Archives
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Recent Posts
- AR: RS def rented a hotel room was sufficient for search waiver; PC not required
- LA5: No standing to challenge search of shooting victim’s cell phone in def’s possession
- N.D.Okla.: Cell phones possessed by tribal police not subject to return under Rule 41(g)
- E.D.Ark.: Landlord and tenant refused rental property inspection and SW was validly issued and protected privacy interests
- D.D.C.: Judge shopping after denial of SW inappropriate; could have appealed to DJ
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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,
citations, and links -
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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
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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)
ACLU on privacy
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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: September 2014
Lawfare: The Encryption Wars Continue
Lawfare: The Encryption Wars Continue by Paul Rosenzweig: For quite a while it has been the case that properly implemented encryption will defeat efforts to crack it (at least using current technology). Yet it has been the case for an … Continue reading
OH6: Small amount of MJ in trash pull wasn’t PC for SW for evidence of cultivation or trafficking
Officers had three year old information that defendant was involved in marijuana cultivation, and nothing was done about it. A trash pull was done that produced a tiny amount of marijuana. The stale information had to be disregarded, and the … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Failure to promptly answer PO’s knock at door was RS for an entry, given drug history
Defendant’s failure to answer his door promptly was reasonable cause for a warrantless parole search entry because, given defendant’s drug history, it was reasonable to believe he was destroying drugs. United States v. Sandlain, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129135 (E.D. … Continue reading
KY: 2 am knock-and-talk based on tip was suppressed where tip quickly proved wrong
2 a.m. knock and talk based on midnight anonymous call about noxious odors from the property was invalid where the officers approaching smelled nothing. “Upon receipt of the anonymous tip, the police had a duty to respond and investigate to … Continue reading
WaPo: Volokh: Apple’s dangerous game
WaPo: Volokh: Apple’s dangerous game by Orin Kerr: Apple has announced that it has designed its new operating system, iOS8, to thwart lawful search warrants. Under Apple’s old operating system, if an iPhone is protected by a passcode that the … Continue reading
WaPo: Op-ed: Government self-interest corrupted a crime-fighting tool into an evil
WaPo: Op-ed: Government self-interest corrupted a crime-fighting tool into an evil by John Yoder and Brad Cates: Last week, The Post published a series of in-depth articles about the abuses spawned by the law enforcement practice known as civil asset … Continue reading
NYTimes: Editorial: A Thin Blue Line in Battle Fatigues
NYTimes: Editorial: A Thin Blue Line in Battle Fatigues: The nation was stunned at the sight of local police officers armed for a military siege in Ferguson, Mo., when protesters took to the streets last month after the police shooting … Continue reading
Law.com: Apple’s Privacy Policy May Not Prove Unassailable
Law.com: Apple’s Privacy Policy May Not Prove Unassailable by Andrew Ramonos: Apple Inc.’s new privacy policy won’t stop law enforcement officers determined to view encrypted data on iPhones and iPads, according to privacy attorneys. But it will impose additional burdens.
D.Kan.: Just because cell site location data is “less than perfect” doesn’t mean it can’t be sought
Just because cell site location data is “less than perfect” doesn’t mean that the government can’t collect it with a proper application then attempt to use it at a trial. Also, the court concludes that the Tenth Circuit wouldn’t likely … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Lengthy pole camera surveillance of commercial property is far different than surveillance of the home
Lengthy pole camera surveillance of commercial property is far different than pole camera surveillance of the home. It was all of a public area where there was a diminished expectation of privacy. United States v. Moore, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
VA: Lifetime suspicionless probation search condition unreasonable
Defendant was convicted of rape and sentenced to 156 years with 140 suspended, or life suspended. He had a suspicionless probation/parole search condition imposed by the court. Lifetime suspension of his Fourth Amendment rights is neither related to the offense … Continue reading
MT: Katz test applies to informational privacy
Montana applies the Katz reasonable expectation of privacy case to informational privacy, here a worker’s comp case. By filing a worker’s comp claim, the claimant did not waive all privacy rights in medical records. Malcomson v. Liberty Northwest, 2014 MT … Continue reading
ID: Crosswalk sting led to valid stop
A crosswalk sting [seeing if motorists would stop for pedestrians] led to defendant’s stop and he was under the influence. The stop was valid. State v. Haugland, 2014 Ida. App. LEXIS 94 (September 8, 2014).* A traffic stop can be … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: ATF can investigate drug crimes and procure SWs
“Defendant argues the search warrant giving rise to the charges in the Indictment was defective because the ATF does not have authority to conduct state narcotics investigations.” The connection between guns and drugs is well known, and the ATF can … Continue reading
The Hill: Apple: New iPhones can’t be unlocked – even with a warrant
The Hill: Apple: New iPhones can’t be unlocked – even with a warrant by Julian Hattem: Apple says iOS 8 will protect users’ data from the government, and even from Apple itself. The company announced in a privacy policy late … Continue reading
The Hill: Holder launches national review of racial bias among cops
The Hill: Holder launches national review of racial bias among cops by Ben Goad: Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday announced a review of racial bias within the nation’s law enforcement agencies, further expanding the federal response to last month’s … Continue reading