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Recent Posts
- AR: RS def rented a hotel room was sufficient for search waiver; PC not required
- LA5: No standing to challenge search of shooting victim’s cell phone in def’s possession
- N.D.Okla.: Cell phones possessed by tribal police not subject to return under Rule 41(g)
- E.D.Ark.: Landlord and tenant refused rental property inspection and SW was validly issued and protected privacy interests
- D.D.C.: Judge shopping after denial of SW inappropriate; could have appealed to DJ
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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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--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: Knock and talk
MI sustains a 4 am knock-and-talk; a depressing must read for practitioners there
This 4 a.m. knock-and-talk was reasonable. Seven police officers with vests and guns showed up to get a consent and got it. Defendant was dealing marijuana butter in a MMJ state. People v. Frederick, 2015 Mich. App. LEXIS 2289 (Dec. … Continue reading
M.D.N.C.: Refusal to consent during knock-and-talk when smell of MJ was strong and a yell back inside was exigency
Officers did a knock-and-talk and they could smell marijuana before the knock. When defendant opened the door, the smell was stronger. He refused to consent and refused entry. He turned and yelled something inside and came outside. When he pulled … Continue reading
CA11: Knock-and-talk for CP led to plain view of computer running the P2P software and exigent circumstances
The warrantless seizure of defendant’s computer for child pornography was reasonable. Officers using Ares P2P software found CP exchange at an IP address that came back to a Mrs. Oates who was a 60 year old grandmother with no criminal … Continue reading
UT: RS not required before a knock-and-talk
Officers do not need reasonable suspicion to conduct a knock-and-talk. Defendant’s consent to enter wasn’t involuntary because he thought he couldn’t refuse because he was on probation. State v. Fretheim, 2015 UT App 197, 2015 Utah App. LEXIS 206 (August … Continue reading
DC: Persistent questioning for ten minutes without RS was a seizure
Officers entered an apartment building hallway in SE Washington, and the smell of burnt marijuana was pervasive. They’d seen that before in the same building. None of the four they encountered, however, were seen smoking. Defendant was questioned persistently about … Continue reading
SC: Knock and talk requires reasonable suspicion under state law
A knock and talk is a legitimate law enforcement technique implicitly recognized in Jardines. (“We have accordingly recognized that ‘the knocker on the front door is treated as an invitation or license to attempt an entry, justifying ingress to the … Continue reading
TN: A “no trespassing” sign outside the yard does not prevent police from coming in to do a knock-and-talk
A “no trespassing” sign outside the yard does not prevent police from coming in to do a knock-and-talk. “Even in the face of No Trespassing signs, it is not unreasonable for a police officer to intrude upon private property to … Continue reading
OH10: Emergency or hot pursuit didn’t justify entry during knock-and-talk
Bike patrol officers smelled burning marijuana, and that led to them to a hotel room. When they knocked, defendant opened the door and they barged in. The entry was unlawful and couldn’t be sustained under any emergency or hot pursuit … Continue reading
KY: Frat house is more like a home than an apartment building; warrantless entry here unlawful
Following other states, a university fraternity house is a “home” for Fourth Amendment purposes, not like a hotel or apartment building. The officer’s warrantless entry into the frat house was unreasonable. This started as a knock-and-talk, but nobody answered, so … Continue reading
MO: Entry to talk to defendant about stolen car was without exigency and suppressed
Officers got word that a man was trying to sell a stolen car, and they gave defendant’s address. One drove by defendant’s house five times before finding the car there, so he called for back up, doing a knock-and-talk over … Continue reading
SCOTUS per curiam decides a not front door knock-and-talk on qualified immunity
Officers didn’t go to the front door for a knock-and-announce and they didn’t anybody. The law was not clearly established at the time. The homeowner sued under § 1983. SCOTUS per curiam grants the officers qualified immunity without full briefing. … Continue reading
KY: 2 am knock-and-talk based on tip was suppressed where tip quickly proved wrong
2 a.m. knock and talk based on midnight anonymous call about noxious odors from the property was invalid where the officers approaching smelled nothing. “Upon receipt of the anonymous tip, the police had a duty to respond and investigate to … Continue reading
OH5: Knock-and-talk doesn’t permit entry into backyard, too
Knock-and-talk is a legitimate law enforcement technique, but other officers fanning out to enter the backyard, the curtilage, at the same time is not. The observations in the backyard lead to suppression of the search. State v. Morgan, 2014-Ohio-1900, 2014 … Continue reading
IN: A person has a right to refuse to answer a knock-and-talk; refusal not exigent circumstances
A person has a right to refuse to answer a knock-and-talk, and that refusal isn’t exigent circumstances. Here, the police came to the juvenile’s house because of a noise complaint, found a store shopping cart in the back of a … Continue reading