Archives
-
Recent Posts
- Two on standing in a rental car
- E.D.Cal.: The fact mj is legal in CA doesn’t make it so in a national park; plain smell was PC
- OH5: Cell phone SW was not particular, GFE doesn’t apply, but harmless after all
- CA5: CBP dog sniffing for people was PC even if it couldn’t differentiate between the driver and alleged hidden passengers
- D.D.C.: Here, RS was thin, and frisking under jacket was unreasonable
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
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 -
"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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Category Archives: Community caretaking function
CA9: Seizure of 12 firearms from the home during a mental health crisis and then delaying return was reasonable under community caretaking function
Plaintiff called the police on her husband because of a mental health crisis, and the police seized 12 firearms from the home. She petitioned for return on the firearms, and the Superior Court denied relief and she appealed, and it … Continue reading
Cal.1: Application of community caretaking function doesn’t require police to know who is inside; just that somebody reasonably might be
The community caretaking function was satisfied here: “Although in the present case the officers were not aware of a specific, known individual who might be in danger or might pose an imminent threat to others, as in some of these … Continue reading
ND: Knock on car window when def asleep inside with engine running was within community caretaking function
Defendant was unresponsive in a parked car with the engine running. “The officer’s knocking on Bridgeford’s vehicle window was within the scope of the officer’s community caretaking function. Because the officer was acting within his role as a community caretaker, … Continue reading
UT: Community caretaking function authorized stop of def asleep on McDonald’s parking lot at 3 am
Defendant was asleep in his car on a McDonald’s parking lot with the motor running after midnight in the winter. A McDonald’s employee finally got him awake and told him to leave. Defendant drove around the building and parked in … Continue reading
IN: Walk through of house for non-investigatory reason after unconscious person taken to hospital justified by community caretaking function
Officers responded to a 911 call that a child was unconscious. After the child went to the hospital and the parent went in police vehicle, an officer at the scene did a walk through to insure there was no one … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Community caretaking function doesn’t apply well to seizures; seizure and frisk suppressed
Officers responded to a drive-by shooting allegedly picked up by ScatterShot. Officers grabbed defendant’s arm ostensibly to see if he’d been shot, and it was readily apparent that he had not been, and he denied it. The community caretaking function … Continue reading
CA9: Seizure of a vehicle for 30 days for no DL without alternatives was unreasonable
Plaintiffs get summary judgment on their damages claim against the County and officers for impounding vehicles if the driver never had a valid DL rather than letting others take the vehicle. It was an unreasonable seizure. The state has a … Continue reading
MN: Drunk sleeping man who’d just threatened woman with gun could be frisked for weapon under emergency exception, but not Terry
Defendant was drunk in a house allegedly threatening a woman and her infant child with a gun. He passed out. She called the police. The police entered, and defendant was asleep on the couch. They patted him down for a … Continue reading
TN: Police get a call about a passed out parked car driver, but when they get there he’s out of the car; under community caretaking function they can still inquire what’s going on
Police received a call from a liquor store operator that a man was passed out in a car behind the store. When they got there, the man was getting in the car. The community caretaking function still applied because of … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Community caretaking function permitted search of unconscious person’s bag for source of his condition
Police responding to a medical emergency found defendant unconscious in his bathroom with a belt tourniquet at his arm and a brown liquid in a syringe. That was not a sign of diabetes shock. It was reasonable under Eighth Circuit … Continue reading
Hard|OCP: Invite Police Officers into Your Home with Apple Watch’s Auto-911 Feature
Hard|OCP: Invite Police Officers into Your Home with Apple Watch’s Auto-911 Feature: Legal professionals are warning the Apple Watch could open owners up to criminal liability due to a new feature that automatically dials 911 if it senses the wearer … Continue reading
ME: Def’s jacket she was sitting on when arrested was properly subject to search incident
Defendant’s jacket was still associated with her when she was arrested, and it was properly subject to a search incident even though she was handcuffed and sitting on it. The validity of the search incident, however, did not translate into … Continue reading
OH12: No return of storage media holding CP
Defendant sought return of the electronic storage media containing child pornography. Denied. State v. Van Tielen, 2018-Ohio-3421, 2018 Ohio App. LEXIS 3715 (12th Dist. Aug. 27, 2018). The officer opened defendant’s van door because he was justifiably looking for a … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Alleged isolated violation of Posse Comitatus Act doesn’t require exclusion
Alleged isolated violation of Posse Comitatus Act doesn’t require exclusion. McGill v. United States, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 142130 (N.D. Ga. Aug. 22, 2018). Trash cans were left at the street for collection of the contents, so there was no … Continue reading
IA: Stopping behind a car parked with brake lights on on a country road at 1 am was reasonable under the community caretaking function
“This case requires us to decide whether an officer was justified in pulling behind a vehicle and activating his emergency lights when the vehicle was stopped by the side of a highway after 1:00 a.m. with its brake lights engaged. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: A 16 year old girl, over the age of consent, was in a hotel room with a 45 year old man; that alone was not exigency
A 16 year old girl, over the age of consent, was in a hotel room with a 45 year old man. That alone did not create exigent circumstances. Certainly the parents would be concerned, but there was no evidence that … Continue reading
Cal.2d: 911 call about threat to shoot oneself supports entry and cursory search for weapons
A 911 call about an apparent threat to shoot oneself supports a community caretaking entry and cursory look around the house. People v. Ovieda, 2018 Cal. App. LEXIS 34 (2d Dist. Jan. 17, 2018):
PA: Flashing overhead lights on a police car means stop and stay until released; stopping to check GPS isn’t RS
According to the vehicle code and the driver’s license manual, when a police car has its lights on, a driver is to stop until let go. Here, the officer pulled up next to defendant’s car on the side of I-79 … Continue reading
UT: Potentially missing 65 yo man led to welfare check entry of his house at insistence of his mother; “welfare check” entry valid
Defendant was 65, in ill-health, and his mother talked to him every day. When she hadn’t heard from him, she called the police to check on him. At the house, nobody answered the door, the lights were on, there was … Continue reading