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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© 2003-23,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 350,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 45,000 posts since 2003 (25,700+ on WordPress as of 12/31/22)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and linksLatest Slip Opinions:
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FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $Research Links:
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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
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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“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!”
"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."
---Pepé Le Pew
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock
Category Archives: Foreign searches
D.P.R.: Colombia requesting U.S. telephone number so they could wiretap it didn’t make this a joint venture
The Colombian government requested a U.S. telephone number, and then they wiretapped it under their law. Later, they provided some information off the wiretap to the U.S. This was not sufficiently a joint venture to invoke the Fourth Amendment. United … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Email tip to Swiss authorities that defs were coming by plane with cocaine wasn’t enough to make the US agents of Switzerland
“Second, Defendants assert that HSI agents ‘were substantially involved’ in the search and seizure by Swiss officials based solely upon an email that was sent by a HSI special agent to the Swiss police alerting them to the fact that … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Observing MLAT search in Canada not enough to invoke “joint venture” doctrine
The government’s MLAT request to Canada to seize records there and then being there to observe for relevance of what was seized was not a “joint venture” when Canada acted on the request. A “joint venture” requires actual involvement, not … Continue reading
CA2: A request to Italy to search a computer under MLAT wasn’t governed by 4A
Defendant was accused of computer hacking from Italy, and Italian police conducted a search of his computers there. “Beyond alleging that the search was conducted at the request of the U.S. government, however, Gasperini does not argue that Italian officials … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Malaysian police seizing evidence on execution of an extradition warrant to the U.S. wasn’t a “joint venture” with U.S.
Defendant is a Nigerian who was living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was arrested on an extradition warrant from the United States for computer hacking of the Georgia Tech computer system. His computers and media were seized at the time … Continue reading
Daily Beast: New Facebook-Backed Law Would Let Foreign Governments Get Your Data Without a Warrant
Daily Beast: New Facebook-Backed Law Would Let Foreign Governments Get Your Data Without a Warrant by Spencer Ackerman:
AppleInsider: Apple-supported CLOUD Act passes Congress, will change how governments share data
AppleInsider: Apple-supported CLOUD Act passes Congress, will change how governments share data by Stephen Silver:
Law 360: Rights Groups Say CLOUD Act Tramples Civil Liberties
Law 360: Rights Groups Say CLOUD Act Tramples Civil Liberties by Stephen Bishop: The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the American Civil Liberties Union and others are calling on Congress to block legislation meant to facilitate cross-border data requests … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: No joint venture shown with Philippines LEOs in seizure of def’s suitcase there
The search in the Philippines was not a joint venture with the United States, so the exclusionary rule doesn’t apply to it. “There is no evidence that the FBI was aware that items from Defendant’s home were in the suitcase. … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Joint venture doctrine is product of 4A, and citizens of another country prosecuted here for what happened there can’t claim it
Non-citizens cannot claim the joint venture doctrine in claiming an alleged Fourth Amendment violation in another country by the U.S. being on an alleged joint venture with the other country in a criminal investigation. In addition, the conduct doesn’t shock … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Assistance and foreign wiretap were done by locals; no U.S. involvement, so no 4A protection
Defendant was indicted for ATM skimming and other identity theft offenses. The FBI started the investigation and contacted Bulgarian police about phone numbers from there. Bulgarian police tied the numbers to defendant, and they procured wiretaps at U.S. request and … Continue reading
CA5: No joint venture between DEA and Colombian police to wiretap Colombia nationals’ cell phones there so no 4A challenge here
Colombian nationals had no connection to the United States at the time the Colombia National Police wiretapped their Colombian cell phones in Colombia. This evidence came in when they were indicted in the Eastern District of Texas for conspiracy to … Continue reading
