Archives
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Recent Posts
- N.D.Ala.: All parts of a SW are read in context, and that narrows it so it’s not overbroad
- WA: No immediate bail for DV arrest violates neither 4A nor due process
- S.D.N.Y.: Overseas seizure of Russian oligarch’s megayacht not governed by 4A
- CA7: No IAC in failure to more aggressively pursue Franks challenge
- CA9: Compelled use of fingerprint to open a cell phone didn’t violate 5A
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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
Privacy Foundation
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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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Daily Archives: April 15, 2015
Forbes: Appeals Court Overturns Jury’s $250,000 Award In Fatal Drug Raid: Why?
Forbes: Appeals Court Overturns Jury’s $250,000 Award In Fatal Drug Raid: Why? by George Leef: Many court cases cause you to wonder if the Constitution isn’t a dead letter, but the Fourth Circuit’s decision in Kane v. Lewis in March … Continue reading
OH9: Male driver’s consent to search car does not extend to female passenger’s purse; no apparent authority
The officer believed that the occupants of the car were having sex in exchange for money, but there was no probable cause or exigent circumstances, so the automobile exception did not apply. The male driver granted consent to search the … Continue reading
Slate: Ignorance of the Law [is a complete defense, if you’re a cop]
Slate: Ignorance of the Law [is a complete defense, if you’re a cop] by Cristian Farias: So why did Slager pull over Scott? If what he said, as captured on the dashcam account, is to be believed, Slager made a … Continue reading
WaPo: TSA employees accused in scanner scam to ‘grope’ male passengers
WaPo: TSA employees accused in scanner scam to ‘grope’ male passengers by Lindsey Bever: Two Transportation Security Administration screeners have been fired following accusations that they manipulated the security system at Denver International Airport so that one of them, a … Continue reading
WaPo: Cop accused of brutally torturing black suspects costs Chicago $5.5 million
WaPo: Cop accused of brutally torturing black suspects costs Chicago $5.5 million by Michael E. Miller: Whenever Chicago Police commander Jon Burge needed a confession, he would walk into the interrogation room and set down a little black box, his … Continue reading
NJLJ: NJ Court Mulls Easing Rules for Warrantless Auto Searches
NJLJ: NJ Court Mulls Easing Rules for Warrantless Auto Searches by Michael Booth: The New Jersey Supreme Court on April 14 heard arguments over whether it should scrap its six-year-old ruling that governs the standards police must follow when conducting … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Reasonable to infer that robbers usually keep weapons and proceeds at home
It was a reasonable inference that a suspected robber would keep the weapons used and the proceeds of the robbery in his house. In any event, the good faith exception applies. United States v. Morgan, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48758 … Continue reading
DE: Nervousness, 3 cell phones, past drug conviction, old alias not used not RS beyond a mere patdown; extension of stop unreasonable
The stop was for speeding, 48/25. Defendant’s extreme nervousness and criminal history for drugs and weapons and an old alias justified his patdown for weapons. Defendant was previously asked for consent to search the car and declined. The extension of … Continue reading
Yahoo News: Video captured 2014 Taser shooting involving SC officer Michael Slager
Yahoo News: Video captured 2014 Taser shooting involving SC officer Michael Slager by Jason Sickles Lawsuit alleges suspect wasn’t a threat when he was shot in the back.
NYTimes: David Brooks: The Lost Language of Privacy
NYTimes: David Brooks: The Lost Language of Privacy: So, yes, on balance, cop-cams are a good idea. But, as a journalist, I can tell you that when I put a notebook or a camera between me and my subjects, I … Continue reading
Seattle Times Opinion: How to protect privacy in the digital age: a constitutional amendment
Seattle Times Opinion: How to protect privacy in the digital age: a constitutional amendment by Alex Alben: WE live under surveillance. In our homes. In our offices. In our public spaces. With the widespread deployment of GPS devices, digital networks … Continue reading