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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© 2003-21,
online since Feb. 24, 2003
WebPage Visits: real non-robot hits since 2010; approx. about 30,000 posts since 2003~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and linksLatest Slip Opinions:
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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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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):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
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)
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Category Archives: Inventory
CA11: Tasing someone ignoring three commands to get on the ground was reasonable for QI purposes
“Measuring the facts of this case against the above factors, Deputy Ward acted reasonably when he used force against Duncan after she did not obey his orders to get on the ground. Even accepting as true that Duncan did not … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Suppression or dismissal aren’t remedies for violation of Right to Financial Privacy Act
Grand jury subpoenas are a proper method of obtaining bank records under the Right to Financial Privacy Act enacted after Miller. Also, suppression and dismissal aren’t remedies under the Act. United States v. Lundahl, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52211 (D.S.D. … Continue reading
MI: Inventory policy doesn’t have to be written if it’s standardized
A written search inventory policy isn’t constitutionally required. “We hold that, in order to establish that an inventory search is reasonable, the prosecution must establish that an inventory-search policy existed, all police officers were required to follow the policy, the … Continue reading
CA7: Showing up for a controlled buy justifies automobile exception search
A prior controlled buy with defendant showing up for another one justifies a vehicle search under the automobile exception. United States v. Smith, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 6166 (7th Cir. Mar. 3, 2021). The trial court credited the officer’s testimony … Continue reading
D.N.M.: While the govt didn’t prove exigency, inventory exception applied
While there was some exigency, the government failed on its burden of proving exigency necessitated its action. Instead, the court finds inevitable discovery. United States v. O’Neil, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35424 (D. N.M. Feb. 25, 2021):*
CO: Impoundment of car legally parked in residential neighborhood unreasonable; no community caretaking need
Defendant was arrested, and his vehicle, lawfully parked in a residential neighborhood, was unreasonably impounded and towed. There was no community caretaking function need. People v. Thomas, 2021 COA 23, 2021 Colo. App. LEXIS 268 (Feb. 25, 2021). Syllabus by … Continue reading
CA1: Dist.Ct. erred in suppressing inventory which followed SOP
Defendant was stopped for a lane violation, and it turned out he had no DL. He wasn’t arrested but the vehicle was impounded and searched incident to that, even though defendant would likely go with the tow truck driver to … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Impoundment under SOP was reasonable even though owner was present
Impoundment of defendant’s vehicle was reasonable and under standardized procedure, even though he was present. “I conclude Directive 406.3/2.3.4 was a reasonable standardized procedure. The officers’ decision to enforce Directive 406.2/2.3.4 and impound the vehicle, even though the lawful owner … Continue reading
MA: State bears the burden of showing there is no investigatory purpose for an inventory
The state of Massachusetts bears the burden of showing there is no investigatory purpose for an inventory. Commonwealth v. Lek, 2021 Mass. App. LEXIS 19 (Feb. 11, 2021):
E.D.Cal.: Officer wasn’t required to wait around for alternative means to tow vehicle before impoundment
“It is true that defendant made multiple requests to contact AAA to tow his truck, and he eventually suggested arranging for his father or friends, who were purportedly nearby, to move his truck to avoid impoundment. There was no telling … Continue reading
MD: 911 call led to plain view
911 was called by defendant’s mother about his possible cardiac arrest. When the officer arrived, defendant was alert and fine, and his drugs were in plain view. Their seizure was valid. Glanden v. State, 2021 Md. App. LEXIS 80 (Feb. … Continue reading
CA10: Gun seized during inventory called off could not be kept by police
Defendant’s car was stopped at the driveway he was pulling out of. The car was going to be impounded, but the actual owner came out and said that it was her car. The gun found during the inventory was hers, … Continue reading
NE: State failed in its burden of proof on inventory; the defense has no duty to clear up confusion in the proof
The state carried the burden, and it failed to prove that the inventory of defendant’s vehicle followed standardized procedure or was reasonable. The defense had no burden to clear up any evidentiary confusion because the state had the burden. State … Continue reading
CA3 notes inventory policy not in evidence supporting § 1983 judgment and affirms
In a Fourth Amendment § 1983 case tried to a jury, the claim of an unreasonable inventory search prevailed before the jury. Yet, there was no written policy put into evidence by the parties. Affirmed on this ground. Watley v. … Continue reading
OH2: Officer’s asking for consent to search before inventory doesn’t make it pretextual
“Although Officer Lindsey asked White if he (the officer) could search the vehicle prior to deciding to tow the vehicle, that question alone did not require a conclusion that the subsequent inventory search was pretextual. The Dayton Police Department tow … Continue reading
OH2: Inventory and tow of vehicle disabled in accident was reasonable under community caretaking function
Defendant’s vehicle was inventoried and then towed by Dayton PD because it was disabled after an accident blocking a busy intersection. There was no warning to defendant it was going to happen. It was within the community caretaking function of … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Inventory of duffel bag in hand on arrest was reasonable under FBI regs
The FBI inventory of defendant’s duffel bag on his arrest was reasonable under FBI regulations. Search warrants were used for cell phones found inside. United States v. Ellis, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 215725 (S.D. N.Y. Nov. 17, 2020):
GA: Entry into def’s house for pulling a gun on somebody elsewhere wasn’t in hot pursuit and suppressed
Officers entered defendant’s home for allegedly pulling a gun on his girlfriend at another house. They weren’t in hot pursuit, and the entry was unreasonable and is suppressed. The state’s inevitable discovery argument that a search warrant would have been … Continue reading
