Archives
-
Recent Posts
- W.D.Wash.: DNA warrant isssued with PC not quashed before execution
- S.D.Ohio: Defense of denial of possession in drug case meant no assertion of standing to challenge the search, so no IAC
- N.D.Okla.: Anticipatory tracking warrant for money counter is without authority and nexus is speculative even if not
- CA9: Supervised release condition of financial disclosure permitted under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) and didn’t violate 4A
- N.D.Ohio: Refusing discovery on 4A grounds in forfeiture case results in no standing
-
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: Open fields
FL1: Officers crossing protected lands to get to unprotected lands to make a plain view doesn’t justify exclusion
“Police entered protected property to get to unprotected property to make an observation in open fields. That prior unlawful intrusion doesn’t justify exclusion. “Florida law is relatively clear whether to suppress evidence discovered on a person’s property during an officer’s … Continue reading
MS: Def was in open fields when he encountered wildlife officers and admitted he had meth on him
On the opening day of dove hunting season, wildlife officers were out. They heard shooting from open lands and went to investigate. They encountered defendant and another, and defendant tossed a bag aside when officers approached him. They asked what … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Putting a wildlife camera on ptf’s open fields wasn’t a violation of the 4A
Officers putting a wildlife camera on plaintiff’s open fields wasn’t a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Hollingsworth v. Tenn. Wildlife Res. Agency, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 181311 (W.D. Tenn. Oct. 21, 2019):
Cato blog: What’s That Buzzing Overhead? It’s An OSHA Drone
Cato blog: What’s That Buzzing Overhead? It’s An OSHA Drone by Walter Olson:
VT reaffirms state const’l REP in posted open fields
Vermont’s state constitution grants a reasonable expectation of privacy to open fields posted with no trespassing signs. A game warden (vested by state law with all law enforcement powers) violated defendant’s reasonable expectation of privacy by entering upon his posted … Continue reading
D.Me.: Where a couple shared a closet, her apparent authority extended to whole closet, not just his side
Defendant and his girlfriend shared a closet where they were staying, and she had apparent authority to consent to a search of the whole closet, not just her side of it. United States v. Lawson, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137966 … Continue reading
CA2: Def’s yard in Staten Island was curtilage; there is curtilage even in an urban area
A yard of house in Staten Island was search by NYPD at 3:30 am. The Second Circuit finds the search violated the curtilage. The yard qualifies under Dunn and Jardines. United States v. Alexander, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 11093 (2d … Continue reading
ME: DEP could enter open fields to inspect composting operation
The state Department of Environmental Protection sought an injunction against the livestock business to get it to stop denying access to the business property for inspection of its composting operation. Because the area to be inspected was open fields, the … Continue reading
CA3: Entry onto ptfs’ rural land to serve a small claims complaint was over open fields
Defendant is a deputy sheriff who had a summons and complaint for a small claims case. He came by plaintiffs’ rural property three prior times to serve it. They lived on 75 acres and the house and a law office … Continue reading
OH7: Wooded area behind house was open fields, not curtilage
The area where defendant’s grow operation was found was not curtilage. It was a long distance from the house in a wooded area, and it was in “open fields.” State v. Hambleton, 2017-Ohio-7561, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 3876 (7th Dist. … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: “The open fields doctrine allows searches based upon only visual observation.” Using a board to stir a tank was a search
A US Fish and Wildlife officer “interviewed Josh Monceaux who revealed that Williams fishes for and catches alligator snapping turtles in Texas and then sells them from his home in Elton, Louisiana. Monceaux also reported that Williams [G]oogle [E]arth* image … Continue reading
WI: Are “open fields” on private property “public places” for officers committing a trespass?
WI holds that defendant as entitled to a self-defense instruction when he encountered two game officers on his property and thought they were trespassers. The concurring opinion concentrates on the intrusion into “open fields” and whether the state can treat … Continue reading
CA10: Bee inspector gets QI for search of apiary apparently in open field and because of unsettled questions of law
Utah bee inspector gets qualified immunity for the administrative inspection of plaintiff’s apiary because of unsettled questions, the fact the apiary was in open fields, and the lack of clearly established law. Cox v. Cache County, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
MO: Chicken coop inside barbed wire fence tho 100′ from house within curtilage
Defendant’s chicken coop with drugs inside was a fair distance from the house, but it was still within the curtilage. Applying all the Dunn factors, they favor defendant. It was inside a primary barbed wire fence and the contents weren’t … Continue reading
Bloomberg Businessweek: Secret Cameras Record Baltimore’s Every Move From Above
Bloomberg Businessweek: Secret Cameras Record Baltimore’s Every Move From Above by Monte Reel: Since January, police have been testing an aerial surveillance system adapted from the surge in Iraq. And they neglected to tell the public.
HI: Four flyovers of def’s house violated curtilage and REP under state constitution
Four police flyovers of defendant’s house, one at 420′, was not a search under the Fourth Amendment, but it was unreasonable under the Hawai’i Constitution. 20-25 marijuana plants were seen in the flyover. Driving by the residence, however, no plants … Continue reading
ME: State DEP doesn’t need a warrant to enter lands to look for noxious odors
The state Department of Environmental Protection gets an order permitting it to enter defendant’s lands at “reasonable hours” to inspect for the source of noxious odors. There is no warrant requirement for lands as opposed to buildings. State v. Dubois … Continue reading
OH4: No reasonable expectation from a snitch coming into one’s home and recording a drug sale
There is no reasonable expectation from a snitch coming into one’s home and recording a drug sale. By letting the snitch in, defendant assumed the risk. State v. Taylor, 2016-Ohio-2781, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS 1644 (4th Dist. April 27, 2016). … Continue reading
Microsoft reports child porn in OneDrive accounts
Microsoft found child pornography in a folder saved by defendant on its cloud service, and it reported it to NCMEC. Law enforcement was afraid to contact him directly because he might delete images, so they found he was on probation … Continue reading