Archives
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Recent Posts
- CA5: Deficient privilege log after records search was waiver
- E.D.Ky.: When court can’t tell the dog alerted, motion to suppress granted
- OH1: A malnourished child isn’t exigency for an infant
- E.D.Pa.: Mandamus doesn’t lie to unseal SW papers
- D.Me.: Looking around house when allegedly “freezing” it was an illegal search
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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)
--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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Monthly Archives: May 2014
M.D.La.: Drawing a Taser on a suspect and ordering him to move his hands is a seizure
Drawing a Taser on a suspect and ordering him to move his hands is a seizure. United States v. Coleman, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70867 (M.D. La. May 23, 2014). This defendant’s effort to adopt another defendant’s motion to suppress … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Violation of Rule 41(d) time limit to start search not prejudicial
It’s not clear that the executing officers entered defendant’s house before 6:00 am in violation of Rule 41(d). Even if they did, “[t]here is no evidence that if the agents had waited a few minutes more, the search would have … Continue reading
D.Utah: Man had standing in live-in girlfriend’s car
Man had standing in his live-in girlfriend’s car. They shared a residence, had a child together, and he always had access to the car, even though it was registered to her. United States v. Lopez-Ayola, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72085 … Continue reading
NY Daily News: ‘He didn’t deserve any of this’: Toddler severely burned by stun grenade during police raid on Georgia home
NY Daily News: ‘He didn’t deserve any of this’: Toddler severely burned by stun grenade during police raid on Georgia home by Meg Wagner: A 19-month-old boy was sleeping in a Georgia home with his parents and three older sisters … Continue reading
PoliceOne: How to protect your career by writing better use-of-force reports
PoliceOne: How to protect your career by writing better use-of-force reports by Matt Stiehm: We must change our “less is more” mentality on UOF reports to a “more is more” mindset for the next generation of police officers Law enforcement … Continue reading
CA9: Forced rectal search for cocaine was unreasonable for lack of exigency
Plaintiff was subjected to a forced rectal search for drugs at a hospital. Police officers allegedly falsified the report to the hospital about defendant having a seizure to get the search done there when they had already concluded that plaintiff … Continue reading
CA9: Applying a functional reasonableness analysis, the 21 day delay in getting a SW after computer seizure was reasonable
In a child pornography case, defendant’s computer was held for 21 days before a search warrant was obtained, and he moved to suppress. On the totality, the court finds the delay reasonable and did not substantially interfere with defendant’s possessory … Continue reading
CA5: Frisking rousted man who denied having gun was without reasonable suspicion
A convoy of police arrive in an apartment complex because it’s a high crime area, and one walks up to defendant’s car and talks to him asking “where’s your gun?” He says he doesn’t have one. Then the officer asks … Continue reading
Forbes: Lumber Union Protectionists Incited SWAT Raid On My Factory, Says Gibson Guitar CEO
Forbes: Lumber Union Protectionists Incited SWAT Raid On My Factory, Says Gibson Guitar CEO by Bill Freeza: Up until that point Gibson had not received so much as a postcard telling the company it might be doing something wrong. Thus … Continue reading
VI: Dropped gun during flight was abandoned
Defendant was suspected of a hand-to-hand drug transaction, and the police followed and called out to him, and he fled and his gun and magazine fell to the ground. It was in plain view when seen or abandoned. “The gun … Continue reading
BNA: Justices Won’t Review If Breathalyzer Tests Of New York City Officers Are Constitutional
BNA: Justices Won’t Review If Breathalyzer Tests Of New York City Officers Are Constitutional from Daily Labor Report by Kevin P. McGowan: May 27 — Denying a petition filed by the New York City police officers’ union, the U.S. Supreme … Continue reading
WaPo: Volokh: Answering Justice Alito’s question: What makes an expectation of privacy ‘reasonable’?
WaPo: Volokh: Answering Justice Alito’s question: What makes an expectation of privacy ‘reasonable’? by Orin Kerr: During the recent oral argument in United States v. Wurie, the pending cell phone search case, Justice Alito asked an important question about the … Continue reading
IL: For an IAC claim to succeed, the underlying claim must be meritorious, not just likely to succeed
For a search and seizure IAC claim to succeed, the underlying claim must be meritorious, not just likely to succeed. Not filing a motion to suppress may be trial tactics, and, here, the question was whether there was probable cause, … Continue reading
Politico: The Founding Fathers Would Have Protected Your Smartphone
Politico: The Founding Fathers Would Have Protected Your Smartphone by Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. Chris Coons: Privacy is a core American value. For 235 years, the Fourth Amendment has protected us from unwarranted searches of our personal belongings. All … Continue reading
SCOTUS: Deadly force to stop this high-speed car chase was reasonable as a matter of law; alternatively, officers get qualified immunity
Deadly force used to stop this high-speed car chase was reasonable as a matter of law. The number of shots is not determinative (12) as long as the risk is apparent. Alternatively, the officers get qualified immunity because the law … Continue reading
MintPress News: NYPD Renews Push For Drones To Help Police The City
MintPress News: NYPD Renews Push For Drones To Help Police The City by Katie Rucke: While unmanned aircraft could offer outstanding benefits to both the NYPD and the city’s fire department, these benefits may not outweigh the concerns of citizens … Continue reading
Trial starts today
I’m in a drug conspiracy case with FIPF and use of a firearm in a drug trafficking crime starting today and ending Friday(?), Monday(?). Snitch heavy case: Government can’t prove much of anything without jury believing all three (who all … Continue reading