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- VA: Outline of a gun in def’s pocket was RS
- N.D.Ind.: Motion to suppress was near denial of standing by disavowing relationship with premises
- W.D.N.Y.: Def had no standing in a place he wasn’t allowed to be on parole
- CA11: QI for FBI SWAT raiding wrong house at 3:30 am
- NYLJ: Analysis: Turnabout: Cell Site Location Information for the Defense
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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)
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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: SCOTUS
Reason: A Leftist Makes the Case for Originalism
Reason: A Leftist Makes the Case for Originalism by Damon Root What’s worse for the left, a conservative originalist or a conservative living constitutionalist?
MO: Warrantless blood draw from unresponsive person requires SW [issue also pending in SCOTUS]
The warrantless blood draw here was without exigent circumstances. The state instead relies on state statute, which the court finds a warrantless blood draw from an unresponsive person violates the Fourth Amendment. State v. Osborn, 2019 Mo. App. LEXIS 542 … Continue reading
ScotusBlog: Argument preview: Justices to weigh constitutionality of state law allowing blood test of unconscious drivers without a warrant
ScotusBlog: Argument preview: Justices to weigh constitutionality of state law allowing blood test of unconscious drivers without a warrant by Amy Howe re Mitchell v. Wisconsin being argued April 23, 2019.
NPR: This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—April 7
“Judicial activism” is determined only by whether your side won: NPR: This Day in Liberal Judicial Activism—April 7 by Ed Whelan:
WaPo: The Supreme Court’s ‘alternative facts’ about drug-sniffing dogs
WaPo: The Supreme Court’s ‘alternative facts’ about drug-sniffing dogs by Radley Balko:
Cert. granted: Mitchell v. Wisconsin: Warrantless blood draws from the unconscious
ScotusBlog: Mitchell v. Wisconsin, 18-6210 (granted Jan. 11, 2019). Issue: Whether a statute authorizing a blood draw from an unconscious motorist provides an exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement. Posted here: WI: Drinking and driving until unconsciousness obviates def’s … Continue reading
ABAJ: How retaliatory-arrest claims relate to the First and Fourth Amendments
ABAJ: How retaliatory-arrest claims relate to the First and Fourth Amendments by Erwin Chemerinsky: Maybe the third time will be the charm, and the Supreme Court will finally decide an important issue in civil rights litigation: Does the existence of … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: Argument analysis: “Contempt of cop” — Justices search for compromise standard for First Amendment retaliatory arrests
SCOTUSBlog: Argument analysis: “Contempt of cop” — Justices search for compromise standard for First Amendment retaliatory arrests by Howard M. Wasserman:
CA6 on remand of Byrd remands to trial court for more factfinding on three issues
On remand from Byrd v. United States, 138 S.Ct. 1518 (2018), CA6 sends the case back to the district court to resolve the three issues that still need factual development. Was there probable cause, does the strawman rental actually deprive … Continue reading
The Hill: Brett Kavanaugh’s views on privacy and the Fourth Amendment should make Republicans think twice
The Hill: Brett Kavanaugh’s views on privacy and the Fourth Amendment should make Republicans think twice by Michael MacLeod Ball:
NYLJ: Privacy and the Fourth Amendment: ‘Carpenter’ Nails It
NYLJ: Privacy and the Fourth Amendment: ‘Carpenter’ Nails It: “In his column on Criminal Law and Procedure, Barry Kamins analyzes ‘Carpernter v. U.S.,’ a landmark decision significantly affecting digital privacy.”
Forward: Justice Brandeis Was Right About Technology — 90 Years Before The Courts
Forward: Justice Brandeis Was Right About Technology — 90 Years Before The Courts by Joshua Z. Rokach:
SCOTUSblog: Judge Kavanaugh on the Fourth Amendment
SCOTUSblog: Judge Kavanaugh on the Fourth Amendment by Orin S. Kerr: Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s views of the Fourth Amendment have drawn significant interest following his recent nomination to the Supreme Court. This post takes a close look at Kavanaugh’s key … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: INSIGHT: Cracking Open a Can of Worms: Why Carpenter v. United States May Not Be the Privacy Decision That Was Needed … or Wanted
Bloomberg Law: INSIGHT: Cracking Open a Can of Worms: Why Carpenter v. United States May Not Be the Privacy Decision That Was Needed … or Wanted by Chris Ott
Lawfare: When Does a Carpenter Search Start—and When Does It Stop?
Important, thoughtful piece: Lawfare: When Does a Carpenter Search Start—and When Does It Stop? by Orin Kerr:
SCOTUS: Too many facts in dispute to grant QI dismissal on a claim of interference with right to pray after entry into the house; 4A claim revived after being waived
This pro se plaintiff alleged police came into her house for a complaint of her radio being too loud, and she was told to stop praying. The district court dismissed her First and Fourth Amendment claims for failure to state … Continue reading
Wired: Anthony Kennedy’s Retirement May Have Huge Consequences for Privacy
Wired: Anthony Kennedy’s Retirement May Have Huge Consequences for Privacy by Louise Matsakis:
Slate: What’s Next for the Reasonable Expectation of Privacy?
Slate: What’s Next for the Reasonable Expectation of Privacy? by Mike Godwin: The Supreme Court’s ruling in Carpenter raises new questions.
The Crime Report: Has High Court Privacy Ruling ‘Future-Proofed’ the Fourth Amendment?
The Crime Report: Has High Court Privacy Ruling ‘Future-Proofed’ the Fourth Amendment? by TCR Staff:
Vox: The latest Supreme Court decision is being hailed as a big victory for digital privacy. It’s not.
Important article: Vox: The latest Supreme Court decision is being hailed as a big victory for digital privacy. It’s not. by Aziz Huq: Carpenter forces police to get a warrant before getting some cellphone data. But other Fourth Amendment cases … Continue reading