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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© 2003-19,
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:
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Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
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General (many free):
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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: Emergency / exigency
IL: Delaying stop to call car rental company wasn’t reasonable
Defendant was driving a Hertz rental car, and the delay of the stop to call Hertz was not within the mission of a traffic stop for speeding. “Similarly, we reject the State’s argument that the call to Hertz can be … Continue reading
PA: Theft of a firearm isn’t exgency for warrantless search of a house
Defendant’s alleged theft of a firearm the day before was not an exigent circumstance for a warrantless entry into his home. Commonwealth v. Gray, 2019 PA Super 175, 2019 Pa. Super. LEXIS 541 (May 31, 2019). In fact, the person … Continue reading
D.Colo.: To just say a SW is “stale” in a motion to suppress says nothing; def has to show how or why it is stale
Defendant “cannot simply state general legal principles and expect the Court or the Government to figure out what he means to argue. Burciaga bears the burden here, and this ‘argument’ does not satisfy it. Accordingly, the Court will not inquire … Continue reading
AL: Children missing after mother’s murder was exigency for entry of house
Defendant was believed to have dismembered the mother of his children and the children couldn’t be found. Police got an address and went there but didn’t get an answer. They went to her parents’ house who sent them back to … Continue reading
DE: Def’s flight from parole and recent crimes were exigency for cell phone ping
There was exigency for an emergency cell phone ping to locate defendant. He’d just committed enough crimes to get sentenced to life and he was on the run from police. State v. Snell, 2019 Del. Super. LEXIS 249 (May 21, … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Entry to deal with mental health crisis was with exigent circumstances
Police get a tip that plaintiff was a mental health danger to himself or others, and they entered his house with a mental health professional to examine him. That person found plaintiff in need of involuntary commitment. “All of those … Continue reading
MA: Pinging a cell phone is a search, but here it was with exigent circumstances
Pinging a cell phone to find its location was a search under the Massachusetts Constitution and Fourth Amendment, but it was reasonable because the state showed true exigent circumstances. Commonwealth v. Almonor, 482 Mass. 35 (Apr. 23, 2019). Washington declines … Continue reading
ScotusBlog: Argument analysis: Justices debate warrantless blood draw for unconscious drunk driver
ScotusBlog: Argument analysis: Justices debate warrantless blood draw for unconscious drunk driver by Amy Howe:
MO: Warrantless blood draw from unresponsive person requires SW [issue also pending in SCOTUS]
The warrantless blood draw here was without exigent circumstances. The state instead relies on state statute, which the court finds a warrantless blood draw from an unresponsive person violates the Fourth Amendment. State v. Osborn, 2019 Mo. App. LEXIS 542 … Continue reading
KY: Possession of MJ on one’s person away from home doesn’t create exigency for search of house
Defendant’s possession of marijuana on his person away from his house didn’t create exigent circumstances for a search of it. Giles v. Commonwealth, 2019 Ky. App. LEXIS 6= (Apr. 12, 2019). Installation of an electronically read gas meter was a … Continue reading
PA: Officer safety was not presumed to be exigency where def did nothing to warrant fear he’d use a weapon by merely refusing consent and walking away
Exigency of officer safety did not permit officers to search defendant’s garage. They came without a search warrant to arrest a third person. Defendant denied anyone else was there, refused to consent to a search, and turned and walked away. … Continue reading
TX10: Exigency and protective sweep justified entry after a shooting
“The evidence presented at the suppression hearing, when viewed in the light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling, supports the denial of Weems’s motion to suppress based on either the exigent-circumstances or protective-sweep doctrines. … Specifically, once Taylor opened … Continue reading
