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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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Fourth Amendment cases,
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the 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: Informant hearsay
IL: Circumstances made SW affidavit admissible at trial
The trial court abused its discretion in not permitting the defense to use the search warrant affidavit at trial that showed the warrant was targeting another person for other things other than what was found. The court cautions this may … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: 11 day delay in getting computer SW not unreasonable
Depending on how one counted the time between the seizure of the cell phone and the search warrant, it was either 3 or 11 days, and either is reasonable. United States v. Deakins, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6661 (E.D. Tenn. … Continue reading
CA6: Anonymous tip shown reliable enough for probation search
This anonymous tip of criminality of a probationer was shown to be reliable enough for reasonable suspicion. United States v. Rogers, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 786 (6th Cir. Jan. 11, 2023). Defendant is accused of vandalizing the Anchorage Jewish Museum. … Continue reading
IA: “Driving while black” rejected because stop was objectively reasonable
Defendant sought to cast his stop as pretextual and “driving while black,” but it’s rejected because the stop was objectively reasonable. “We conclude that while the officer’s actions placed Cyrus in a situation with an unarguable ‘moral and instinctive pressure[ … Continue reading
OH8: Calling for drug dog after warning ticket issued unreasonably extended stop
“Regardless, Officer Ashenfelter acknowledged that the traffic violation investigation was completed at 11:10. He called for the canine unit at 11:12, and the canine unit arrived at 11:18 a.m. [¶] Thus, the evidence reflects that the officer, after completing his … Continue reading
OR: Even constitutional challenges need to be preserved below
Even constitutional challenges need to be preserved below. Jimenez v. Dep’t of Revenue, 370 Or. 543 (Dec. 15, 2022). The court does not find the officer’s testimony credible. He claimed he saw defendant with binoculars from 100′ away buying liquor … Continue reading
CA6: 4A generally doesn’t apply to sentencing enhancements
“The Fourth Amendment does not apply to sentencing enhancements. … We have recognized a possible exception to this rule—when officers illegally seized the evidence for the very purpose of enhancing the defendant’s sentence—but Wyse makes no such allegation.” United States … Continue reading
NY2: SW papers provided to GJ aren’t discoverable because of GJ secrecy
Defendant sought search warrant materials presented to the grand jury. Denied because of grand jury secrecy. Sculti v. Finley, 2022 NY Slip Op 06950, 2022 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6820 (2d Dept. Dec. 7, 2022). Defendant had no standing in … Continue reading
MI: Automobile repair business is pervasively regulated
The trial court erred in suppressing the search of defendant’s automobile repair business which was a pervasively regulated business. The search was during the work week during regular hours and was for evidence of compliance with the Motor Vehicle Service … Continue reading
SC: Exigency for CSLI was shooting victim left for dead and defendant was armed and dangerous
There was exigency for CSLI. “Thus, this was not a standard criminal investigation seeking cell phone data; rather, this request sought to address an ongoing emergency because Carter was potentially armed and dangerous, had been involved in a violent crime … Continue reading
CA3: Fire scene search for potential spread was exigent
The fire department arrived at a kitchen stove fire in an apartment building that was out. Informed of a sparking stove, fireman suspected there could be a fire in the basement. In the basement they found faulty wiring but no … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: There’s almost always PC in the contents of a stolen car, such as something of owner’s
There is probable cause to believe that there’s evidence of the crime in a stolen car. “It follows on this record that at a minimum there was also probable cause to believe that evidence of those suspected crimes (either car … Continue reading
FL1: No REP in words blurted out in ER
Defendant’s blurting out that he’d murdered someone caught on bodycam in the ER wasn’t subject to suppression under the state communications privacy law because there was no reasonable expectation of privacy in the utterance. Reed v. State, 2022 Fla. App. … Continue reading
MN: Reliable hearsay can be considered for PC
In determining probable cause, “reliable hearsay” may be considered. State v. Dixon, 2022 Minn. LEXIS 483 (Nov. 9, 2022). The question of lack of probable cause was not in the motion to suppress, but the trial court held there was, … Continue reading
CA6: Officer’s mistake he’d worked with CI before not shown to be Franks violation
Officer’s mistake in saying he’d worked with CI before that proved false still wasn’t enough to show a Franks violation because it could just be an innocent mistake and not enough to undermine the probable cause. United States v. Duncan, … Continue reading
D.D.C.: When stop was extended without RS, def’s assault on officers was not attenuated under Brown
The court finds the stop without reasonable suspicion. It was allegedly justified by paper LPN that didn’t match the car as without reasonable suspicion because the tags weren’t run until after the stop. That and other factors don’t make reasonable … Continue reading
VI: Anonymous tip given observing altercation was sufficient for stop when substantially corroborated at scene
The detailed anonymous tip here was sufficient to support a stop when it was substantially corroborated at the scene. The caller observed an altercation in real time and described the two vehicles involved. It was at the top of a … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Question is not actual reliability of police database, it is reasonableness of reliance on it
“As soon as [the officer] accessed [the database from the police car], he saw an alert suggesting that Defendant was armed. Defendant argues that Davis could not be sure of the accuracy of this information, but that hardly matters. Reasonable … Continue reading