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Recent Posts
- GFR: Feds Demand Identity Of YouTube Users Who Watched Certain Videos
- W.D.Wash.: DNA warrant isssued with PC not quashed before execution
- S.D.Ohio: Defense of denial of possession in drug case meant no assertion of standing to challenge the search, so no IAC
- N.D.Okla.: Anticipatory tracking warrant for money counter is without authority and nexus is speculative even if not
- CA9: Supervised release condition of financial disclosure permitted under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) and didn’t violate 4A
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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)
--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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock
Monthly Archives: August 2015
Journal Sentinel: Report shows deep racial disparity in arrests in Madison
Journal Sentinel: Report shows deep racial disparity in arrests in Madison: A black person in Madison is over 10 times more likely than a white person to be arrested, according to an analysis published Sunday by the Wisconsin State Journal. … Continue reading
NPR: Why Utah Is The Only State Trying To Track And Limit SWAT-Style Tactics
NPR: Why Utah Is The Only State Trying To Track And Limit SWAT-Style Tactics by Martin Kaste: The phrase police militarization conjures up an image of cops wrapped in Kevlar, barging into homes with semi-automatic weapons. But familiar as that … Continue reading
OH9: A challenge to evidence under the rules of evidence is brought by a motion in limine, not a motion to suppress
A challenge to evidence under the rules of evidence is brought by a motion in limine, not a motion to suppress. That’s for constitutional grounds. State v. Johnson, 2015-Ohio-3449, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 3327 (9th Dist. August 26, 2015). One … Continue reading
MD: Dragnet search of 21 apts looking for a shooter was unreasonable
For an exigent entry into a dwelling, probable cause is required. Here, police intended to search every apartment in two buildings looking for a shooter, and there was no probable cause as to any particular unit. They searched 21 apartments … Continue reading
TX1: Cell phone was properly seized incident to arrest because def was attempting to leave the place of detention
Defendant was stopped after coming out of a bathroom when a 13 year old boy told his mother that a man in the bathroom flashed something shiny at him under the stall wall. When the officer confronted him, he was … Continue reading
OR: It’s the state’s burden to argue any exceptions to the warrant requirement
It’s the state’s burden to argue any exceptions to the warrant requirement. State v. Maciel-Figueroa, 273 Ore. App. 298, 356 P.3d 674 (2015) (under submission 2½ years), aff’d, State v. Maciel-Figueroa, 361 Ore. 163, 2017 Ore. LEXIS 166 (March 2, … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Some wiretap records are unsealed on request from press
The press sought unsealing of wiretapping related materials, and the parties are asked for their positions. The court orders partial release. United States v. Chow, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114802 (N.D.Cal. August 28, 2015):
ID: Consent to a BAC test in the face of the sanctions for refusal is not unconstitutional coercion
Consent to a BAC test in the face of the sanctions for refusal is not unconstitutional coercion. State v. Riendeau, 2015 Ida. LEXIS 218 (August 24, 2015). Exigency of looking for the victim of a serious crime justified the entry … Continue reading
ND: State didn’t even attempt to justify inventory; policy was required to be proved
The trial court did not err in finding that the impoundment and inventory was unreasonable. The vehicle was unlicensed, but the officer did not decide to inventory it until he found out defendant gave him a false identification. The state … Continue reading
ID: Dog putting nose in open window of car wasn’t search; it was dog following smell
A drug dog putting his nose up to the open window during an exterior dog sniff was not a search of the interior. The officers didn’t tell him to do it, and the dog was just following his smell (citing … Continue reading
C.D.Ill.: Calls to wife showed exigency for potential removal of drugs hidden in safe in house
Defendant’s calls to his wife showed there was exigency in the contents of a safe at their house because he wanted it moved immediately. That was exigency. Also, she had apparent authority to consent. United States v. Simmons, 2015 U.S. … Continue reading
OH3: Home burglar alarm company call and partially open door is exigency
Home burglar alarm brought the police via the alarm company. They found the door cracked open, and that was exigent circumstances for an entry. State v. Foster, 2015-Ohio-3401, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 3316 (3d Dist. August 24, 2015). The certified … Continue reading
CA9: Settled by 1984 that Brady applied to police; qualified immunity denied
Not a search and seizure case, but we need to know it: It was established in 1984 at the time of one plaintiff’s conviction and 1991 of the other plaintiff that police had a duty to provide exculpatory evidence to … Continue reading
S.D.Ala.: Asking def about his money unlawfully extended stop
After the traffic stop, defendant should have been released. As he tried to go, questions about his money unreasonably extended the stop. United States v. Snowden, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112966 (S.D.Ala. August 26, 2015):
CA1: Govt proved independent source for SW; nexus to computer shown by its proximity to forged documents
Removing the information from the alleged illegal search from the affidavit for search warrant still shows probable cause from independent sources, and the motions to suppress were properly denied. Nexus to search one defendant’s computer came from his carrying it … Continue reading
CA5: Using a Taser on a person no longer resisting is excessive force
Using a Taser on a person no longer resisting is excessive force. The mentally ill plaintiff was at first resisting but then stopped. At that point, it became excessive. Carroll v. Ellington, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 15098 (5th Cir. August … Continue reading
D.C.Cir. dissolves injunction against telephony metadata collection sanctioned by FISA
D.C.Cir. dissolves injunction against telephony metadata collection sanctioned by FISA. Klayman v. Obama, 15-5001 (D.C.Cir. August 28, 2015):
Baltimore Sun: Public defender’s office to review cases involving stingray technology
Baltimore Sun: Public defender’s office to review cases involving stingray technology by Jessica Anderson: The Baltimore public defender’s office said it plans to review nearly 2,000 cases in which police used a controversial cellphone surveillance tool without defense attorneys’ knowledge, … Continue reading