Archives
-
Recent Posts
- CA5: Deficient privilege log after records search was waiver
- E.D.Ky.: When court can’t tell the dog alerted, motion to suppress granted
- OH1: A malnourished child isn’t exigency for an infant
- E.D.Pa.: Mandamus doesn’t lie to unseal SW papers
- D.Me.: Looking around house when allegedly “freezing” it was an illegal search
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
-
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
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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: November 2015
CA6: Def’s failure to submit to officer’s show of authority showed it was not a seizure
“The United States appeals the district court’s order suppressing a firearm found in defendant Samuel Johnson’s car during a traffic stop. The district court ruled that because the police had unconstitutionally seized Johnson before he rolled through a stop sign, … Continue reading
CA6 explains in detail informant hearsay in a close case
The informant hearsay shows probable cause for the search warrant. The court provides a detailed analysis of how informant hearsay is evaluated. On the totality of circumstances, probable cause was shown. United States v. Howard, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 20705 … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Guest in hotel room had reasonable expectation of privacy in room after renter left
Defendant was a guest in a hotel room, and the renter left. Defendant still had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the room. Defendant consented to the search of the room. “Moreover, the court finds Green’s testimony to be unbelievable … Continue reading
LA3: Typo in SW could be disregarded where the correct place was searched
The search warrant here used a form off a computer, and the officer forgot to put in the correct address, and the two were 2.69 miles apart. The officers went to the place they intended, not the place specified in … Continue reading
IA: Use of siren and commands about where to stand during stop was a seizure
“Here, the evidence establishes that Officer Aljets exercised his authority to request Williams stop, rendering the encounter a seizure. The officer testified he ‘hit the siren horn’ which made a ‘whoop whoop’ sound in order to get Williams’s attention. The … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Def volunteering he had a warrant justified extending stop; driver’s statement passenger hid a gun was RS
Defendant volunteered early in the stop that he had a warrant out for him, and that alone justified continuing the stop. The driver of the vehicle told the officer that defendant put a gun under the seat, and that justified … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: SW for evidence of a robbery in a hotel room revealed evidence of identity theft, and it could be seized
In executing a search warrant for two hotel rooms for evidence of armed robbery occurring there, the officers encountered obvious evidence of identity theft in plain view, and it could be seized. “[W]hen they entered the room, he observed a … Continue reading
CO: Collective knowledge doctrine applies to plain view seizure of laptop computer
The fellow officer (collective knowledge) rule applies to plain view seizure of a laptop computer that was seen in plain view that the fellow officer had probable cause to believe contained child pornography. People v. Swietlicki, 2015 CO 67, 2015 … Continue reading
OH11: Smell of MJ coming from def’s person during traffic stop justifies search of person
Drifting over the center line was reasonable suspicion for a stop, and the smell of marijuana on the defendant’s person justified a search of the person. State v. Glenn, 2015-Ohio-4832, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 4722 (11th Dist. Nov. 23, 2015). … Continue reading
WaPo: Battling the modern American administrative state
WaPo: Battling the modern American administrative state by George Will: As the administrative state distorts the United States’ constitutional architecture, Clarence Thomas becomes America’s indispensable constitutionalist. Now in his 25th year on the Supreme Court, he is urging the judicial … Continue reading
On the Media and the PATRIOT Act
On the Media: Surveillance Beyond the Patriot Act We all know the Patriot Act, but lesser-known programs like Executive Order 12333 account for the bulk of government surveillance–and receive even less oversight. The Patriot Act’s Unintended Consequences Ultimately, our assumption … Continue reading
WaPo: NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records to end
WaPo: NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records to end by Ellen Nakashima: The National Security Agency on Sunday will end its mass collection of data about Americans’ phone calls under the Patriot Act, 2½ years after a leak by … Continue reading
CA8: Pre-Jardines dog sniff at defendant’s window was governed by Jardines
A dog sniff of defendant’s apartment window was a violation of Jardines. While the sniff was pre-Jardines, there was no clear binding authority that the government could rely on for Davis good faith to apply. United States v. Burston, 2015 … Continue reading
PA: The best evidence rule does not apply to establishing probable cause
In establishing probable cause, the best evidence rule under Rule 1002 & 1004(a) did not apply to a still photograph of a truck that was taken from a security videotape that was erased and then taped over by a camera … Continue reading
WI: Discarded cigarette butt is PC for a stop
Throwing a cigarette butt out a car window is littering, and an officer can make a stop even thought it’s a civil forfeiture offense. State v. Iverson, 2015 WI 101, 2015 Wisc. LEXIS 709 (Nov. 25, 2015). An abrupt turn … Continue reading
WaPo: Improper techniques, increased risks / Deaths have raised questions about the risk of excessive or improper deployment of Tasers
WaPo: Improper techniques, increased risks / Deaths have raised questions about the risk of excessive or improper deployment of Tasers by Cheryl W. Thompson & Mark Berman: