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- M.D.Pa.: Def was neither shipper nor recipient of USPS parcel, so he had no standing in it
- WI: Obtaining def’s DNA by ruse wasn’t an illegal search
- WaPo: Apple, Google and Venmo fight new U.S. plan to monitor payment apps
- CA4: Tracking order using cell site simulator with PC was reasonable
- CADC: When searching a cell phone and officers find it belonged to someone else, a new SW isn’t required; SWs are directed at things, places, and people and owner doesn’t matter for PC
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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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"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: January 2016
DE: Def made a sufficient offer of proof to get a Franks hearing in a DUI blood warrant over omissions in how the FST was done
Delaware refers to affidavit material omissions as a reverse-Franks issue, and here he made a sufficient offer of proof to get a hearing on a search warrant for blood in an DUI case about how the field sobriety test was … Continue reading
Conn.L.Trib: Editorial: Court Rulings Suggest That Police Should Consider Nonlethal Alternatives
Conn.L.Trib: Editorial: Court Rulings Suggest That Police Should Consider Nonlethal Alternatives Courts have held that the Fourth Amendment does not require police officers to choose the least intrusive alternative, only a reasonable one. As we see more and more innocent … Continue reading
Road and Track: One Company Is Selling Location Data for Billions of License Plates to Police
Road and Track: One Company Is Selling Location Data for Billions of License Plates to Police A private company called Vigilant Solutions owns 2.2 billion photographs of car and truck licenses. Is this a violation of privacy?
CA11: Attorney has no standing in legal mail searched in a prison cell
An attorney of an inmate has no Fourth Amendment right in his client’s prison cell for the opening of prisoner mail during a cell security search. Williams v. Russo, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 1063 (11th Cir. Jan. 22, 2016). Appellate … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Minor discrepancies in the facts not enough to require a hearing; suppression denied on the papers
“Despite minor discrepancies [about smelling marijuana], the essential facts [in the reports] demonstrate that the officers’ conduct was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The search of defendant’s car and resulting discovery of the firearm is therefore valid and will not … Continue reading
IN: Search of a pill bottle found during a patdown for arrest for no DL was permissible under state constitution; court of appeals reversed
Search of a pill bottle found during a patdown for arrest for no DL was permissible under state constitution, and the court of appeals is reversed. Garcia v. State, 2016 Ind. LEXIS 30 (Jan. 21, 2016), rev’g 25 N.E.3d 786 … Continue reading
CA11: Miami’s seizure and destruction of ptf’s “ugly” sailboat stated a 4A claim under Soldal
Plaintiff lived on his sailboat in the City of Miami on state waters. He was stopped by marine officers who complained of his lack of property sanitary facilities and not having a good enough anchor light. They accused him of … Continue reading
CA8: No IAC for failing to raise Riley years before without any binding circuit cases; refuses to consider IAC prejudice based on sentence received
On the Strickland performance prong, counsel was not ineffective for not arguing defendant’s cell phone search incident when there was no circuit authority years before Riley. On the prejudice prong, the court doesn’t have to decide it but comments anyway: … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Defendant running off into the desert while handcuffed was abandonment of the bag he had at his feet
Defendant “abandoned his reasonable expectation of privacy when he ran and left the satchel unattended in the desert. The bag was placed next to him by Agent Fletcher. Although it may have been difficult for the defendant to retrieve the … Continue reading
ABAJ: This high-tech police department trawls social media, license plates; watches city with audio, video
ABAJ: This high-tech police department trawls social media, license plates; watches city with audio, video by Debra Cassens Weiss: The type of data used in marketing is also being used by police departments to help solve crimes and analyze the … Continue reading
ABAJ: Databases of police activity offer a handy tool for defense lawyers
ABAJ: Databases of police activity offer a handy tool for defense lawyers by Jason Tashea (Feb. 1, 2016): Vidya Pappachan, an attorney for the Legal Aid Society in New York City, had little time to prepare for a client’s arraignment … Continue reading
WaPo: Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: The one thing that will get a cop fired
WaPo: Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: The one thing that will get a cop fired: Georgia cop was fired for exposing his own chief’s ignorance of the law.
MD: Constitutional arguments about breath tests for DL purposes have to be raised before the ALJ
Constitutional arguments about breath tests have to be raised before the ALJ in administrative proceedings to be preserved. Motor Vehicle Admin. v. Gonce, 2016 Md. LEXIS 4 (Jan. 22, 2016). Even if defense counsel were ineffective for not challenging the … Continue reading
techdirt: Prosecutors Say Cops Don’t Need Warrants For Stingrays Because ‘Everyone Knows’ Cell Phones Generate Location Data
techdirt: Prosecutors Say Cops Don’t Need Warrants For Stingrays Because ‘Everyone Knows’ Cell Phones Generate Location Data by Tim Cushing: Up in Baltimore, where law enforcement Stingray device use hit critical mass faster and more furiously than anywhere else in … Continue reading
HuffPo: How the Supreme Court Authorized Racial Profiling
HuffPo: How the Supreme Court Authorized Racial Profiling by Gunar Olsen: After the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s dismantled explicitly racist laws, racism became colorblind to survive. Today, although no law explicitly allows for racial profiling by … Continue reading
AP: Chicago Hires Civil Rights Adviser for Police Department
AP: Chicago Hires Civil Rights Adviser for Police Department via NYT: CHICAGO — A former deputy superintendent of the Chicago Police Department who left to lead two major police departments is returning as a senior adviser to help guide the … Continue reading
techdirt: DOJ’s New Restrictions On Surveilling Journalists Contain Exception For National Security Letters
techdirt: DOJ’s New Restrictions On Surveilling Journalists Contain Exception For National Security Letters by Tim Cushing: In 2013, it was revealed the DOJ had added First Amendment-trampling to its always-cavalier treatment of the Fourth Amendment by gathering journalists’ phone records. … Continue reading
CA5 & AR: 34+ minute waits for drug dog without reasonable suspicion on totality
Defendant’s 40 minute detention waiting for a drug dog was without reasonable suspicion. None of the individual factors of reasonable suspicion relied upon by the government was reasonable suspicion in itself and even not on the totality. Oklahoma plates in … Continue reading