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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, other
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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:
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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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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: Emergency / exigency
NY3: Smell and smoke from working meth lab in garage was exigency
The officer pulled into defendant’s driveway and defendant came out and was really nervous. Smoke was coming out a window in the garage that smelled like a meth cook. There was exigency for entry without a warrant. People v. Alberts, … Continue reading
CA11: Interrupted residential burglary is exigency for police entry and search
“Police officers interrupt what they reasonably believe to be a residential burglary and detain two suspects just outside the house. Having done so, can the officers thereafter lawfully enter the home—without a warrant, and without further suspicion of wrongdoing—to briefly … Continue reading
PA: Def consented to recordings of jail calls, and this is an exception to the state wiretap statute
The trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law were completely wrong. Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy concerning his jail calls made over a television monitor and through a computer system. This was a case of consent … Continue reading
IN: Def slumped over steering wheel in hospital parking lot justified look in car based on emergency aid exception
A deputy sheriff was doing off-duty security work at a hospital same day surgery parking lot when he saw the defendant slumped over his steering wheel, the door open, and the engine off. When the officer turned on his take … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: A 16 year old girl, over the age of consent, was in a hotel room with a 45 year old man; that alone was not exigency
A 16 year old girl, over the age of consent, was in a hotel room with a 45 year old man. That alone did not create exigent circumstances. Certainly the parents would be concerned, but there was no evidence that … Continue reading
W.D.Okla.: DOJ subpoena issued under the Right to Financial Privacy Act was “relevant to [a] law enforcement inquiry”
A DOJ subpoena issued under the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978, 12 U.S.C. §§ 3401-3422 (“RFPA”). “Having carefully reviewed the United States’ detailed response, the Court finds that there is a reasonable belief that the records sought are … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Emergency aid exception doesn’t apply to justify entry where victims are accounted for outside
The government didn’t meet its burden of showing the emergency aid exception applied where all the purported victims were accounted for and outside the apartment they wanted to search. The protective sweep doctrine as an alternative doesn’t apply here because … Continue reading
NV: Even if PBT was a 4A violation, SW was moot because there was both PC and exigency for warrantless search
The trial court erred in suppressing the telephonic search warrant for defendant’s blood. Even if the PBT was unconstitutional, there was both probable cause and exigent circumstances without even considering it. State v. Sample, 134 Nev. Adv. Op. 23, 2018 … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Def’s Franks IAC claim fails for lack of any allegations of fact
“Lloyd makes four claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. Those claims border on the ridiculous.” As to his Fourth Amendment IAC claim for not making a Franks challenge, he alleges nothing was false. United States v. Lloyd, 2018 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
CA9: Shell casings in front of house corroborated shooting call police received then def “blatantly lied” about somebody else in house
Police received a call about an emergency at defendant’s house. Once there, defendant came outside and promptly lied about anybody else being inside because they’d seen somebody just enter, and there were shell casings in the front yard corroborating that … Continue reading
PA: Reasonableness inquiry always required for warrantless blood draw
Trial court failed to make a reasonableness inquiry of whether the warrantless search of defendant’s blood was objectively reasonable. Reversed and remanded. Commonwealth v. Trahey, 2018 PA Super 72, 2018 Pa. Super. LEXIS 276 (Mar. 26, 2018):
CA10: Carelessly unloading watermelons from a box truck away from a loading dock and in middle of night with “nonsensical” answers was PC
Officers had probable cause to search defendants’ box truck. They were unloading watermelons in the middle of the night on wet grass and not at some loading dock coupled with all the unusual, vague, and even “nonsensical” excuses for why … Continue reading
