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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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Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
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Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
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LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
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: Ineffective assistance
S.D.Fla.: Co-def’s winning suppression motion shows IAC for this defendant
Defendant satisfied his burden of proof that defense counsel was ineffective because his codefendant prevailed on his motion to suppress. If he’d timely moved to set aside the plea it would have almost certainly been granted. Perez v. United States, … Continue reading
FL1: Def’s car search outside his chain link fence was outside the curtilage
Defendant was stopped for a traffic offense, but he made it to his mobile home and parked outside the chain link fence. The court finds the car was outside the curtilage under Dunn when the stop and dog sniff occurred. … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Carpenter applies to a 2015 CSLI application because the case is still pending
Carpenter applies to defendant’s CSLI because his case is still pending despite the fact the CSLI was obtained in 2015. Suppressed. United States v. Beverly, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183539 (S.D. Tex. Oct. 26, 2018). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for … Continue reading
CA10: In a Carpenter remand, court remands to Dist.Ct. instead of applying GFE
This case was GVR’d after Carpenter, and the court remands to the district court to make further findings. United States v. Thompson, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 29949 (10th Cir. Oct. 24, 2018). Defense counsel can’t be ineffective for not filing … Continue reading
ME: First blood draw was potentially contaminated, so second was valid under exigent circumstances
The state showed by a preponderance of the evidence that there were exigent circumstances for a warrantless blood draw. Natural dissipation of alcohol alone is not an exigency under McNealy. The first blood draw was potentially contaminated, so a second … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: Def counsel’s decision not to pursue a motion to suppress was reasonable and designed to prevent superseding indictment with higher MM
Defense counsel’s decision not to pursue a motion to suppress was reasonable under the circumstances. Defendant was already facing a 60 month minimum. The government made clear that they had additional counts they could bring but wouldn’t if the defense … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Court can’t exclude for knock-and-announce failure
Failure to properly knock-and-announce is foreclosed as a reason for exclusion under Hudson v. Michigan. United States v. Calligan, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 173193 (N.D. Ind. Oct. 9, 2018). 2255 petitioner was not prejudiced by defense counsel’s failure to challenge … Continue reading
TX: No IAC for def counsel not forecasting change in 4A law
Defense counsel was not ineffective for not forecasting McNeeley before defendant’s guilty plea. “When a defendant waives the right to have a jury determine guilt or innocence and admits or does not contest guilt, the defendant does so under the … Continue reading
CA7: In a wiretap application, only def’s nickname was sufficient when PC is shown
Defendant on a wiretap application was only known by his nickname, and this did nothing to alter the probable cause analysis nor undermine probable cause. United States v. Santiago, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 27919 (7th Cir. Oct. 2, 2018) (there’s … Continue reading
CA11: Not calling def at suppression hearing was [a founded] strategy decision
Defense counsel’s decision not to call the defendant or other witnesses at a suppression hearing was a strategy decision not subject to second guessing except in extraordinary circumstances. Defense counsel concluded they lacked credibility. Here, defendant testified at trial to … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Being bumped by a police car and fleeing three more miles wasn’t a seizure
Defendant wasn’t seized by being bumped by police car because he went another three miles without stopping. “Moreover, the Eleventh Circuit and courts across different circuits have concluded that no seizure occurs where police attempt to stop a fleeing vehicle … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: No IAC for not challenging CSLI without warrant before Carpenter
Defendant didn’t get ineffective assistance of counsel from defense counsel not challenging warrantless CSLI production without a warrant before Carpenter. United States v. Lewisbey, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 165566 (N.D. Ill. Sep. 27, 2018). Defendant claimed for the first time … Continue reading
