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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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--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: Police misconduct
N.D.Okla.: When hidden police misconduct is the basis for a post-conviction claim, the statute of limitations starts when it was publicly disclosed
When hidden police misconduct is the basis for a post-conviction claim, the statute of limitations starts when it was publicly disclosed. Here, it was five years before the 2255 was filed. Here, the former officer’s misconduct was well known publicly … Continue reading
CA10: Blanket suppression not appropriate where some cops stole from def during raid
Defendant was victimized because one of the two teams of officers involved in his raid were thieves regularly stealing from the people whose property they searched, including defendant. They were under investigation at the time of the raid in defendant’s … Continue reading
ABAJ: Federal judge says lawyer and client must pay $19K for filing baseless civil rights suit for false arrest
ABAJ: Federal judge says lawyer and client must pay $19K for filing baseless civil rights suit by Martha Neil. In a false arrest case, “The plaintiff’s lawyer should have known that the purported facts on which a civil rights suit … Continue reading
The Nation: Opinion: The Biggest Threat to American Public Safety Is the American Police State
The Nation: Opinion: The Biggest Threat to American Public Safety Is the American Police State by Matthew Harwood: While it’s too soon to tell whether there has been an uptick in violent crime in the post-Ferguson period, no evidence connects … Continue reading
HuffPo: Two Innocent Black Men Shot By Police, Then Falsely Accused Of Murder
HuffPo: Two Innocent Black Men Shot By Police, Then Falsely Accused Of Murder by Mike Heuer: The alleged murder victim was actually hit and killed by a police vehicle.
San Diego Union-Tribune: Feds say border agent harassed brother’s accuser
San Diego Union-Tribune: Feds say border agent harassed brother’s accuser by Kristina Davis: Border Patrol supervisor charged with targeting man who accused family member of molestation…A U.S. Border Patrol supervisor is accused of using his law enforcement authority to repeatedly … Continue reading
CA5: Shooting suicidal person in back so he wouldn’t turn was objectively unreasonable; framing him for assault on an officer violates due process
It was objectively unreasonable to shoot a young man with a gun to his own head when his back was to the officers. Plaintiff also made a prima facie due process claim for being framed by the police for assaulting … Continue reading
AOL Autoblog (from NWI Times): Dash cam shows cops pulling gun on couple and pregnant woman in labor during traffic stop
AOL Autoblog (from NWI Times): Dash cam shows cops pulling gun on couple and pregnant woman in labor during traffic stop by Sarah Reese. This was three years ago, and the video was just released.
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: The blue wall: Stronger than ever
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: The blue wall: Stronger than ever: The police culture of silence uses both official and nonofficial means to keep misconduct under wraps.
techdirt: Courts Aren’t Buying Dispensary-Raiding Cops’ ‘Expectation Of Privacy’ Arguments
techdirt: Courts Aren’t Buying Dispensary-Raiding Cops’ ‘Expectation Of Privacy’ Arguments by Tim Cushing: We recently covered the complete absurdity that is the Santa Ana police union’s legal battle to clear cops caught misbehaving (to put it lightly…) during a raid … Continue reading
Richmond Times-Dispatch: Judge overturns 4th case involving former narcotics detective
Richmond Times-Dispatch: Judge overturns 4th case involving former narcotics detective by Brandon Shelletta: Recently released from prison, Deunte Humphries was back before a Richmond judge Wednesday. But this time, instead of a sentence, he received an apology. Humphries served a … Continue reading
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: Alabama case fills out the police brutality bingo card
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: Alabama case fills out the police brutality bingo card: This story out of Huntsville, Ala., reads like a checklist of police brutality cases. Excessive force? Check. … Coverup by fellow officers? Check. … Fears … Continue reading
Chicago Tribune: When cops ignore the law
Chicago Tribune: When cops ignore the law by Steve Chapman: The lesson imprinted by the experience was one I already understood, even if I had never thought much about it: Some of the scariest people are the ones who are … Continue reading
WaPo: The law of the Sandra Bland traffic stop
WaPo: The law of the Sandra Bland traffic stop by Orin Kerr: I’ve been asked a lot about the law of the Sandra Bland traffic stop, and in particular whether Bland had to put out her cigarette and get out … Continue reading
Daily News: Cameras showing cops in action are bringing changes to policing
Daily News: Cameras showing cops in action are bringing changes to policing by Tina Moore: Amateur filmmakers have been cataloguing police activity across the country, bringing light to events that likely would have stayed in the shadows and forcing departments … Continue reading
PINAC: Massachusetts Police Respond to Wrong Address; Charge 88-Year-Old Woman With Assaulting Officer
PINAC: Massachusetts Police Respond to Wrong Address; Charge 88-Year-Old Woman With Assaulting Officer by Cassandra Fairbanks: After police in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, responded to the wrong address, they said they were greeted by an 88-year-old woman answering the door armed with … Continue reading
CA10: CI testified in 2255 there was no controlled buy supporting search warrant which Dist.Ct. credits; gun conviction set aside
The District Court held that there was a fraud on the court exception to AEDPA and set aside one of defendant’s convictions based on false evidence of a controlled buy by an informant related in a search warrant. The informant … Continue reading
CA6: “[I]t is objectively unreasonable to frame an inmate” for a crime he didn’t commit
Plaintiff alleged an Art. III “injury in fact” in his claim that he was framed for a crime he didn’t commit. “Because it is objectively unreasonable to frame an inmate, we reverse the district court’s judgment and hold that Price … Continue reading
WaPo: Drug war thuggery
WaPo: Drug war thuggery by Radley Balko: A SWAT team goes to a medical marijuana dispensary and acts the fool and eats the pot candy. From the OC Weekly:
IN: Officers listened in to attorney-client meeting in interrogation room; that’s suppressed, but officers shouldn’t be barred from any testimony at trial
Defendant met in a police interrogation room with his lawyer, and the police turned off the recorder, but three listened in to the conversation through the wall. The superior officer actually self-reported the misconduct. Defendant moved to suppress what they … Continue reading