to another crime. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the bondsman’s GPS. People v. Campbell, 2018 COA … Continue reading
LA2: No REP in text messages in another person’s cell phone
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in text messages in another person’s cell phone. State v. Young, 2018 La. App. LEXIS 110 (La. App. 2 Cir. Jan. 18, 2018). Defendant was on parole and his parole agreement required he … Continue reading
AZ: Passenger in a vehicle has standing to contest GPS surveillance of vehicle, but here GFE applies because pre-Jones
The passenger in a vehicle subjected to GPS monitoring even for a few days and on public roads has standing to contest the monitoring. Here, however, the GPS device was placed in February 2010, more than two years prior to … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: “GPS Affidavit [does not need] to include the ‘use and aims’ of the location information” to be valid
A “GPS Affidavit [does not need] to include the ‘use and aims’ of the location information” to be valid. [No case even suggests that.] United States v. Shulaya, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209340 (S.D. N.Y. Dec. 20, 2017). Defendant consented … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: State court GPS tracking order limited to Indiana didn’t prevent FBI from using it under 4A when car went to California
Defendant was suspected of a bank robbery, and the government presented a GPS tracking warrant affidavit to an Indiana judge to track defendant in Indiana. Shortly thereafter, defendant drove to Los Angeles, and he was stopped for a traffic offense … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: 6 day delay in installing a court ordered tracking device wasn’t unreasonable without a showing that PC dissipated
A six day delay in installing a court ordered tracking device wasn’t unreasonable without a showing that the probable cause dissipated in the meantime, and defendant didn’t. United States v. Thirkill, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166131 (M.D. Tenn. Oct. 5, … Continue reading
