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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $Research Links:
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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
MS: Issuing a SW for a person with a similar name a decade earlier didn’t make magistrate not neurtral and detached
The fact the issuing judge issued another for a relative a decade earlier wasn’t shown to not be a neutral and detached magistrate. There was probable cause for this search warrant. Donaldson v. State, 2018 Miss. App. LEXIS 303 (June … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Exclusionary rule doesn’t apply to sentencing
“Rankin claimed counsel should have sought to suppress some of the evidence used at sentencing, but the exclusionary rule does not apply at sentencing.” United States v. Rankin, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 100129 (D. Mont. June 15, 2018). The affidavit … Continue reading
CA11: The officer received easily verifiable information that the tattoo on the suspect didn’t match the tattoos of the perpetrator; the arrest was without PC
Before the arrest the officer received easily verifiable exculpatory information from a witness, that the citizen’s single tattoo did not match the multiple tattoos visible on the perpetrator in the crime scene photograph that the officer showed the witness. Despite … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: Opinion analysis: With facts like these … Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach
SCOTUSBlog: Opinion analysis: With facts like these … Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach by Heidi Kitrosser:
GA: Controlled buy by CI corroborates CI and is PC in itself
“‘Under the common sense approach to search warrants, a controlled buy strongly corroborates the reliability of the informant and shows a fair probability that the contraband would be found.’… Indeed, ‘even if the informant had no known credibility, the controlled … Continue reading
VI: Decriminalization of small quantities of marijuana doesn’t eliminate an officer’s ability to search for it with PC
The fact of decriminalization of an ounce or less of marijuana does not obviate the ability of the police to conduct a frisk or a search for marijuana. The probable cause calculus remains the same, although the result of the … Continue reading
NE: A pre-Birchfield warrantless blood draw would not be excluded under GFE
A blood draw that predated Birchfield was valid under the good faith exception. “Because the good faith exception applies, the district court erred in reversing Hatfield’s conviction.” State v. Hatfield, 300 Neb. 152 (June 8, 2018). Two controlled buys by … Continue reading
NC: “Thursday” in a SW affidavit means the previous Thursday, and the search warrant wasn’t stale when issued
This case started with an anonymous letter about alleged drug sales at defendant’s residence. A trash pull was conducted on “Thursday.” Read in context, that means the previous Thursday, and the search warrant wasn’t stale when issued. State v. Teague, … Continue reading
NC: Seeing a “pipe” in a house in affidavit for SW doesn’t tell whether it was drug paraphernalia; no PC
The affidavit for the search warrant in this case mentioned that a pipe was seen in defendant’s house. The court of appeals finds that the affidavit doesn’t tell enough to determine whether it was a pipe for use for ingesting … Continue reading
IL: PC existed ten days after a crime to seek the weapon involved in the crime
There was probable cause for a search warrant for defendant’s house for a firearm involved in a crime ten days after the crime. Firearms are possessions usually kept. People v. Rodriguez, 2018 IL App (1st) 141379-B, 2018 Ill. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: “A series of legal acts may provide the basis for probable cause of illegal acts.”
The purchase of a chemical that could be used to make a toxic chemical weapon, legal in itself, can be probable cause. “A series of legal acts may provide the basis for probable cause of illegal acts.” United States v. … Continue reading
CA6: New evidence in civil case to impeach officers’ prior suppression hearing testimony isn’t ground for a successor 2255
2255 petitioner filed a successor petition alleging that a civil case he filed developed impeachment material that would undermine the original probable cause finding. This isn’t new evidence of innocence for a successor petition. In re Mohammed, 2018 U.S. App. … Continue reading
