Archives
-
Recent Posts
- OK: Officer outside territorial jurisdiction isn’t a 4A issue
- S.D.N.Y.: Govt declines to use challenged evidence so it’s moot; def can reassert if need be
- CA7: No “rule of thumb” for the Rodriguez moment
- TN: That officer can’t tell difference between hemp and marijuana doesn’t mean there wasn’t PC from plain smell
- CA11: Days of constant pole camera surveillance didn’t state a 4A claim
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (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 -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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, Let it Bleed (album, 1969) -
"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: Conflict of laws
M.D.Pa.: Despite state MMJ, smell of MJ still PC under federal law
Despite medical marijuana being legal in this state, the smell of marijuana from a car is still probable cause under federal law. United States v. Skouras, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10 (M.D. Pa. Jan. 2, 2025):
IA: Federal supervised release search standards apply when leading to state prosecution
Conflict of laws: Where defendant’s supervised release search was by federal officers, federal law controls in state court, not state law. State v. Young, 2024 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 106 (Dec. 20, 2024). A motion to reconsider denial of a Fourth … Continue reading
AR: LA judge could issue SW for LA medical records for AR crime
After an accident in South Arkansas, defendant was airlifted to a hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana. A search warrant in Louisiana was issued for his medical records. There was no requirement that an Arkansas judge issue a warrant first, just so … Continue reading
W.D.Mich.: State law violation in search irrelevant in federal prosecution
Defense counsel can’t be ineffective for not arguing that state law was violated by the search in his federal case. Clark v. United States, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 219107 (W.D. Mich. Dec. 4, 2024).* Defense counsel could not be ineffective … Continue reading
Conflict of laws: CA parole search waiver effective in AR
Defendant was arrested in Arkansas on a California extradition warrant, and he had a California parole search waiver. The California search waiver parallels the Arkansas statute, and Arkansas officials could search his clothing under that. In addition, the search incident … Continue reading
NY Queens: Conflict of laws: Federal SW led to state court prosecution, and it is reviewed under state law
The warrant was issued by a U.S. Magistrate Judge, but it is reviewed under New York law which retained Aguilar/Spinelli, and it meets the test. People v. Mercado, 2023 NY Slip Op 23195, 2023 NYLJ LEXIS 1655, 2023 N.Y. Misc. … Continue reading
CA9: Joint Cambodian-U.S. search unlawful under Cambodian law not unlawful here; exclusionary rule not applied
Defendant was the subject of a joint raid in Cambodia by local and U.S. officers. The search of defendant’s room was held unlawful under Cambodian law because there was no written consent of the owner, something with no counterpart in … Continue reading
WA: ID officers participating in WA permitted at common law and not barred by 4A or statute
A child pornography investigation in Idaho led to a search warrant in a neighboring county in Washington. The Washington officers inviting Idaho officers to participate in aiding the search did not violate statute or the Fourth Amendment. It was permitted … Continue reading
CA2: MLAT treaty search of Netherlands server was a foreign search
El Chapo’s case: The district court was correct in not suppressing telephone calls on a drug cartel network set up in the Netherlands to facilitate their drug trafficking. The information was obtained by an MLAT treaty request, and it was … Continue reading
IA: Conflict of laws: Federal SW that ends up in state prosecution governed by federal law, not state
When a federal search warrant results in a state prosecution, federal law applies to the search in state court. Here it applied to a scope of search question that might have been decided differently under state law. This court held … Continue reading
AR: Commercial cop show video of search wasn’t in hands of state for discovery
Video of a drug search by a company producing HBO’s Meth Storm wasn’t in the hands of the state, so the state couldn’t disclose it, following Harmon v. State, 2020 Ark. 217, 600 S.W.3d 586 (2020). King v. State, 2020 … Continue reading
PA: Because CA police agreed to question a potential suspect in a PA murder, they didn’t become “agents” of PA
A murder occurred in Pennsylvania in 2002. A person with knowledge of the murder had moved to San Bernardino, California. Pennsylvania authorities called California and emailed reports on the murder. The California authorities undertook to interrogate defendant, which she agreed … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Alleged violation of Florida law by def’s arrest there where local officer assisted federal officers wasn’t a 4A violation
An alleged violation of Florida law in defendant’s arrest there with the participation of local law enforcement isn’t shown to be a Fourth Amendment violation. “And Teman has not cited any authority so holding or, for that matter, treating such … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Conflict of laws between circuits: Apply the law where the search occurred, subject maybe to good faith understandings [?]
In a search that took place in Arizona conducted in part by New Mexico officers, the court considers the conflict of laws question of which circuit’s law should apply: the circuit where the search occurred. At bottom, however, the court … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Under probation interstate compact, probationer subject to rules of both states
Defendant was placed on probation in Arizona, and he was subject to suspicionless searches there. He transferred probation to Nevada under the Interstate Compact for probationers, but Nevada required reasonable suspicion. He knew he was subject to the probation conditions … Continue reading
WA: Evidence lawfully obtained in another jurisdiction is admissible even if state law would have been violated
Washington’s “silver platter doctrine” that evidence lawfully obtained in another jurisdiction will be admitted into evidence there, even if Washington law would have been violated by the search in Washington, is retained and followed. The search warrant for child pornography … Continue reading
MD: Maryland exclusionary rule and GFE applied to search in NJ for evidence of a MD murder
Defendant was a suspect in a Maryland murder case, and the state and USMs certainly had probable cause for him connecting him to the murder. Yet, the affidavit for the search warrant for property in New Jersey merely conclusorily stated … Continue reading
CA9: Whether state officers violated state law in the search doesn’t matter in federal court under the 4A
Defendant argues that the officers violated Washington state law in his search and seizure. That doesn’t matter in federal court. United States v. Dauenhauer, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 34797 (9th Cir. Dec. 11, 2018). Under Hudson, “The federal exclusionary rule, … Continue reading
IA: No IAC for not challenging evidence obtained in another state where state law was more defense favorable; can’t show outcome would be different
Defendant was arrested in Nebraska, and Iowa authorities sought his DNA there to connect him to an Iowa crime. Nebraska’s standard for obtaining DNA is less demanding. He can’t show on post-conviction that defense counsel was ineffective for not challenging … Continue reading