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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© 2003-20,
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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FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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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):
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Lexis.com $
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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
Category Archives: Plain view, feel, smell
LA2: Officer’s leaning in open window wasn’t a plain view; def’s demands to know why he’s detained can’t be RS when he has a right to know
Officer’s leaning into the open window of defendant’s car with a flashlight to get a better view was not a plain view. Statute “commands police officers, upon detaining a citizen in connection with the investigation or commission of any offense, … Continue reading
PA: Syringes in plain view on floorboard was PC
Officer’s seeing syringes on the floor of defendant’s car just by looking was plain view and probable cause for search. Commonwealth v. Bumbarger, 2020 Pa. Super. LEXIS 206 (Mar. 16, 2020).* “Mr. Sealey’s motion to suppress, the court did not … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Search of camper being lived in parked on the street in violation of ordinance was inevitable
The question of standing and alleged illegal search of defendant’s camper were moot. The camper was parked on an Albuquerque city street where it’s illegal to live in a camper. Given those facts, the camper would have otherwise been inventoried, … Continue reading
AL: Officer was lawfully in position for plain view of def’s computer screen
The trial court erred in suppressing the search here because the officer who did it was a law enforcement officer under state law able to do so. On the merits, the officer was in position to make a plain view … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Address of a building is usually sufficient for particularity
The address of a building is generally sufficient particularity for a search warrant. Even so, the good faith exception would apply. United States v. Wilson, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37210 (E.D. Tex. Jan. 17, 2020), adopted, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Conclusory objections to R&R are denied
Conclusory objections to the R&R on this search issue are overruled. United States v. Wilson, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36571 (E.D. Tex. Mar. 3, 2020). Feeling a firearm during a patdown is plain feel. United States v. White, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Despite MMJ law, def rolling a joint when stopped could have his car searched
When defendant was stopped, he was seen rolling a joint. Despite the medical marijuana law, the officer could search the car for more because it was still a violation of federal law. United States v. Hinds, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Issues over the territorial jurisdiction of state issuing magistrate for geolocation information was subject to GFE
Defendants’ challenges to the state issuing magistrate’s jurisdiction over geolocation information that crosses jurisdictional lines were based on a Franks challenge that was negligence at worst and not an intentional misrepresentation as to the judge’s jurisdiction. Besides, as interesting as … Continue reading
D.Me.: It wasn’t unreasonable for the officer to delay def’s arrest until they moved to where another officer was for safety
It wasn’t unreasonable for the officer to forgo defendant’s arrest and get him to walk with the officer to the house where another officer was waiting. This was for safety purposes. United States v. Brigley, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13938 … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: Traffic stop was valid and led to plain view of drugs on passenger seat
The headings tell us the case: “A. Lieutenant Kennedy had the requisite reasonable, articulable suspicion of unlawful conduct to initiate a traffic stop on Defendant’s vehicle based upon traffic violations and erratic driving consistent with that of an impaired driver.” … Continue reading
OH11: “Hand swabs” in SW for person fairly includes fingernail scrapings; no REP in clothing removed at ER by nurses
Defendant was brought to a hospital for alleged injuries. He was exceedingly drunk for a juvenile and covered in blood. He was cleaned up at the ER and no injuries found. The nurses there took his clothes. Police later seized … Continue reading
CA6: Game officers had PC to arrest ptf for night hunting with lights despite ptf winning some counts at state trial and state abandoning last one on his promise not to do it anymore
Officers had probable cause to arrest plaintiff for shining deer at night when he was spotted from an airplane on patrol. He was arrested for hunting under the influence and at night. He ultimately got counts dismissed, one for his … Continue reading
