Archives
-
Recent Posts
- AR: RS def rented a hotel room was sufficient for search waiver; PC not required
- LA5: No standing to challenge search of shooting victim’s cell phone in def’s possession
- N.D.Okla.: Cell phones possessed by tribal police not subject to return under Rule 41(g)
- E.D.Ark.: Landlord and tenant refused rental property inspection and SW was validly issued and protected privacy interests
- D.D.C.: Judge shopping after denial of SW inappropriate; could have appealed to DJ
-
-
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: July 2016
N.D.Cal.: Listening devices in a public place overcame any reasonable expectation of privacy; 1984 was not just a book — it’s here
The FBI planted recording devices outside two courthouses in Northern California to catch conversations on the street between their targets. The devices were planted in a light fixture, a bus stop, and on a parked vehicle. The court finds no … Continue reading
NJ: Heien reasonable mistake doesn’t apply to an unambiguous statute
Defendant was parked with high beams on on a one way street. The statute unambiguously says that it was not a violation unless there was an oncoming vehicle, and being on a one way street or an officer on foot … Continue reading
TN: Not filing motion to suppress was best strategy to disassociate from house searched by not having to show standing
Defense counsel’s refusal to file a motion to suppress the search of the place defendant was found in was reasonable strategy to separate defendant from the drugs found in the house. To seek to suppress the search, defendant would have … Continue reading
CA7: Ptf stated cause of action for illegal search and false arrest
Plaintiff ran a dog-grooming business and rescue shelter. One dog was overly aggressive and killed another dog, and another became gravely ill after whelping a litter. He took the dogs to Chicago animal control, and they ended up arresting him … Continue reading
Cal.1st: Juvenile’s electronic search probation condition was shown justified by his circumstances
It was proper to impose an electronic search probation condition on a minor, even though it was not related to his burglary offense, because it was reasonably related to deterring future criminality. It allowed probation officers to monitor the minor’s … Continue reading
WA: Fisherman being ticketed for snagging fish asked about gun in car was not subject to protective weapons search
“Law enforcement need not obtain a warrant prior to conducting a protective vehicle search, so long as there is reasonable suspicion a suspect is dangerous and may gain immediate control of weapons. We are confronted with whether a suspect’s potential … Continue reading
CA2: Exclusionary rule applies to civil forfeiture cases and govt’s civil discovery
In a forfeiture action against a NYC office building and several other buildings because one of the corporate owners was a front for the Iranian government, the Second Circuit held that “The Fourth Amendment’s exclusionary rule applies in civil forfeiture … Continue reading
Noticed that there are fewer postings? Working on the 2016 supplement
Not to mention 140 hours on an Eighth Circuit brief filed two weeks ago.
MO: Officers serving arrest warrant found a house full of gas from a working meth lab and could enter
Officers came to defendant’s house to arrest him on a warrant. When the door was open, there was a cloud of smoke that smelled like a working meth lab. One officer left to get a warrant. Another opened doors to … Continue reading
NM: Two stops of def in quick succession; second valid because of new facts
Two stops of defendant towing a van a couple of minutes apart were separately justified. The second stop was based on the owner of the van saying that defendant took it from him, but that was only to a second … Continue reading
CA8: Def’s admission to friend, relayed to police, that he was assaulting women in house justified warrantless entry
Defendant’s third hand reported admission he was serially assaulting two women in his house justified a warrantless entry. Defendant called his sister who called another who called the police that defendant had just assaulted a woman in his home and … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Use of an electronic “sniffer” to find a target computer in a college building was particular
Police used an electronic “sniffer” to attempt to find a MAC address of an operating computer in an Emory University building. “The affidavit described the plan to use a sniffer to ‘identify the wireless device associated with the suspect MAC … Continue reading
Disruptive Competition Project: Is Drone Policy Ready to Take Flight?
Disruptive Competition Project: Is Drone Policy Ready to Take Flight? by Kacee Taylor:
ND: Motel guest’s arrest for crime on premises against employee resulted in eviction and lawful room search
Defendant was arrested at a motel for some unspecified crime against an employee and taken away. Management then evicted him and had the police come and remove his stuff. While inventorying, they found drug paraphernalia. Then they did a dog … Continue reading
Democracy: The War on Drugs Has Made Policing More Violent
Democracy: The War on Drugs Has Made Policing More Violent by Jonathan Blanks What can be done to curb the excessive and, sometimes, predatory policing that has emerged from the Drug War?
Broadly: Woman Subjected to Illegal Cavity Search at Border Gets $475,000 Settlement
Broadly: Woman Subjected to Illegal Cavity Search at Border Gets $475,000 Settlement by Diana Tourjee:
Motherboard: Taser Plans to Livestream Police Body Camera Footage to the Cloud by 2017
Motherboard: Taser Plans to Livestream Police Body Camera Footage to the Cloud by 2017 by Matt Stroud: Could police officers someday identify criminals just by looking at them? That’s the vision being touted by Taser International, which holds a monopoly … Continue reading
TN: Administrative subpoena statute requires judicial enforcement, and that provides due process
The state unemployment office subpoenaed records from the plaintiff and it sued in state court under § 1983. The subpoena power is not unlimited and it is construed to comply with due process. Plaintiff refuses to comply, and the agency … Continue reading