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- NY Queens: PC shown for SW blood drawn at hospital after car wreck
- CA7: Hotel room vacated by tenant could be searched by hotel management
- W.D.N.Y.: SW for devices used for video surveillance included cell phones because apps can be used to view cameras from cell phones
- CA3: PC for ptf’s arrest for punching a police horse
- D.N.M.: Three Franks challenges, one successful
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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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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
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"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: Reasonable expectation of privacy
D.V.I.: Govt couldn’t prove helicopter flyover was 1000′ or more; suppressed
The government flew a helicopter over defendant’s property to photograph a suspected marijuana grow. It could not provide testimony that the helicopter was flown at 1000′ or above in navigable air space. Defendant had a subjected expectation of privacy against … Continue reading
CT: Action to quash SW before criminal case became moot when charge filed
The petitioner sought to quash search warrants when there was no criminal case. After the criminal cases were finally filed, this action was moot because the claim could be brought within the criminal cases. In re Police Case Nos.: Meriden … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: Dog sniff in apt building breezeway violated no REP, and it was moot anyway
On the totality, there was probable cause for cell phone search warrants. One can attempt to explain away the pieces, but the totality shows it. A dog sniff in the breezeway of an apartment complex violated no reasonable expectation of … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: University exam proctor’s requirement of room scan before video test violates REP under 4A
The proctor of this university examination on video required a room scan to prove the student was alone. The room scan violated plaintiff’s reasonable expectation of privacy. CSU’s reliance on Wyman v. James is rejected. That case is 51 years … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Using an alias to rent a hotel room is not a waiver of a REP in it
The use of an alias to rent a hotel room doesn’t forfeit a reasonable expectation of privacy in it. The warrantless entry here was unreasonable. United States v. Henning, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147239 (S.D. W. Va. Aug. 17, 2022). … Continue reading
OR: No REP in medical records that include BAC results
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in medical records including the results of defendant’s BAC test. State v. Hoffman, 321 Or. App. 330 (Aug. 10, 2022):
D.C.Cir.: FAA drone registration requirement violates no REP
The FAA rule requiring all drones when flying to transmit information about themselves violates no reasonable expectation of privacy. They operate in public airspace, which the federal government controls, and the rule requires a digital license plate but only electronically … Continue reading
AZ: No REP in a police interrogation room
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a police interrogation room when a suspect is talking to anybody except their lawyer. State v. Allen, 2022 Ariz. LEXIS 235 (July 26, 2022). The defendant argues no reasonable suspicion for his … Continue reading
MI: Extending stop for photographs and fingerprints unreasonable
The Grand Rapids PD’s policy of photographing and fingerprinting people without probable cause or reasonable suspicion in a Terry stop violated the Fourth Amendment. It was a trespass on the body. Johnson v. Vanderkooi, 2022 Mich. LEXIS 1359 (July 22, … Continue reading
CO: Recreational MJ created privacy interest in cars from dog sniff for MJ
The state constitutional amendment legalizing recreational marijuana created a privacy interest in one’s car from a dog sniff for drugs on only reasonable suspicion. The good faith exception does not apply. People v. Lopez, 2022 COA 70M, 2022 Colo. App. … Continue reading
W.D.Wis.: No REP in one’s Facebook posts, even when accessed by a “ghost” account
A law enforcement officer’s creation of a ghost Facebook account to access defendant’s private pages violated no reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Randall, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122615 (W.D. Wis. July 12, 2022), and more elaborate than I … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Def’s statements disassociating himself from the premises searched showed no standing
Defendant had some connection to the premises, but his disassociation from the premises when asked about it by the police showed his lack of standing. “To resolve his motion to suppress, however, the Court need not determine whether these possessory … Continue reading
CA9: Inventory of backpack no one would claim was reasonable
The seizure and inventory of a backpack in a car was reasonable where neither of the occupants could say who it belonged to. United States v. Montano, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 17544 (9th Cir. June 24, 2022).* Plaintiff cannot claim … Continue reading
OH3: In flyover case, def carries burden of showing a “search” and violation of FAA rules
In a helicopter flyover case, defendant carried the burden of showing that the police conducted a “search” that violated his reasonable expectation of privacy by flying too low in violation of FAA rules. He didn’t here; remanded. State v. Jordan, … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: No REP in car obtained by fraud
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a car obtained by identify theft. United States v. Ilori, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104338 (S.D.N.Y. June 10, 2022):
NY Bronx: REP in one’s apartment building mailbox
Defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his mailbox in an apartment building from unreasonable searches. A search warrant was sought through the Bronx DA, but they were short staffed and recommended the officers get landlord consent. That was … Continue reading
PA: State bears initial burden of showing lack of REP that def must meet
In Pennsylvania, the state has to attempt to show a lack of reasonable expectation of privacy before it can argue a lack of standing. Here, it acquiesced in standing until after it lost the suppression argument, and that’s too late. … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: If you leave a cell phone in someone else’s car, you risk it getting searched
When one leaves his cell phone in a car, he or she assumes the risk that the phone will be found by the police and searched. United States v. Hagy, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89437 (S.D.W.Va. May 18, 2022). “They … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Information from seller’s GPS tracker on used car didn’t require a SW
Tracking a used car by its GPS for repossession didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. Defendant bought a used car apparently to use in a robbery. A license plate reader identified the car and the police easily tracked it back to … Continue reading
OH6: Police coming uninvited in hotel room 18 minutes after checkout time was unreasonable
Officers arrived at defendant’s motel room 18 minutes after checkout time and searched. The state claimed defendant lost his reasonable expectation of privacy in the room. Hotel management, however, had done nothing about that and apparently didn’t even know. The … Continue reading