Archives
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Recent Posts
- 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
- DC: Accepting a law license is consent to trust account subpoenas
- AR: RS def rented a hotel room was sufficient for search waiver; PC not required
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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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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
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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
Privacy Foundation
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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 -
"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: Search
SC: Reading a computer SN was a “search” under Hicks, but it was permitted under a valid probation search
Defendant was on probation and believed to be involved in a murder where a red widescreen Acer laptop was taken. Probation officers went to his house to talk to him with reasonable suspicion, and he was sitting there with a … Continue reading
NJ: SW for def’s person made it reasonable to frisk him them move him elsewhere for the search of the person
Officers had a warrant to search defendant’s person and house. When they found him, they conducted a patdown and then moved him elsewhere for the more intrusive search. The second search was objectively reasonable under the warrant, and moving him … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: A cell phone is an “instrumentality” of a drug crime; turning on a cell phone to see if it answers is not a “search”
Defendant’s 12 cell phones could be seized as instrumentalities of a drug crime under a search warrant. Calling a number the officers obtained during a wiretap to identify a phone was not an illegal search. Turning on the phones just … Continue reading
Sputnik Int’l: FBI Moves Forward with Expansion of Hacking Powers Despite Privacy Concerns — Rule 41 change
Sputnik Int’l: FBI Moves Forward with Expansion of Hacking Powers Despite Privacy Concerns: Despite fears over privacy violations and constitutional conflicts, a change to an FBI procedural rule that would dramatically broaden their hacking powers has been quietly advanced after … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Squeezing an express mail envelope not in his possession and feeling pills was not a “search” under Bond
Officers squeezing an express mail envelope not in recipient’s possession and feeling pills was not a “search” under Bond. United States v. Taylor, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23978 (S.D.W.Va. February 27, 2015):
WaPo: Law enforcement is getting new surveillance tools. But they don’t always want to talk about them
WaPo: Law enforcement is getting new surveillance tools. But they don’t always want to talk about them by Andrea Peterson: At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies are using hand-held radar to “see” the inside of houses, USA Today reports. … Continue reading
USA Today: New police radars can ‘see’ inside homes
USA Today: New police radars can ‘see’ inside homes by Brad Heath: At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies quietly deployed radars that let them effectively see inside homes, with little notice to the courts or the public. WASHINGTON — … Continue reading
ProPublica: Judge Orders NYPD to Release Records on X-ray Vans
ProPublica: Judge Orders NYPD to Release Records on X-ray Vans by Michael Grabell: The NYPD has a secretive program that uses unmarked vans with X-ray machines designed to detect bombs. ProPublica tried to find out more about it, but the … Continue reading
WaPo: Thermal Imaging Allows for Picturing the Invisible
WaPo: Thermal Imaging Allows for Picturing the Invisible by John Markoff: The thermal imaging systems used by the French police to find the two brothers suspected in the Charlie Hebdo massacre last week are based on a rapidly evolving technology … Continue reading
LA2: State loses a cocaine search issue, apparently by not arguing all alternative grounds
A car was pulled over and two men fled from it. A third in the back seat was asleep or passed out, and he was awakened by officers banging on the windows. When he awoke, he refused to show his … Continue reading
NYTimes: Editorial: Deceptions of the F.B.I.
NYTimes: Editorial: Deceptions of the F.B.I.: If your Internet service goes down and you call a technician, can you be certain that the person who arrives at your door is actually there to restore service? What if he is a … Continue reading
The Hill: Court: Police can use your fingerprint to search your phone
The Hill: Court: Police can use your fingerprint to search your phone by Cory Bennett: The police can get your fingerprint, but not your password, to unlock your smartphone, a Virginia judge ruled this week. A password is constitutionally protected … Continue reading
WaPo: Why the EFF – and then others – probably misunderstood the numbers on ‘sneak and peek’ warrants
WaPo: Why the EFF – and then others – probably misunderstood the numbers on ‘sneak and peek’ warrants by Orin Kerr: A scary-sounding report about government surveillance practices is probably based on a misunderstanding. Ironically, the spike in the number … Continue reading
OR: Order for resting nystagmus test in front of jury was a search
During defendant’s DUI trial, the question of whether defendant was tested for resting nystagmus was raised because it wasn’t in the field notes. Then the state asked for and got a test for resting nystagmus of the defendant in front … Continue reading