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Recent Posts
- LA4: Merely having a concealed firearm isn’t RS for a frisk
- OR: Merely driving off the road wasn’t RS, but adding the driver’s demeanor at the time was
- OH6: Trial court’s failure to explain RS under Rodriguez required remand
- CA6: Asking def before a patdown during arrest what he had on him wasn’t barred by Miranda
- NY Queens: PC shown for SW blood drawn at hospital after car wreck
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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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--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)
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Monthly Archives: April 2017
W.D.Ky.: Police responding to a panic alarm developed PC for a SW from MJ smell
Police responded to a panic alarm at defendant’s home. He was defensive and really didn’t want them around. They could smell burnt marijuana coming from the house. A sweep was conducted, and then the police obtained a search warrant. The … Continue reading
OR: Def not seized other than traffic stop; statements admissible
Defendant was not seized beyond this being a traffic stop. Defendant’s volunteering information extended the stop. There was no other show of authority. State v. Evans, 284 Ore. App. 806, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 505 (April 19, 2017). Defendant can’t … Continue reading
CA8: Eviction from motel by off-duty officer working motel security led to FIPF charge; entry was lawful
Off-duty police worked at a Kansas City motel that had a rash of crime, trying to clean the place up. Defendant was being evicted from a motel because he was driving a stolen car – his companion had already been … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Swabbing car door handle for DNA without a SW is a trespass to chattels and barred by Jones
Swabbing a car door handle for DNA was a trespass against the plaintiff’s vehicle under Jones. A trespass to land is governed by the Fourth Amendment under Jardines and trespass to chattels is under Jones. Damage doesn’t have to occur … Continue reading
CO: Parolee on ankle monitor had no REP in his GPS data that linked him to robberies and was turned over to feds
Defendant was on parole-like Colorado community supervision with a GPS ankle monitor. One of the POs, not his, was cross-assigned to a federal task force. When defendant was suspected of being involved in robberies, the federally assigned PO looked up … Continue reading
techdirt: Legislators, School Administrators Back Off Cellphone Search Bill After Running Into ACLU Opposition
techdirt: Legislators, School Administrators Back Off Cellphone Search Bill After Running Into ACLU Opposition by Tim Cushing:
OR requires hospitals report suspected DUIs, and this is private action although mandated by statute, or there is no REP
Oregon requires hospitals to report persons who show up for treatment who the hospital reasonably believes were involved in driving under the influence. Here, the hospital also reported defendant’s BAC to the police. “[W]e reject defendant’s invitation to overrule Gonzalez … Continue reading
CA9: Where there are two grounds to support the search, appeal of only one means affirmance
There were two grounds on which defendant’s suppression motion could have been denied. The fact the court didn’t give defendant an opportunity to respond to one was a moot point. In addition, even if the motion had been granted, the … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Just because the officer had “unquestioned command of the situation” during a traffic stop doesn’t preclude conducting a frisk for weapons
Just because the officer had “unquestioned command of the situation” during a traffic stop doesn’t preclude the officer from conducting a frisk for weapons. Here, the stop was at night, in a high crime area, there were only streetlights, and … Continue reading
M.D.La.: A couple of pills in the car not easily identifiable as controlled substances didn’t justify a search
Defendant’s frisk was justified by reasonable suspicion. The search of his person, however, was not justified: Some pills in the car that weren’t easily identified as controlled substances does not mean that defendant was committing a crime. United States v. … Continue reading
ars technica: FBI allays some critics with first use of new mass-hacking warrant
ars technica: FBI allays some critics with first use of new mass-hacking warrant by Aliya Sternstein: Judge authorized order allowing US to change data in thousands of infected devices. Mass hacking seems to be all the rage currently. A vigilante … Continue reading
CA9: Def’s conduct showed abandonment of laptop at another’s house while he was in jail
Defendant lost any reasonable expectation of privacy in his laptop computer. It was in somebody else’s house, and he was missing for three months as far as they were concerned, but he was in jail. He could have asserted control … Continue reading
IA: Failure to sign SW affidavit when sworn can be cured by testimony
The affiant swore to the affidavit for search warrant before the issuing magistrate, but it inadvertently wasn’t signed. That’s an error cured by testimony, even if the magistrate has to testify too. State v. Angel, 2017 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 41 … Continue reading
IA: Passenger smelling of MJ not PC as to the whole car
Defendant’s car was parked at a gas station pump too long while one of them went for gas money. The police showed up, asked for IDs and found a warrant on the passenger. The passenger got out of the car, … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Prior illegal search of cell phone was moot by SW based on prior acquired info
Even though the government conducted an illegal warrantless search of defendant’s cell phone, they later obtained a search warrant based on previously acquired information, so the independent source doctrine applies. United States v. Keel, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58895 (N.D. … Continue reading