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- DE: Officers approaching men on a stoop at night with a police dog saying “nobody move” was a seizure
- E.D.N.Y.: To get CSLI, there must be some showing the phone was involved in the crime
- W.D.Ky.: Illegal stop that was suppressed not excluded in § 1983 case
- CO adopts Graham for state excessive force claims
- D.Me.: Alleged statutory violation doesn’t warrant exclusionary rule
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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,
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (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)
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Monthly Archives: April 2016
NJ: A rifle case on a felon’s porch seen in a protective sweep qualifies for plain view; its incriminating nature is immediately apparent
Defendant was arrested in his house, and a protective sweep of the porch was valid. In plain view was a rifle case, and defendant was a felon in possession. It was reasonable to seize the rifle. State v. Cope, 2016 … Continue reading
OH3: Citizen informant reliable per se; dispatcher doesn’t need to be called at suppression hearing
“Unlike Navarette, this case presents an identified citizen informant, who, according to Weisner, is credited with greater reliability.” It also wasn’t necessary to call the police dispatcher at the suppression hearing. State v. Hancock, 2016-Ohio-2671, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS 1544 … Continue reading
NYTimes: After Missteps, U.S. Tightens Rules for National Security Cases
NYTimes: After Missteps, U.S. Tightens Rules for National Security Cases by Matt Apuzzo: WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has issued new rules that give prosecutors in Washington greater oversight and control over national security cases after the collapse of several … Continue reading
WaPo: Why Oklahoma cops are returning $53,000 to a Christian band, an orphanage and a church
WaPo: Why Oklahoma cops are returning $53,000 to a Christian band, an orphanage and a church by Christopher Ingraham: A group of Karen Christians from Burma and Thailand have partnered with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to challenge the civil … Continue reading
techdirt: EFF, ACLU And Public Records Laws Team Up To Expose Hidden Stingray Use By The Milwaukee Police Department
techdirt: EFF, ACLU And Public Records Laws Team Up To Expose Hidden Stingray Use By The Milwaukee Police Department by Tim Cushing:
KS: Mailed package with contraband to address justifies SW for address
A package in the mail addressed to a house that has suspected contraband in it justifies an anticipatory warrant for the whole house. State v. Mullen, 2016 Kan. LEXIS 242 (April 22, 2016). Defendant’s furtive movements during a traffic stop … Continue reading
WaPo: Morning links: Court says dog sniff alone doesn’t justify forfeiture
WaPo: Morning links: Court says dog sniff alone doesn’t justify forfeiture by Radley Balko
NYLJ: Passcodes, Privacy and Public Safety: Apple vs. DOJ
NYLJ: Passcodes, Privacy and Public Safety: Apple vs. DOJ by Peter Crusco: Revelations that the Department of Justice (DOJ) in mid-March with the help of an undisclosed tech company discovered an access vulnerability and new method to unlock the Apple … Continue reading
Lawfare: FISA gathered information in ordinary criminal cases
Lawfare: Section 702: Programmatic Collection and the Wall Reprised by Emma Buchsbaum:
KS: A vehicle on the curtilage belonging at house may be searched with a SW for the “premises”
A car belonging to the house the target of a search warrant and on the curtilage at the time of execution is subject to search under a warrant for the “premises.” In this case, defendant’s son was sitting in the … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Computer searches should occur away from the home of the target
Computer searches should occur away from the target’s premises. Sometimes they take a long time, and it is infeasible to do them at the scene of the search when it can take days. The comment to the Rule supports this. … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: Def’s father could consent to search of his bedroom in the home
Defendant was an adult, and he lived with his parents. His father had the apparent authority to consent to a search of his room. There were no precautions to protect his privacy in the household. United States v. Hernandez, 2016 … Continue reading
DE: No standing, no IAC for not moving to suppress
Defense counsel didn’t file an affidavit in this IAC case, so the court presumes that failure to file a motion to suppress was objectively unreasonable. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t have succeeded because defendant didn’t have standing to challenge the search. State … Continue reading
CA4: Officer had more than just criminal history for RS here; high-crime area, and gang affiliation were important
The officer had more than just criminal history to find reasonable suspicion to extend the stop. “Significantly, Officer Ring learned, early in the traffic stop, that Palmer was a suspected member of the Bounty Hunter Bloods. Ring knew that the … Continue reading
TN: GFE for McNeely issues has to come from state supreme court
Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals again declines to adopt a good faith exception for failure to comply with McNeely–that’s the state supreme court’s job. State v. Wilson, 2016 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 302 (April 21, 2016) (dissent).* An infant, through … Continue reading
FL: Moran v. Burbine rejected under FL const.; due process right to have lawyer who showed up admitted for questioning
A person being questioned at the police station has a state due process right to know that a lawyer has shown up on his or her behalf, and the police have to let the lawyer in. Moran v. Burbine rejected … Continue reading
FL: Def’s girlfriend had full access to his place to remove a knife she told police about
Defendant’s girlfriend retrieved a knife for the police and brought it out. She spent five nights a week there, and she happened to see it on this trip when she went in to let the dog out. She had complete … Continue reading
FL3: “Nervous and evasive behavior” justified patdown for weapons; once def discarded drugs, whole search could occur
The officer had reasonable suspicion to pat defendant down because of his “nervous and evasive behavior” when talking to the officer. While the patdown was excessive if looking for a weapon, defendant discarded drugs, too, and that made a more … Continue reading
D.Mass.: NIT warrant in CP investigation that transmitted information to user’s computers violated USMJ statute and Rule 41 and no GFE
In a child porn investigation, the government took over a server with child porn known as “Website A.” “The government used a “Network Investigative Technique (“NIT”) [warrant] that would allow the government covertly to transmit computer code to Website A … Continue reading