Archives
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Recent Posts
- LA4: Merely having a concealed firearm isn’t RS for a frisk
- OR: Merely driving off the road wasn’t RS, but adding the driver’s demeanor at the time was
- OH6: Trial court’s failure to explain RS under Rodriguez required remand
- CA6: Asking def before a patdown during arrest what he had on him wasn’t barred by Miranda
- NY Queens: PC shown for SW blood drawn at hospital after car wreck
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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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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)
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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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Monthly Archives: October 2014
CA2: Entry into curtilage and shooting family dog in front of child not based on exigency
Officers entered the curtilage without a warrant or exigent circumstances and shot plaintiff’s dog in front of his 12 year old daughter. The verdict for the defendant officers is reversed and remanded for trial because they didn’t show reasons for … Continue reading
ND: Welfare stop of car parked on gravel road to historical site at 11 pm
The stop of defendant was justified as a welfare check because he was parked on a gravel road on the way to an historical site at 11 pm. He admitted having marijuana. State v. Schneider, 2014 ND 198, 2014 N.D. … Continue reading
IL: No exigency justified the blood draw or dispensing with SW
There was no exigency justifying dispensing with a warrant for a blood draw in this case. The officer never considered a warrant [probably because it was pre-McNeely]. People v. Armer, 2014 IL App (5th) 130342, 2014 Ill. App. LEXIS 748 … Continue reading
AP: Judge rejects Ebola quarantine for nurse
AP: Judge rejects Ebola quarantine for nurse by Robert F. Bukaty: FORT KENT, Maine (AP) — A Maine judge on Friday rejected a bid by state health officials to restrict the movement of nurse Kaci Hickox, who defied a state … Continue reading
The Hill: Court: Police can use your fingerprint to search your phone
The Hill: Court: Police can use your fingerprint to search your phone by Cory Bennett: The police can get your fingerprint, but not your password, to unlock your smartphone, a Virginia judge ruled this week. A password is constitutionally protected … Continue reading
WaPo: Why the EFF – and then others – probably misunderstood the numbers on ‘sneak and peek’ warrants
WaPo: Why the EFF – and then others – probably misunderstood the numbers on ‘sneak and peek’ warrants by Orin Kerr: A scary-sounding report about government surveillance practices is probably based on a misunderstanding. Ironically, the spike in the number … Continue reading
National Constitution Center: Before the NSA, there was the USPS
National Constitution Center: Before the NSA, there was the USPS by Nicandro Iannacci: According to the USPS Office of Inspector General, 20 percent of law enforcement requests were not properly approved, and 13 percent were unjustified or not properly documented. … Continue reading
he Atlantic: A Hotel’s Right to Protect the Privacy of Its Guests
The Atlantic: A Hotel’s Right to Protect the Privacy of Its Guests by Conor Friedersdorf: Can police can demand records of where, when, and with whom people slept without a warrant? Imagine that you own a small hotel or motel. … Continue reading
The Atlantic: Congress Still Has No Idea How Much the NSA Spies on Americans
The Atlantic: Congress Still Has No Idea How Much the NSA Spies on Americans by Conor Friedersdorf: Adequate oversight is impossible when even diligent members of the Senate Intelligence Committee can’t get basic facts about surveillance.
NPR: Can Authorities Cut Off Utilities And Pose As Repairmen To Search A Home?
NPR: Can Authorities Cut Off Utilities And Pose As Repairmen To Search A Home? by Nina Totenberg: Some legal cases do more than raise eyebrows – they push the legal envelope to change the law. Such is a federal case … Continue reading
WaPo: Surprise! Controversial Patriot Act power now overwhelmingly used in drug investigations
WaPo: Surprise! Controversial Patriot Act power now overwhelmingly used in drug investigations by Radley Balko: One of the more controversial provisions of the Patriot Act was to broaden the “sneak-and-peek” power for federal law enforcement officials. The provision allows investigators … Continue reading
WaPo: ICE twice breached privacy policy with license-plate index
WaPo: ICE twice breached privacy policy with license-plate index by By Ellen Nakashima: After the Department of Homeland Security canceled a plan for broad law enforcement access to a national license-plate tracking system in February, officials established a policy that … Continue reading
The Hill: FBI wants expanded hacking authority
The Hill: FBI wants expanded hacking authority by Cory Bennett: The FBI is pressing the little-known Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules to give it expanded authority to remotely hack and spy on computers in the U.S. and abroad. Civil liberties … Continue reading
IL: 5-7 minute delay before dog sniff wasn’t unreasonable
The court of appeals thinks that the officer having the driver close the windows and turn on the heater for a dog sniff is a search, but the state supreme court disagrees, and the court is bound by it. Also, … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Prosthetic leg could be searched incident to arrest
The search of defendant’s prosthetic leg was reasonable as a search incident. Heroin was found. The officers did not have to take the leg first to the courthouse to x-ray it. United States v. Thomas, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 152531 … Continue reading
The Guardian: FBI demands new powers to hack into computers and carry out surveillance
The Guardian: FBI demands new powers to hack into computers and carry out surveillance by Ed Pilkington: Agency requests rule change but civil liberties groups say ‘extremely invasive’ technique amounts to unconstitutional power grab The FBI is attempting to persuade … Continue reading
Slate: Search Party
Slate: Search Party by Nathan Freed Wessler: A 30-year-old loophole increasingly gives police officers a pass when they violate the Fourth Amendment. It used to be that when police violated a suspect’s Fourth Amendment rights through an unconstitutional search, evidence … Continue reading
NYTimes: Crime Dips in New York as Misdemeanor Arrests Rise, Report Says
NYTimes: Crime Dips in New York as Misdemeanor Arrests Rise, Report Says by J. David Goodmanoct: Two decades ago, New Yorkers were more likely to be arrested in the middle of Manhattan for a misdemeanor than in any other neighborhood. … Continue reading