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- MA: Cell phone call logs don’t require a search warrant
- D.Kan.: Drug dog touching car door handle with nose isn’t unreasonable search
- D.N.M.: DEA’s failure to make a detailed inventory in violation of policy doesn’t require exclusion of evidence
- WaPo: These cities bar facial recognition tech. Police still found ways to access it.
- C.D.Cal.: SW materials in case with weighty public interest ordered unsealed
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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)
--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)
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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: Scope of search
TX3: No “sua sponte duty” in trial court to suppress evidence that the defense didn’t move to suppress
The trial court has no “sua sponte duty” to suppress evidence that the defense didn’t move to suppress. Chila v. State, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 10219 (Tex. App. – Austin Dec. 23, 2020). Police along with USMs entered defendant’s place … Continue reading
IL: PC for open container in car permitted search of locked glove compartment
Probable cause that a vehicle had open containers in it permitted a search of the locked glove compartment because it was a place where an open container could be. People v. McGhee, 2020 IL App (3d) 180349, 2020 Ill. App. … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: When dwelling was found to be multi-unit, the search was limited to the proper one; ER should not be applied because the officer acted in complete good faith
Defendant failed to make a substantial preliminary showing for Franks purposes that the officer recklessly disregarded the fact there could be two residential units in the building he was seeking the search warrant for. He reviewed property records and Google … Continue reading
OH8: Smell of MJ justifies search of interior of car where it could be found
“Upon en banc consideration, we uphold the conclusion reached in Franklin, and reiterate that the heightened standard set forth in Farris does not apply to searches conducted within the passenger compartment of a vehicle. Consistent with the confines of Farris, … Continue reading
TX14: SW to take blood includes ability to forensically test it
The search warrant for taking defendant’s blood included the ability to forensically test it. The fact that the forensic analysis of defendant’s blood occurred at a date beyond the three-day window for execution of the warrant did not render the … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Even if smell of MJ only justifies search of passenger compartment, finding nothing extends it to trunk
Defendant argues that the smell of marijuana during a traffic stop only permitted a search of the passenger compartment of his vehicle. When the officer didn’t find any marijuana there, it was justified to search the trunk. United States v. … Continue reading
CA9: Using ruse to get def home to search his car under a SW was unreasonable
Officers had a warrant for defendant’s house and any cars parked there, but defendant wasn’t home. Using a ruse of a burglary having happened, they lured him home so they could search the car. The search of the car was … Continue reading
CA8: Def’s pickup truck was involved in a shooting, and the officers developed PC that evidence would be in it or his house where it was parked
Surveillance video at the scene gave probable cause to believe that defendant’s pickup truck was involved in a shooting, and other physical evidence of the shooting hadn’t yet been found. “The address for Flournoy and Davis was a different unit … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: SW authorized search of safe in house even though in room of another occupant
The search warrant authorized a search of a safe in a house even though the room it was in wasn’t occupied by the target of the search. The search warrant wasn’t stale because the drug activities it refers to were … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Mask ordinance doesn’t violate 4A right of privacy
The City of Springfield mask ordinance does not violate, inter alia, the Fourth Amendment right to privacy. Shelton v. City of Springfield, 6:20-cv-03258 (W.D. Mo. Sept. 2, 2020). “In specifically detailing the criminal conduct under investigation, the search warrants provide … Continue reading
D.Alaska: SW for cell phone was broad; it had to be, but not unreasonably so
The search of defendant’s cell phone did not unreasonably exceed the search warrant for it which was necessarily broad. “As a threshold matter, the search did not exceed the scope of the warrant. Without contesting the validity of the warrant … Continue reading
CA5: IP address accessing bank accounts for alleged fraud was PC as to that address
“Based on these facts, it was not unreasonable for law enforcement to believe there was probable cause that evidence of the scheme would be found at Traore’s residence nearly a year after the bank account was last accessed from his … Continue reading
IN: Search of def’s car when he shows up at home while SW being executed there was reasonable even though SW didn’t mention car
“Do law-enforcement officers violate either constitution by searching a person’s vehicle when the person drives that vehicle up to his or her house while officers are there executing a search warrant for the house that does not address vehicles? Based … Continue reading
OR: Apparent authority to consent to search of contents of car here limited to his own stuff
There were two people in a van and a consent search was sought; the police needed to make sure that one didn’t consent to search of property under control of the other. “As a matter of law, actual authority over … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: First class mail is closed to Customs inspection; priority mail is not
There is a reasonable expectation of privacy in first class mail and mail with full postage from a customs search coming into the Virgin Islands. 19 C.F.R. § 145.1. Priority class mail is subject to customs inspection. United States v. … Continue reading
TX6: Even if def’s vehicle was over the property line and not on the property subject to SW, was the officer’s mistake reasonable?
Officers had a search warrant for vehicles on a particular piece of property. Defendant contended his vehicle wasn’t on the property. Even if the officer was wrong, was his belief unreasonable? “The Brinegar Court explained the requirement of reasonableness in … Continue reading
TX2: SW for seizure of blood includes the ability to analyze it
It is well settled in Texas that a search warrant for blood in a DUI case includes the ability to analyze it. Jacobson v. State, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 3447 (Tex. App. – Ft. Worth Apr. 23, 2020). Defendant’s CSLI … Continue reading