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- D.N.M.: DEA’s failure to make a detailed inventory in violation of policy doesn’t require exclusion of evidence
- WaPo: These cities bar facial recognition tech. Police still found ways to access it.
- C.D.Cal.: SW materials in case with weighty public interest ordered unsealed
- DC: Accepting a law license is consent to trust account subpoenas
- AR: RS def rented a hotel room was sufficient for search waiver; PC not required
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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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Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
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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)
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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)
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Category Archives: GPS / Tracking Data
IL: GPS monitoring of food trucks to keep them 200′ from restaurants was reasonable
The City of Chicago requires GPS monitoring of food trucks to make sure they stay 200′ away from a regular restaurant or in food truck zones is reasonably related to the city’s interest in promoting viability of restaurants in the … Continue reading
Boston Globe: Top court in Mass. to review controversial technology police use to track cars
Boston Globe: Top court in Mass. to review controversial technology police use to track cars by Matt Rocheleau: Massachusetts’ highest court will soon review the legality of controversial surveillance technology that state and local law enforcement use to track vehicles … Continue reading
IA: Def’s prior stashing of burglary proceeds at home was nexus in this SW application
Nexus was shown to the house searched because defendant was known to have stashed burglary proceeds there before. [A good lack of standing argument could have been made and was unnecessary.] State v. Adams, 2019 Iowa App. LEXIS 574 (June … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Not putting in affidavit after controlled buy that CI was searched doesn’t void the SW
The officer’s failure to include in the affidavit that the CI was searched before going in is a matter for the issuing judge to consider. “Here, the lack of information regarding the credibility of the purchasers as well as the … Continue reading
MO: SW for a house includes the garden in the curtilage
The search warrant for defendant’s home authorized a search of defendant’s garden because, under Jardines, the curtilage is considered part of the house itself. State v. Daggett, 2019 Mo. App. LEXIS 843 (May 28, 2019). A state court’s 2017 cell … Continue reading
CA5: GFE wasn’t raised or litigated below so it’s not considered on appeal
The district court’s findings on the search were not clearly erroneous. The good faith exception wasn’t raised in the district court, and not on appeal so it’s waived. United States v. Taylor, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 14644 (5th Cir. May … Continue reading
CA8: Two CIs and officer’s observations provided PC for GPS tracking
Two tipsters and an officer’s observations of hand-to-hand deals led to a GPS warrant for defendant’s vehicle. It was issued with probable cause. Defendant wasn’t entitled to a Franks hearing over the CIs. United States v. Bradley, 2019 U.S. App. … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Warrantless downloading GPS from an installed device on a car violated Jones
Defendant bought a Lexus from a used car dealer that had a GPS installed to track it, apparently to repossess it if necessary. He was warned on the purchase contract. Still, the government needed a search warrant to get access … Continue reading
NC: Failure to object to satellite-based monitoring in trial court was waiver
Defendant didn’t raise the constitutionality of satellite-based monitoring in the trial court, so it’s waived for appeal. He also can’t bring it up by certiorari. State v. DeJesus, 2019 N.C. App. LEXIS 384 (May 7, 2019). Reasonable suspicion developed at … Continue reading
CA6: Tracking warrant was issued with PC
The tracking warrant here was issued on probable cause. “Courts have upheld vehicle-tracking warrants based on much weaker factual allegations than these. See, e.g., United States v. Faulkner, 826 F.3d 1139, 1145 (8th Cir. 2016) (upholding a vehicle-tracking warrant where … Continue reading
Denver Post: Holy police tech, Batman! Denver officers can now shoot your car with a GPS tracker if you try to flee
Denver Post: Holy police tech, Batman! Denver officers can now shoot your car with a GPS tracker if you try to flee by Elise Schmelzer Police leaders hope technology will minimize the number of dangerous chases So: installation by exigency. … Continue reading
ABAJ: GPS ankle monitors can call and record people without consent; do they violate 5th Amendment?
ABAJ: GPS ankle monitors can call and record people without consent; do they violate 5th Amendment? by Debra Cassens Weiss:
Business Insider: Your iPhone keeps a detailed list of every location you frequent
Business Insider: Your iPhone keeps a detailed list of every location you frequent — here’s how to delete your history and shut the feature off for good by Paige Leskin:
MA: Prolonged GPS monitoring as punishment for CP conviction was unreasonable under Grady
Prolonged GPS monitoring for punishment for child pornography, a non-contact offense, was unreasonable under Grady v. North Carolina because the state’s interest was only marginal compared to the interest of the offender. Commonwealth v. Feliz, 481 Mass. 689 (Mar. 26, … Continue reading
MA: Probation GPS monitoring can be accessed after the fact to prove def’s location in a new crime
Defendant was on probation and had GPS monitoring as a condition. It was reasonable for the state to access the historical GPS data later when defendant was suspected of a crime. Commonwealth v. Johnson, 481 Mass. 710 (Mar. 26, 2019). … Continue reading
NC: The state bears the burden of proof of reasonableness under Grady and it failed here
NC recognizes that its case law is in vast disarray since Grady v. North Carolina, and it’s tough to sort out. The state bears the burden of proof on reasonableness of satellite based monitoring of a sex offender. Here, the … Continue reading
CA9: Warrantless placement of GPS on a parolee’s car was reasonable under 4A
Based on Ninth Circuit precedent that cell phone searches are permitted by the parole search doctrine, the court finds that warrantless placing of a GPS on a parolees car is permitted under the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Korte, 2019 … Continue reading
GA: Lifetime GPS monitoring of SVPs after parole and the SO registry unreasonable under 4A
Lifetime GPS monitoring of a sexually violent predator was a Fourth Amendment violation that does not satisfy the special needs doctrine and is unreasonable. Despite the diminished expectation of privacy of a person on post-conviction supervision, this is just too … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: FBI Exceeded GPS Tracking Warrant, But Convictions Survive
Bloomberg Law: FBI Exceeded GPS Tracking Warrant, But Convictions Survive by Porter Wells: Duo of bank robbers ‘à la Bonnie and Clyde’ tracked by GPS Violating warrant terms not same as violating Fourth Amendment
Fox News: Chinese schools enforce ‘smart uniforms’ with GPS tracking to surveil students
Life without a Fourth Amendment: Fox News: Chinese schools enforce ‘smart uniforms’ with GPS tracking to surveil students by Christopher Carbone: Ten schools in China have new “intelligent uniforms” that will track students’ whereabouts with embedded computer chips.