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- OR: Police listening to attorney-client jail calls because attorney calls not properly segregated leads to dismissal of some counts and setting aside guilty plea
- techdirt: The Problems Of The NCMEC CyberTipline Apply To All Stakeholders
- W.D.Ark.: Parole search waiver moots lack of PC argument
- AR: RS shown for boating while intoxicated stop
- W.D.Mo.: Wrong address in SW wasn’t fatal where right house was searched
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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,
citations, and links -
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
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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
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Section 1983 Blog -
"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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Category Archives: Police misconduct
CA10: Random drug testing of juvenile detention supervisors was reasonable
The special needs doctrine justified warrantless random drug testing of juvenile detention officers. A documented problem of drug abuse is not required before they can be tested. The government satisfies its burden for random drug testing in this context balanced … Continue reading
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: South Carolina police shot a man to pieces over $100 worth of pot, then lied about it
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: South Carolina police shot a man to pieces over $100 worth of pot, then lied about it by Radley Balko: Prosecutors drop drug charges against Julian Betton after cops’ account of the raid that paralyzed him … Continue reading
Miami Herald: Ex-cop convicted of stealing from drivers during traffic stops
Miami Herald: Ex-cop convicted of stealing from drivers during traffic stop by David J. Neal:
WaPo: The Watch Blog: DOJ report: Arrests without PC, held for days without a lawyer; here it’s a “CID hold”
WaPo: The Watch Blog by Radley Balko: Incredible Justice Department report finds brazen and systemic police abuse in Louisiana. Officers in two departments made hundreds of “secret” arrests without probable cause. The arrests typically included strip-searches, and arrestees could be … Continue reading
WaPo: The culture around Trump and the troubling message to police
WaPo: The culture around Trump and the troubling message to police by Steven Hale: Over the past several years there has been much discussion about police culture and how, in some cases, it might contribute to the disturbing incidents we … Continue reading
techdirt: Las Vegas PD Continues To Use Faulty $2 Drug Field Tests Because Convictions Matter More Than Justice
techdirt: Las Vegas PD Continues To Use Faulty $2 Drug Field Tests Because Convictions Matter More Than Justice by Tim Cushing:
LawNewz: LISTEN: Cops Accidentally Recorded Themselves Making Up Charges Against Protester, Lawsuit Says
LawNewz: LISTEN: Cops Accidentally Recorded Themselves Making Up Charges Against Protester, Lawsuit Says by Alberto Luperon:
New law review article: How Governments Pay: Lawsuits, Budgets, and Police Reform
Joanna C. Schwartz, How Governments Pay: Lawsuits, Budgets, and Police Reform, 63 UCLA L. Rev. 1144 (2016). Abstract:
The New Yorker: The Crisis of Police Militarization
The New Yorker: The Crisis of Police Militarization by Dexter Filkins: “‘Do Not Resist’ traces the transformation of police departments into forces that look like our military—and often act like it.” And I always thought there might be a psycho-sexual … Continue reading
The Atlantic: An App That Tracks the Police to Keep Them in Check
The Atlantic: An App That Tracks the Police to Keep Them in Check by Kevah Waddell: New software will help low-income people and communities of color to record their experiences with law enforcement—in order to create a crowdsourced map of … Continue reading
WaPo: Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: Video shows white cops performing roadside cavity search of black man [quoting author]
Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: Video shows white cops performing roadside cavity search of black man:
San Francisco Chronicle: Police panel upholds complaint for arresting public defender
San Francisco Chronicle: Police panel upholds complaint for arresting public defender by Paul Elias (AP) A civilian police oversight board said San Francisco police officers had no valid reason to arrest a public defender inside the city’s courthouse after she … Continue reading
NYTimes: Review Agency Faults New York Police Department on Unlawful Searches
NYTimes: Review Agency Faults New York Police Department on Unlawful Searches by Al Baker: A team of plainclothes New York City police officers, tracking the signal of a stolen cellphone, pushed past a man who denied the officers permission to … Continue reading
NYTimes: New York Police Faulted by Agency for Unlawful Searches
NYTimes: New York Police Faulted by Agency for Unlawful Searches by Al Baker:
NY: False confession forwarded to DA for grand jury supports common law malicious prosecution and § 1983 claim
“Evidence that the officers forwarded the false confession to prosecutors can satisfy the commencement element of a malicious prosecution cause of action, and the proof of the absence of probable cause for the prosecution and the police’s transmission of the … Continue reading
WaPo: 80 percent of Chicago PD dash-cam videos are missing audio due to ‘officer error’ or ‘intentional destruction’
WaPo: 80 percent of Chicago PD dash-cam videos are missing audio due to ‘officer error’ or ‘intentional destruction’ by Radley Balko: From DNA Info, here’s the latest piece of evidence that the corruption and abuse in the Chicago Police Department … Continue reading
ABAJ: Databases of police activity offer a handy tool for defense lawyers
ABAJ: Databases of police activity offer a handy tool for defense lawyers by Jason Tashea (Feb. 1, 2016): Vidya Pappachan, an attorney for the Legal Aid Society in New York City, had little time to prepare for a client’s arraignment … Continue reading
WaPo: Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: The one thing that will get a cop fired
WaPo: Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: The one thing that will get a cop fired: Georgia cop was fired for exposing his own chief’s ignorance of the law.
AP: Chicago Hires Civil Rights Adviser for Police Department
AP: Chicago Hires Civil Rights Adviser for Police Department via NYT: CHICAGO — A former deputy superintendent of the Chicago Police Department who left to lead two major police departments is returning as a senior adviser to help guide the … Continue reading
WaPo: Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: This week in drug raids
WaPo: Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: This week in drug raids: