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- LA4: Merely having a concealed firearm isn’t RS for a frisk
- OR: Merely driving off the road wasn’t RS, but adding the driver’s demeanor at the time was
- OH6: Trial court’s failure to explain RS under Rodriguez required remand
- CA6: Asking def before a patdown during arrest what he had on him wasn’t barred by Miranda
- NY Queens: PC shown for SW blood drawn at hospital after car wreck
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
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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 -
© 2003-24,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 425,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 45,000 posts since 2003 (26,730+ on WordPress as of 12/31/23) -
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--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
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"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't."
—Me -
"Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well."
–Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw), Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things (1868) (erroneously attributed to Robert Louis Stevenson, among others) -
“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 -
"It is a pleasant world we live in, sir, a very pleasant world. There are bad people in it, Mr. Richard, but if there were no bad people, there would be no good lawyers."
—Charles Dickens, “The Old Curiosity Shop ... With a Frontispiece. From a Painting by Geo. Cattermole, Etc.” 255 (1848) -
"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!”
---Pepé Le Pew "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."
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948)
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Category Archives: Nexus
W.D.Tenn.: Merely saying in SW affidavit drug dealers usually keep stuff at home isn’t nexus; but GFE applies anyway
Merely alleging in a search warrant application that drug dealers usually keep drugs at home does not satisfy the nexus requirement. It does, however, satisfy the good faith exception. Motion to suppress denied. United States v. Neal, 2022 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Proving nexus to an alleged drug dealer’s home
Proving nexus to an alleged drug dealer’s home discussed in United States v. Stafford, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 210032 (N.D. Ohio Nov. 18, 2022):
N.D.Tex.: Officers don’t have to say they have PC before an automobile exception search
The officers didn’t say they had probable cause at the beginning of the search of the vehicle, but on the totality they did. United States v. Wesley, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 200320 (N.D. Tex. Nov. 3, 2022).* The Fourth Amendment … Continue reading
CA5: Multiple cell phones found with a quantity of drugs creates inference phones are for drug trafficking
When multiple cell phones and drugs are found together in a car, it’s a reasonable conclusion the cell phones are related to drug trafficking. The search of the phones reasonably led to child porn. United States v. Morton, 2022 U.S. … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Work product privilege in product of a SW is burden of defense
A special master reviewed the product of the search warrant for work product materials. The defendants have the burden of proof on work product, and they didn’t meet it. United States v. Vepuri, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 151833 (E.D. Pa. … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: PC showing raises the inference a cell phone was involved in crime for SW
“The affidavit also attempts to establish the link between the use of cell phones and the drug trafficking under investigation. Metzger’s warning to McFaul on social media, which presumably was accomplished through the use of an electronic device like a … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Being leader of a DTO can show nexus
Mere membership in a conspiracy of a drug trafficking organization does not show nexus to that conspirator’s home. Being the leader, however, does. United States v. Mubarak, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 133244 (D. Mass. July 27, 2022):
D.Neb.: Being with known gang members was RS here
Association with known gang members was reasonable suspicion when defendant was with them. “True, the task force did not have information that Defendant himself was affiliated with a gang or otherwise had a criminal history involving violence. But, given his … Continue reading
CA8: PC shown but for nexus, but GFE overcame that
The district court held the affidavit for the search warrant didn’t say enough to supply nexus to defendant’s home, but the good faith exception applied. Affirmed. The affidavit was sufficient for probable cause defendant was involved in dealing drugs, and … Continue reading
NE: “Probable cause may be based on commonsense conclusions about human behavior.”
There was probable cause for this search warrant for defendant’s cell phone found where a window peeper dropped it in flight from being seen at the window. The warrant was particular, and video of a sleeping woman being sexually abused … Continue reading
MO: Inventory followed policy without putting it into evidence
The officer testified his inventory followed policy, but no written policy was admitted into evidence. It was up to the trial court to believe the officer on policy or not, and it did. State v. Teel, 2022 Mo. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
DE: A reporter gets access to SW materials for Apple and social media companies in this murder case
In this two defendant murder case, the state obtained 18 search warrants for Apple and social media, but only one has been returned. A reporter sought access to the affidavits, and it’s granted. Defense counsel has already been given access … Continue reading
AR: SW for evidence linking to a homicide in another county found clothes worn seen in video
In a homicide investigation, officers showed probable cause for defendant’s house for evidence of the murder where the victim was abducted, driven 75 miles, and her body dumped in another county. Defendant was on video surveillance where the abduction occurred, … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: Def had REP in bag in car but no standing in rest of search of car
While defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the car he was in, he retained a reasonable expectation of privacy in his bag in the car. United States v. Grice, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72586 (W.D.Tex. Apr. 20, 2022). … Continue reading
CA9: PC of digital theft from Microsoft by employee also led to his home computer
There was probable cause to believe that defendant’s home computer would have evidence of his $10m digital theft from Microsoft from when he worked there. United States v. Kvashuk, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 8275 (9th Cir. Mar. 28, 2022).* There … Continue reading
E.D.Okla.: Lack of nexus to cell phone saved by GFE
The affidavit for the search warrant for defendant’s phone didn’t show nexus, but it was still relied upon in good faith. R&R rejected. United States v. Langford, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55162 (E.D.Okla. Mar. 28, 2022). Sounds and observations of … Continue reading