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- D.Colo.: Terry frisk of backpack unreasonable when def handcuffed and 15′ away
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- OH1: A malnourished child isn’t exigency for an infant
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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)
--Overview of the 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: Administrative search
CA9: Facial challenge to housing inspection ordinance fails because there is an administrative warrant provision
Plaintiffs’ facial challenge to Los Angeles’ housing inspection ordinance fails because it isn’t unconstitutional in all applications. An administrative warrant provision is provided for. Garris v. City of Los Angeles, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 8361 (9th Cir. Mar. 17, 2020). … Continue reading
Cal.4: SDT for financial records in a pollution investigation to properly assess penalty was reasonable
The state’s subpoena for records in a pollution investigation were statutorily based, within the agency’s jurisdiction, and reasonable in scope. Here, the records were financial, and it was for imposing a reasonable penalty. The subpoena also did not violate a … Continue reading
IL: Truck inspection search was with RS from suspect log book and wrong seal and locks on cargo door
The truck inspection officer here had reasonable suspicion because the log book looked like it was false, there was an unnecessary private seal on the trailer, and the lock was on the wrong door meaning the load wasn’t protected. Two … Continue reading
Cal.5th (concurring): Are routine administrative searches with guns on hip and bulletproof vests always reasonable?
Officers showed up for an OSHA inspection armed and wearing bulletproof vests and insisted upon the inspection starting without giving the company representative a chance to even think about it. The concurring judge finds this excessive in a free society, … Continue reading
Reason: Contempt for Renters Leads to Second-Class Search and Seizure Protections
Reason: Contempt for Renters Leads to Second-Class Search and Seizure Protections by J.D. Tuccille (“Signing a lease instead of a deed shouldn’t erase your right to be free of government home invasions.”):
D.C.Cir.: Dewey and Mine Safety Act provide for no precompliance warning or review before inspection
The petitioner here was a contractor working at a mine, and a mine safety inspector looked at equipment and cited the contractor a $116 fine. The ALJ denied relief, and, on a petition for review of the fine, the court … Continue reading
WA: Was a courthouse security search that turned up drugs properly limited? Remanded for more fact finding
An issue that hasn’t appeared in appellate decisions for a while: May a jacket be searched for drugs at courthouse security? Not here, but more fact finding required. The CSO felt a cell phone to remove it from a pocket, … Continue reading
NY2: Pawnbrokers are “pervasively regulated” under 4A
Pawnbrokers are “pervasively regulated” for consumer protection. City of Los Angeles v. Patel is way different because that industry was not so regulated. Collateral Loanbrokers Assn. of N.Y., Inc. v City of New York, 2019 NY Slip Op 09354, 2019 … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: New Appeals Test for Medical Prescription Warrantless Searches
Bloomberg Law: New Appeals Test for Medical Prescription Warrantless Searches by John Nancarrow (“A federal appeals court could rule anytime on whether law enforcement needs a warrant to access information on people’s prescription drug use from state databases—a case that’s … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: LA ordinance on providing hotel rental info valid under Patel
An LA ordinance requires certain information from hotel and motel renters which survives analysis under Patel. The information is not private information, and it’s not even a search. If it was, it would be a valid administrative search. City of … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Idaho fish and game checkpoints that minimally detain nonhunters and fishers isn’t likely a violation of 4A
Plaintiff sought a preliminary injunction against wildlife checkpoint stops that included nonhunters and fishers. The court finds that there is little likelihood of success on the merits. The state’s interest in protection of wildlife is high, and, on balance, the … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Violation of an ATF regulation during administrative search of an FFL doesn’t justify suppression without a 4A violation
Defendant had a federal firearms dealer license and he was subjected to an inspection. Firearms dealers, of course, are closely regulated businesses. After the motion to suppress was denied, he decided that ATF regulations were violated. The court concludes, based … Continue reading
Forbes: Do Food Trucks Have Fourth Amendment Rights? Supreme Court Could Decide In Chicago GPS Tracker Case
Forbes: Do Food Trucks Have Fourth Amendment Rights? Supreme Court Could Decide In Chicago GPS Tracker Case by Nick Sibilla:
AL: City code enforcer violated 4A by entering curtilage and towing cars
A city code enforcement officer entering plaintiff’s curtilage to have towed two cars in the front yard implicated the Fourth Amendment. There was no right to be heard about the basis of the seizure, so due process is implicated. The … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Lack of announcement doesn’t invoke exclusionary rule; def argued he was entitled to announcement to be able to dispose of his drugs
Defendant claims his search was invalid for lack of knock-and-announce because, if they had announced, he could have destroyed the drugs and wouldn’t have been charged [apparently oblivious to the fact that’s one of the justification for dispensing with announcement]. … Continue reading
PA: Commercial truck checkpoint stops governed by Burger, not by general checkpoint rules
Checkpoint stops of commercial vehicle are government by New York v. Burger, already followed in Pennsylvania, and not other checkpoint case law. Checkpoint case law doesn’t fit with commercial vehicle inspections. Commonwealth v. Maguire, 2019 Pa. LEXIS 4704 (Aug. 22, … Continue reading
PA: DYS inspection order required PC
DYS obtained an inspection order to enter petitioner’s house, but it was issued without specific probable cause to believe any specific acts were occurring inside. Probable cause was required for the order to enter. In the Interest of D.R., 2019 … Continue reading
CA5: Medical Board violated 4A by demanding immediate compliance with SDT; but they get qualified immunity
The Texas Medical Board violated the Fourth Amendment when conducting an administrative search of a physician’s office because it demanded immediate compliance with its subpoena. The medical industry as a whole was not a closely regulated industry, and the statutory … Continue reading