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- D.Me.: Looking around house when allegedly “freezing” it was an illegal search
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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)
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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: Curtilage
CA5 declines to extend Bivens to 4A claims outside the home
Court declines to extend Bivens to a search in parking lot because it thinks SCOTUS would agree. Bivens was a search of the home. Byrd v. Lamb, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 6844 (5th Cir. Mar. 9, 2021). “Henriquez-Perez has not … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Tent in an open field might have had REP, but it was open to view inside and plain view applied
Assuming defendant’s tent in an “open field” area had a reasonable expectation of privacy (as the Ninth Circuit would hold), the tent was open and the officer could see in. There was no curtilage to the tent in an open … Continue reading
OH12: Officer responding to a mistreated dog call could walk to fence and look through then seize dog on exigency
An officer responded to an animal abuse complaint of a maltreated dog in defendant’s backyard. He parked in the driveway and walked to the door to inquire. No answer. He could see a fence with a missing board from the … Continue reading
TX14: No REP in a driveway def pulled into apparently hoping to ditch following police
Defendant’s red Ford Expedition was seen leaving an armed robbery, and the police were looking for it, finding it driving on the street. They followed, and it pulled into a driveway. Defendant shows no reasonable expectation of privacy in the … Continue reading
CA8: QI denied for entering the wrong house at 3 am looking for taxi fare skipper
Police looking for a taxicab fare skipper at 3 am found a door to a garage ajar and entered plaintiffs’ home with guns drawn. They encountered plaintiffs outside their bedroom but never found the fare skipper. Plaintiffs sued. The court … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: PC a close call, so GFE applies
“Ultimately, the Court need not decide which side of the Ramirez-Merriweather line [of probable cause] this case falls. It suffices to say that, especially because the search warrant affidavit makes no mention of any communications involving Jackson’s cell phone, it … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Driveway here was not Curtilage “intimately tied to the home”
Defendant’s driveway was not Curtilage “intimately tied to the home.” United States v. Martinez-Velazquez, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15723 (M.D. La. Jan. 28, 2021):
CA10: Code enforcement officer coming to ptf’s door to talk to him didn’t violate curtilage
A city code enforcement officer who came to plaintiff’s door for a couple of minutes to attempt to talk to him about a sign code violation did not violate the curtilage. Clark v. City of Williamsburg, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
OH7: Police going to def’s back window and video recording him in house violated curtilage
A police officer coming to the back of defendant’s house to look in the window and video him with a cell phone violated curtilage and his reasonable expectation of privacy. State v. Desarro, 2020-Ohio-6815, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 4661 (7th … Continue reading
CA10: There was no violation of curtilage for def’s home on grounds of 24/7 storage company
Defendant lived on the grounds of a 24/7 storage building company. At 2:30 am, officers investigating saw cars coming and going from the residence. They approached his building, and the approach way wasn’t curtilage under Dunn. United States v. Powell, … Continue reading
CA5: Temporary guest on property had no standing on the curtilage
A temporary guest on the property had no standing in the curtilage. Even so, the officer’s merely looking in his vehicle and seeing Sudafed in plain view wasn’t a Fourth Amendment violation. “It is undisputed that Carr had been inside … Continue reading
NY4: No REP in a handgun placed under car bumper in driveway at sidewalk visible from off the property
When defendant saw the police car at night, he crouched down behind the rear bumper of his minivan and stood up. The officers could see a gun there, and it was approximately at where the sidewalk and the driveway met. … Continue reading
MA: Apt building hallway near apt was neither a constitutionally protected area nor curtilage
The hallway near defendant’s apartment in a multi-unit apartment building was not a constitutionally protected area nor within the apartment’s curtilage. Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not moving to suppress his arrest and search in the common area. Commonwealth v. … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: A pipe in a car that could have legitimate uses still was incriminating enough for plain view
A pipe logically and usually used for smoking pot was seized in plain view because its incriminating nature was immediately apparent. The fact it could be used for legal substances doesn’t detract from that. United States v. Runner, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: While one’s roof is on the curtilage, it lacks a REP
Defendant’s roof was not a place with a reasonable expectation of privacy despite the fact it was on the curtilage (decided in the context of an ineffective assistance of counsel claim). Davis v. United States, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 201562 … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Trash search entered constitutionally protected area, and there’s no trash search exception to curtilage
The officers entered a constitutionally protected area of defendant’s property for a trash seizure. The court also declines to adopt a “trash exception” to curtilage that trash expected to be picked up later is not protected. United States v. Gregory, … Continue reading
TX5: HIPAA doesn’t create REP in blood toxicology for medical treatment later used in DUI
HIPAA doesn’t create a reasonable expectation of privacy in one’s blood sample obtained for medical treatment. HIPAA recognizes criminal process to obtain it. Consuelo v. State, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 8460 (Tex. App. – Dallas Oct. 27, 2020). Any lack … Continue reading
SCOTUS: three dissent from denial of cert.: Jardines requires reversal
Bovat v. Vermont, 2020 U.S. LEXIS 5057 (Oct. 19, 2020) (Gorsuch dissenting from denial of certiorari with Sotomayor and Kagan):
VA: Knock-and-talk is still a valid exception for entry onto the curtilage
While entry into the curtilage is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant, Collins v. Virginia, 138 S. Ct. 1663, 1670 (2018), there is still implied license for police to enter for a knock-and-talk. Saal v. Commonwealth, 2020 Va. App. LEXIS 241 … Continue reading