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Recent Posts
- NY: Failure to show independent source for officer’s observation of def required reversal
- VA: Outline of a gun in def’s pocket was RS
- N.D.Ind.: Motion to suppress was near denial of standing by disavowing relationship with premises
- W.D.N.Y.: Def had no standing in a place he wasn’t allowed to be on parole
- CA11: QI for FBI SWAT raiding wrong house at 3:30 am
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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)
--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)
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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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Monthly Archives: May 2016
CA4 en banc: CSLI is mere third-party information not requiring SW
CSLI is third-party information the government does not need a warrant to obtain. 221 days worth of information was admissible. It’s up to Congress or SCOTUS to change the third-party doctrine. United States v. Graham, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 9797 … Continue reading
AK: Seizure of luggage and shipping back to Anchorage for dog sniff violated U.S. v. Place
When defendant arrived by plane to Dillingham, Alaska, officers, tipped off by a CI, asked for consent to search defendant’s suitcases for marijuana. He refused. They seized the suitcases and applied to a magistrate for a warrant. The magistrate said … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: The fact two officers recollect the facts somewhat differently at suppression hearing doesn’t mean one or both are lying
That two officers recollect defendant’s traffic offense and stop somewhat differently doesn’t mean that one of them was lying. On the totality, there was reasonable suspicion. United States v. Maldonado, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 67881 (N.D.Iowa May 24, 2016),* R&R … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: CP warrant not stale; in addition, even deleted files were subject to recovery
Ten months was not too old in a child pornography case to make the information stale. Even so, deleted files were potentially recoverable by forensic analysis of the computer. United States v. Pinchot, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 67274 (E.D.Mich. April … Continue reading
IN: Passenger had no standing to challenge GPS warrant for car
Defendant was the passenger in a car that was operated by a person the police suspected was a serial burglar. They secured a GPS warrant, and they followed the car from a distance. They followed it to another county and … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: CI was adequately corroborated and predictive info proved correct
The CI had been working with the drug officers for four months, and his significant information had been significantly corroborated. He also accurately predicted that $400,000 would be packaged and shipped by defendant. That was probable cause. United States v. … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Protective sweep justified by arrest on weapons charges, somebody peeking through blinds, and sounds from inside
Officers executing an arrest warrant for weapons charges had reasonable suspicion for a protective sweep based on sounds from the basement and somebody peeking through the blinds. United States v. Alatorre, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69171 (D.Neb. May 26, 2016). … Continue reading
S.D.Ala.: No suppression hearing if defense doesn’t contradict govt’s assertions of fact
When the defendant doesn’t controvert the material facts in the government’s response to his motion to suppress, a hearing isn’t required because all the court has is to apply the law to the facts. United States v. Sledge, 2016 U.S. … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: The question is PC for a SW, not what else officers could do to get more information; if they have PC, that’s all that’s required
The fact officers could have done more to validate their suspicions about a Facebook picture and who the child was and defendant and child pornography allegedly involving the same child, it isn’t constitutionally required if probable cause exists. United States … Continue reading
SC: Where def avoided a DUI checkpoint, he couldn’t challenge its constitutionality
Where defendant was stopped because he avoided a checkpoint, the constitutionality of the checkpoint isn’t relevant to the appeal because there was no stop. An officer pursued and found the car parked with the lights off. Coming up to the … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: No IAC from not challenging a search of some drugs where it wouldn’t even change def’s Sentencing Guideline range
Defendant’s post-conviction petition is denied. He argued that defense counsel was ineffective for not challenging the search of his duffle bag during the search of a house by consent when he was an overnight guest. The merits don’t even have … Continue reading
NYT: Dutch Firm Trains Eagles to Take Down High-Tech Prey: Drones
NYT: Dutch Firm Trains Eagles to Take Down High-Tech Prey: Drones by Stephen Castle
M.D.La.: SW for examination of boat two years after alleged false BP spill claim for repairs not performed wasn’t stale
Defendant was suspected of making a fraudulent claim in the BP oil spill litigation claiming repairs on a boat. The government gathered information from others that strongly suggested that the boat was neither damaged nor repaired. The government finally applied … Continue reading
GA: Forfeiture answer pleading illegal search and seizure has to plead facts
“Loveless also complains that the trial court erred by striking his Answer when he had raised therein a sufficient defense, namely that the search and seizure occurred in violation of the Fourth Amendment. However, the Answer did not include those … Continue reading
WA: DUI probationer’s condition of random UAs was reasonable
A DUI probationer’s probation condition of random UAs was reasonable “to ensure compliance with a probation condition prohibiting the consumption of alcohol, marijuana, or non-prescribed drugs.” Trial court erred in setting the condition aside. State v. Olsen, 2016 Wash. App. … Continue reading
CA11: Handling a key fob during a consent search for drugs was not unreasonable because there was RS
The person who rented the motel room for defendant and another still had the key and equal access to the room to consent to its search. In a consent search of the room for drugs in a suspected drug dealing … Continue reading
NPR: Victims Of Civil Asset Forfeiture Criticize New Federal Rules
NPR: Victims Of Civil Asset Forfeiture Criticize New Federal Rules with Martin Kaste: Early last year, the Obama administration pledged to reform the civil asset forfeiture system, by which police can seize and keep suspicious assets without having to convict … Continue reading