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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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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:
SCOTUSBlog
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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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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: Probable cause
MA: Def’s clothes can be seized and searched for trace evidence on arrest for murder
When defendant was arrested for kidnapping and murder, exigent circumstances justified seizing and then searching defendant’s clothes for trace evidence of the crime. Commonwealth v. Parker, 2018 Mass. LEXIS 807 (Dec. 7, 2018). A dead body near defendant’s apartment with … Continue reading
KS: Even with roadside Miranda violation, PC still exists under the 4A without the statement
Defendant’s statement at the side of the road was taken in violation of Miranda and should have been suppressed. This does not affect, however, the Fourth Amendment analysis of whether there was probable cause because there was without the statement. … Continue reading
KY: License plate reader alert justified stop
A license plate reader told the officer that defendant’s car insurance needed to be verified because it was not on file, and that was a reasonable basis for the stop. Lynem v. Commonwealth, 2018 Ky. App. LEXIS 299 (Dec. 7, … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Failure to challenge CSLI before Carpenter wasn’t IAC
Defendant’s verdict was the day Carpenter was decided, and his defense lawyer hadn’t challenged the CSLI before that. Defense lawyers don’t have to forecast changes in the law. “ Even following Carpenter, the Second Circuit has declined to suppress cell … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Anonymous crimestoppers report was uncorroborated and did not provide probable cause
An anonymous crimestoppers report was uncorroborated and did not provide probable cause for a search. United States v. Allgood, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 200729 (W.D. Tenn. Nov. 28, 2018):
E.D.Mich.: It was a reasonable inference for the USMJ that persons who possess firearms usually do so at home
It was a reasonable inference for the USMJ that persons who possess firearms usually do so at home. Therefore, there was probable cause for the search warrant. United States v. Bland, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199111 (E.D. Mich. Nov. 26, … Continue reading
CA9: PC was so lacking for two tracking warrants that GFE does not apply
Probable cause for two tracking warrants was so completely lacking that it was unreasonable to rely on them, and the good faith exception does not apply. United States v. Lopez-Zuniga, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 33096 (8th Cir. Nov. 26, 2018):
W.D.N.Y.: PC was a close call, so the court finds GFE applies instead
Probable cause is a close call here. The USMJ found probable cause and that the good faith exception applied. On review of the R&R, the court applies only the good faith exception to find the search valid. United States v. … Continue reading
CA6: Affidavit for SW showed PC for bank robbery, in part because def had a note with the names of the kidnapped employees
“Here, the affidavit summarized the entirety of the agents’ investigation: the two abductions of bank employees in Knoxville, the September 3rd chase in a nearby area, Benanti’s arrest shortly after leaving the cabin, the surveillance tools in his possession, and … Continue reading
WA: State AG’s civil investigative demand to a company did not unreasonably intrude into “private affairs” or violate 4A
A company that consolidated student loans was required to comply with the Washington State Attorney General’s civil investigative demand (CID) under Wash. Rev. Code § 19.86.110. The company did not have a right against self-incrimination and the CID did not … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Govt showed basis to get SW for def’s blood to prove he wasn’t taking the oxy he was prescribed
Defendant’s oxycodone use was tipped to the police by an automated system that he was prescribed 50 oxys a day for five years [yet wasn’t dead]. “The indictment further alleges that from November 2012-November 2017, Defendant filled prescriptions on a … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: The affidavit for SW of def’s cell phone was mostly “boilerplate,” but added enough to get over the PC threshold
Because of evidence in plain view (drugs and a gun) after a traffic accident and all of defendant’s prior drug arrests, it was not unreasonable for officers to seize defendant’s Tracfone incident to arrest. The affidavit to search the cell … Continue reading
