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Recent Posts
- FL3: Cell phone dump in civil case denied; no showing of need
- E.D.Va.: Must plead prejudice when delay of a cell phone SW is alleged
- CA: Avoiding the police in a high crime area isn’t RS
- CA7: Jail officials holding plaintiff under a valid court order aren’t liable for not releasing him sooner after a sentencing error
- Volokh: Do Fourth Amendment Protections Change When Property Is Moved?
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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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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (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: August 2016
CA2: Murder scene entry resulted in valid protective sweep and plain view
NYPD’s crime scene entry at the scene of a murder and protective sweep were all valid because of the exigency of the entry. Drug and other evidence was in plain view. [There are no facts talking about standing, or whether … Continue reading
VI: The court declines to adopt horizontal collective knowledge
The court declines to adopt horizontal collective knowledge since the V.I. Supreme Court has never addressed it. [It’s rationale, however, is likely at odds with Utah v. Strieff which likely was never briefed.] People v. Looby, 2016 V.I. LEXIS 114 … Continue reading
NE follows Herring on no exclusion for slow updating of warrant database
Defendant was arrested based on an outdated warrant. State law prior to Herring likely would have provided relief, but the court is now bound by Herring and concludes that the exclusionary rule would not be applied. Yes, there was delay … Continue reading
ID: Interstate bus driver’s opening backpack was private search even though officer was watching
An interstate bus traveling from Portland OR to Salt Lake City stopped in Boise. The bus driver was moving luggage around to straighten it up for the boarding passengers, and he smelled marijuana coming from a backpack. He called the … Continue reading
CA2: NYC cab driver didn’t show standing to contest GPS tracking of a taxicab
“Appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Forrest, J.), granting summary judgment to Defendants Appellees, the City of New York and various of its employees, on Plaintiff Appellant Hassan El … Continue reading
NH: Court can’t force state to search sex case complainant’s cell phone as discovery
In a sex assault case, the trial court did not have the authority to compel the state to search the complainant’s cell phone for voice mails and text messages for the defense as a part of discovery. It’s not the … Continue reading
OH2: Odor of marijuana, air fresheners, and window down when it was 25º is RS
Odor of marijuana, air fresheners, and window down when it was 25º was reasonable suspicion. State v. Hicks, 2016-Ohio-5439, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS 3341 (2d Dist. Aug. 19, 2016).* Plaintiff’s Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment tort claims denied in … Continue reading
CA11: Shooting unarmed man as excessive force is clearly established; summary judgment properly denied
Summary judgment properly denied for a police killing of an unarmed man who had been twice Tazered, the first time with a knife in his kitchen who then ran to his bathroom and was Tazered coming out then shot. The … Continue reading
CA6: Turning around because of a wrong turn toward Canada doesn’t bar a border search coming back
Plaintiff made a wrong turn heading to summer camp and ended up on a bridge to Canada. He was allowed to turn around without leaving the country, but he could only get into a lane with motorists coming from Canada … Continue reading
CA7: Inevitable discovery doesn’t apply to DNA blood draw [via a habeas appeal]
The Seventh Circuit here dealt with a Fourth Amendment IAC claim. The court dealt with the Fourth Amendment merits, which was far easier, rather than get into the complexity of Stone v. Powell deterrence issue under a § 2254 claim. … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Def running around naked on street on PCP and kids in house justified emergency
Defendant was raving and running around naked on PCP “and was exhibiting bizarre and erratic behavior” and his front door was left open. There were children in the house, and the police were permitted under the emergency aid exception to … Continue reading
OH9: Dog sniff during normal incidents of traffic stop not unreasonable
A dog sniff during the normal incidents of a traffic stop isn’t unreasonable. An arrest outside of an officer’s jurisdiction in violation of statute also thus violates the state constitution but not the Fourth Amendment. State v. Duran, 2016-Ohio-5459, 2016 … Continue reading
DE: Admitting violation of probation is a waiver of suppression issue
Admitting to the violation of probation is a waiver of any suppression issue. Thompson v. State, 2016 Del. LEXIS 441 (Aug. 19, 2016). The fact that defendant matched the description of a suspicious person reported to the police, was in … Continue reading
The Atlantic: All the Ways Your Wi-Fi Router Can Spy on You
The Atlantic: All the Ways Your Wi-Fi Router Can Spy on You by Kevah Waddell: It can even be trained to read your lips.
Bloomberg Businessweek: Secret Cameras Record Baltimore’s Every Move From Above
Bloomberg Businessweek: Secret Cameras Record Baltimore’s Every Move From Above by Monte Reel: Since January, police have been testing an aerial surveillance system adapted from the surge in Iraq. And they neglected to tell the public.
PA: SW affidavits not yet revealed to def; investigation could be compromised
Reviewing the affidavits for the three search warrants, the court is convinced that there is still a risk of compromising the investigation, so the search warrants will remain under seal as to the potential defendant. The court recognizes the right … Continue reading
FISCR: Capturing some call content isn’t unreasonable if it can’t [maybe won’t] be used
Incidental capturing of content information during use of a pen register is not unreasonable. The technology only allows for capture some, and it can’t be used without a separate order based on probable cause. In re: Certified Question of Law, … Continue reading
Cal: Subsequent motions to suppress have to be heard by same judge unless unavailable
California statute that requires same judge hear a subsequent motion to suppress is designed to prevent forum shopping, and it must be complied with unless the same judge is unavailable or just can’t hear the motion. People v. Rodriguez, 2016 … Continue reading
CA11: Writ for body attachment for unpaid child support supports search incident
“This appeal presents a question of first impression about the Fourth Amendment: Can the police arrest someone based solely on a civil writ of bodily attachment for unpaid child support? Ted Phillips appeals his conviction of being a felon in … Continue reading