Archives
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Recent Posts
- D.Utah: Police slow walked traffic stop without RS
- IA: Court ordered privilege review of search was at its expense
- D.Kan.: Preservation request under SCA isn’t a search or seizure
- UT: RS on a prior day was not RS for stop on day in question
- CA2: Ptf alleged invasion of privacy for 4A violation, and that’s enough
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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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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 -
"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
CA11: Warrantless entry to arrest on reasonable suspicion violates clearly established law; officers denied qualified immunity
A warrantless entry to arrest on reasonable suspicion violates clearly established law of the presumption of invalidity of a warrantless entry, and the officers are denied qualified immunity. Morris v. Town of Lexington Ala., 748 F.3d 1316 (11th Cir. 2014)*: … Continue reading
WI: Consent to a BAC test overcomes McNeeley
Consent to a BAC test overcomes McNeeley. State v. Padley, 2014 Wisc. App. LEXIS 414 (May 22, 2014). Defendant’s not dimming his lights for a parked patrol vehicle was not a traffic offense, so his stop was invalid. State v. … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: Qualified Immunity and Statutory Interpretation
Qualified Immunity and Statutory Interpretation, Ilan Wurman, 37 Seattle Univ. L. R. 939 (2014). Abstract: Before the 1989 case of Graham v. Connor, excessive force cases were pursued under either state law or the insuperable “shocks the conscience” test of … Continue reading
WaPo: Rand Paul links arms with ACLU vs. drone use
WaPo: Rand Paul links arms with ACLU vs. drone use by Jennifer Rubin: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is facing widespread criticism over his foreign policy views and his zigzagging between eccentric libertarianism and a more mainstream center-right outlook. Yesterday he … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: A line by line dissection of a search warrant affidavit is inappropriate
A line by line dissection of a search warrant affidavit is inappropriate; what does it say as a whole with a common sense reading. “Brummett’s interpretation strains linguistic reality.” It was not so lacking in probable cause that the exclusionary … Continue reading
GA: Officers’ entry into backyard and look in window violated curtilage; suppressed
The officer’s entry into the backyard curtilage allowed an unauthorized view into a window, and that view couldn’t be used to justify exigency. There were photographs in evidence of what was the front door and back door, and there was … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: “To Corral and Control the Ghetto”: Stop, Frisk, and the Geography of Freedom
“To Corral and Control the Ghetto”: Stop, Frisk, and the Geography of Freedom, Anders Walker, 48 U. Rich. L. Rev. 1223 (2014). Abstract: This article revisits the emergence of stop and frisk law in the 1960s to make three points. … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Smell of MJ during traffic stop probable cause
Defendant’s traffic stop was valid, and the officer smelled marijuana, and that was probable cause. The vehicle had 39kg marijuana and 13kg of cocaine in it. United States v. Davis, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69170 (D. Nev. April 30, 2014), … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Failure to comply with notice provision for “sneak and peak” warrant did not require suppression
Dog sniff at door of a storage unit was used to get a “sneak and peak” warrant which was otherwise valid, and it did not violate Jardines which is limited to homes. A dog sniff like this does not violate … Continue reading
CA6: Passing the BAC test doesn’t mean the stop was illegal
The officer here had probable cause to stop plaintiff for an illegal lane change shown on the dashcam video. Plaintiff smelled of alcohol and there was probable cause for arrest. The fact he passed the BAC test didn’t vitiate the … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: The Evolution of the Right to Exclude — More than a Property Right, a Privacy Right
The Evolution of the Right to Exclude — More than a Property Right, a Privacy Right, Jace C. Gatewood, 32 Miss. C. L. Rev. 447 (2014). Abstract: More than two hundred years ago, William Blackstone defined the right of property … Continue reading
NYT: Final Word on U.S. Law Isn’t: Supreme Court Keeps Editing
NYT: Final Word on U.S. Law Isn’t: Supreme Court Keeps Editing by Adam Liptak: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has been quietly revising its decisions years after they were issued, altering the law of the land without public notice. The … Continue reading
BizPac Review: Electronic privacy battles taking place in 20 states
BizPac Review: Electronic privacy battles taking place in 20 states State lawmakers are pushing back against the surveillance alliance between the executive branch and law enforcement agencies at all levels of society. According to data published by the privacy advocacy … Continue reading
WaPo: Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft say government has no right to suppress data request disclosures
WaPo: Google, Yahoo, Facebook and Microsoft say government has no right to suppress data request disclosures by Hayley Tsukayama: Court documents unsealed Friday show Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Microsoft are arguing that government gag orders that stop them from disclosing … Continue reading
In trial
You’ve likely noticed posts are behind. I’ve been in trial prep and have a week and a half drug, gun, and shooting conspiracy trial starting Tuesday. Today, we had to exchange and turn in exhibits and witness lists, and we … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: The Due Process Exclusionary Rule
The Due Process Exclusionary Rule, Richard M. Re, 127 Harv. L. Rev. 1885 (2014). Abstract: As the Supreme Court continues to cut back on and perhaps eliminate Fourth Amendment suppression, the exclusionary rule has entered a new period of crisis. … Continue reading
ID: Statuette of patron saint of drug dealers on dashboard was a factor in reasonable suspicion
Defendant was parked vehicle on a rural gravel road with bloodshot eyes and the presence of a statuette of the patron saint for drug traffickers, and that was reasonable suspicion. “The officer also noticed a Santa Muerte statuette on the … Continue reading