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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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Sixth Circuit
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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)
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LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
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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: Inventory
E.D.Tex.: Driver’s arrest justified impoundment and inventory under dept’s policy
“In this case, Defendant, the driver and sole occupant of the vehicle, had been arrested. It was likely the vehicle would be unattended for an extended period of time. Per department policy, the arresting officers caused the vehicle to be … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Inventory was unjustified
It was apparent the officer wanted to search defendant’s car, so he devised a way to seize it, but it was without justification. Thus, the inventory was unreasonable. United States v. James, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82527 (D. N.M. May … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Search of car’s fuse box reasonable in an inventory
The search of a car’s fuse box was reasonable under the inventory search exception. The body cameras were on when the inventory started and then were turned off. The court declines to find that this showed bad faith because everything … Continue reading
NC: Failure to object to satellite-based monitoring in trial court was waiver
Defendant didn’t raise the constitutionality of satellite-based monitoring in the trial court, so it’s waived for appeal. He also can’t bring it up by certiorari. State v. DeJesus, 2019 N.C. App. LEXIS 384 (May 7, 2019). Reasonable suspicion developed at … Continue reading
D.Wis.: Property renter didn’t yet have standing to challenge ordinance for renter information under 4A
Suit over a county ordinance that short term rental properties have to allow government access to their guest registries as a violation of the Fourth Amendment was moot. Plaintiff hadn’t filed the paperwork under the ordinance so he doesn’t yet … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Generically describing in an inventory “tools” and “misc items” was constitutionally adequate to show true inventory
Describing a lot of stuff in defendant’s car as “tools” and “misc items” was good enough. “Officer Jas also testified that having the inventory search recorded in his BWC served to verify the accuracy of his paperwork. Having considered Officer … Continue reading
MD: The actual inventory is the list of what was seized, not necessarily from exactly where it was seized
“What the inventory must list, as was properly done in this case, is the property that was actually seized, not the rooms that were searched. To describe the scope of the search is not the function of an inventory list.” … Continue reading
NE: Search of the person here was valid an an inventory at the jail
The search of defendant’s person at the jail after his arrest was valid as an inventory search. State v. Garcia, 302 Neb. 406 (Mar. 8, 2019). “As set forth above, the undersigned does not agree with Defendant that the affidavit … Continue reading
OR: Def ordered from car left purse inside, and it was subject to inventory when car towed
Defendant was ordered out of the car, and she left her purse inside. Her purse was legitimately subjected to the inventory since it was left in the car. State v. Fulmer, 296 Ore. App. 61, 2019 Ore. App. LEXIS 190 … Continue reading
CA8: Lesser intrusive measures to inventory not constitutionally required
The inventory was appropriately conducted within the policy of the department. Defendant had no constitutional right to have somebody come to pick up the car before inventory. The police could do that if convenient, but they weren’t required to do … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: Towing and inventory objectively reasonable; subjective motive doesn’t matter
The towing and inventory of defendant’s vehicle was objectively reasonable. His later assertion that he uncovered evidence of a subjective motivation for towing and inventory is insufficient to overcome the objective basis. United States v. Vales, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Cursory search of garage was permissible protective sweep
The bodycam video shows that the entry into the house for a search was by consent of a co-occupant. A cursory search of garage was permitted under protective sweep. United States v. Russell, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9977 (S.D. Ohio … Continue reading
