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- Volokh: Do Fourth Amendment Protections Change When Property Is Moved?
- M.D.Pa.: Def was neither shipper nor recipient of USPS parcel, so he had no standing in it
- WI: Obtaining def’s DNA by ruse wasn’t an illegal search
- WaPo: Apple, Google and Venmo fight new U.S. plan to monitor payment apps
- CA4: Tracking order using cell site simulator with PC was reasonable
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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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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: Body cameras
NYTimes: Body Cameras, Long Distrusted, Now Help Show ‘Human Side of the Badge’
NYTimes: Body Cameras, Long Distrusted, Now Help Show ‘Human Side of the Badge’ by Julie Bosman: Law enforcement’s use of body-worn cameras has expanded around the country, largely in response to high-profile civilian deaths at the hands of officers and … Continue reading
NYtimes editorial: Body Cams Work, if They’re Used Right
NYtimes editorial: Body Cams Work, if They’re Used Right: The police officer who shot and killed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards last month in Balch Springs, Tex., was charged with murder on Friday after the Police Department determined from body-camera images and … Continue reading
The Pueble Chieftan: Pueblo police officer accused of reenacting car search for body camera
I’ve heard of searches being reenacted for the benefit of other police officers for cover, to make the search look lawful. This may be the first I’ve heard of with a body camera. I should have seen this coming because … Continue reading
The Intercept: Taser Will Use Police Body Camera Videos ‘To Anticipate Criminal Activity’
The Intercept: Taser Will Use Police Body Camera Videos ‘To Anticipate Criminal Activity’ by Ava Kofman: Although intended as a grim allegory of the pitfalls of relying on untested, proprietary algorithms to make lethal force decisions, ‘RoboCop’ has long been … Continue reading
NYTimes: Do Body Cameras Help Policing? 1,200 New York Officers Aim to Find Out
NYTimes: Do Body Cameras Help Policing? 1,200 New York Officers Aim to Find Out by Ashley Southall: The New York Police Department – on a mission to put body cameras on all 23,000 of its patrol officers in two years … Continue reading
WaPo: Civil Rights Attorneys Raise Concerns About NYPD Body-Camera Program
WaPo: Civil Rights Attorneys Raise Concerns About NYPD Body-Camera Program by Zolan Kanno-Youngs: Policy gives officers too much discretion for when to activate devices, police-reform advocates say
NYTimes: Civil Rights Lawyers Plan to Challenge New York’s Body-Camera Program
NYTimes: Civil Rights Lawyers Plan to Challenge New York’s Body-Camera Program by Ashley Southall: A pilot program for police officers to begin wearing body cameras this month cleared a major hurdle when it was approved last week by the federal … Continue reading
The Intercept: Real-Time Face Recognition Threatens to Turn Cops’ Body Cameras into Surveillance Machines
The Intercept: Real-Time Face Recognition Threatens to Turn Cops’ Body Cameras into Surveillance Machines by Ava Kofman: “These cameras are small, hard to notice, and all over the place. That’s a pretty lethal combination for privacy unless we have reasonable … Continue reading
WaPo: A cop fires. A teen dies. Yet six police body cameras somehow miss what happens.
WaPo: A cop fires. A teen dies. Yet six police body cameras somehow miss what happens. by Craig Timberg:
NACDL Report: Policing Body Cameras: Policies and Procedures to Safeguard the Rights of the Accused.
Washington, DC (Mar. 15, 2017) — The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), with support from the Foundation for Criminal Justice (FCJ), today releases Policing Body Cameras: Policies and Procedures to Safeguard the Rights of the Accused. This report … Continue reading
Reveal: Cop camera footage: Public record or police property?
Reveal: Cop camera footage: Public record or police property? by Miranda S. Spivak: “Under what circumstances should footage from police body and dashboard cameras be made public, and how much?”
W.D.Mo.: Accidental muting of body recorder by officer’s body armor wasn’t due process violation
The officer testified that his body armor accidentally muted the microphone on the body recorder on his belt when he bent over, and this was not a due process violation. There was exigency here for a community caretaking function entry … Continue reading
U.S. News & World Report: Opinion: Body Cameras Won’t Bring Justice
U.S. News & World Report: Opinion: Body Cameras Won’t Bring Justice by Nicole Hemmer: Video of the fatal shooting of Walter Scott shocked the nation. But it wasn’t enough to bring him justice.
NBC News: Police Body Cams Spark Concerns About Privacy, Mass Surveillance
NBC News: Police Body Cams Spark Concerns About Privacy, Mass Surveillance by Catherine Chapman: Body-worn cameras are increasingly being adopted by law enforcement across the country, offering a potential antidote to police brutality but also raising fears about mass surveillance … Continue reading
NYLJ: NYPD Finally Set to Begin Use of Body Cameras, Monitor Says
NYLJ: NYPD Finally Set to Begin Use of Body Cameras, Monitor Says by Mark Hamblett:
NYTimes: Sunday Magazine: Feature: Should We See Everything a Cop Sees?
NYTimes: Sunday Magazine: Feature: Should We See Everything a Cop Sees? by Mackenzie Funk: Body cameras have been promoted as a solution to police misconduct. But the strange two-year saga of Seattle shows just how complicated total transparency can be.
WAMU (NPR): Police Said She Had An Open Container. Her Lawyer Asked For Body Camera Video
WAMU (NPR): Police Said She Had An Open Container. Her Lawyer Asked For Body Camera Video by Martin Austermuhle:
NYT: Not One New York Police Officer Has a Body Camera
NYT: Not One New York Police Officer Has a Body Camera by Joseph Goldstein:
The Atlantic: Body Cameras Are Betraying Their Promise
The Atlantic: Body Cameras Are Betraying Their Promise by Robinson Meyer: They’re not transparent. They’re not independent. They’re not even turned on when they should be.
HuffPo: Blog: Police Body Cameras Are OK, But How To Protect Innocent Prisoners?
HuffPo: Blog: Police Body Cameras Are OK, But How To Protect Innocent Prisoners? by Lorenzo Johnson: It’s time to think about what measures can be put in place to hold all law enforcement accountable.