Archives
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Recent Posts
- D.Mont.: 30-day delay in getting SW for seized storage building not unreasonable
- E.D.Cal.: Smell of MJ still PC in a California National Park even though not under state law
- CA10 dissent: Bivens on its last legs
- VA: Consent to look in backpack permitted search of pill bottle
- NY3: Warrantless arrest body cavity search was unreasonable
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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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (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: June 2017
D.P.R.: Secondary border inspection of def’s cell phone for evidence of dog fighting was reasonable
Defendant’s alleged fighting dogs and his cell phone were validly the subject of secondary border inspections in San Juan. United States v. Castro-Correa, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90966 (D.P.R. June 12, 2017).* Defendant didn’t have standing to challenge the search … Continue reading
NE: Evidence of a recent burglary justifies entry on exigency
“Courts generally find sufficient exigent circumstances to justify the warrantless entry into a home when a police officer reasonably believes that a burglary is in progress or was recently committed therein. A burglary indicates an immediate need to secure the … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: SW for car unnecessary because there was PC
There was probable cause for search of defendant’s car, and that makes the search warrant for the car moot as legally unnecessary. United States v. Hudson, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91449 (W.D. Mo. Apr. 27, 2017), adopted, 2017 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
D.Haw.: Possible new evidence on search issue for motion for new trial doesn’t change outcome
Defendant’s motion for new trial based on possible new evidence for litigating the search and seizure claim under F.R.Crim.P. 33 is denied because it doesn’t change the outcome. United States v. Kapahu, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88922 (D. Haw. June … Continue reading
OR: There is no state constitutional requirement the state get a telephonic warrant to avoid exigency
The state showed adequate evidence that it would take 4-5 hours to obtain a search warrant in this case, and that was enough to show exigency here. The defense put on proof that the state could have obtained a telephonic … Continue reading
OH8: Checking under the hood during an inventory search is reasonable
Checking under the hood during an inventory search is reasonable. State v. Lewis, 2017-Ohio-4300, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 2352 (8th Dist. June 15, 2017). The totality and detail of information from the CI provided the police reasonable suspicion to stop … Continue reading
AK: Driver’s running from a traffic stop alone didn’t create RS to frisk or search passengers
The driver of the pickup defendant was riding in was stopped for a seatbelt violation, and the driver fled on foot. The Alaska State Trooper gave chase but couldn’t keep up. He came back to the vehicle where the two … Continue reading
CA5: Collective knowledge from narcs applies to justification for traffic stop
The totality of the circumstances did not dictate a finding that a turn-signal violation was too stale to justify stopping defendant’s vehicle. A lack of personalized suspicion on the part of the officer who stopped defendant’s vehicle was immaterial because … Continue reading
OH11: Running away is withdrawal of consent to search, but reasonable suspicion for a patdown
Defendant was stopped and consented to a search of his person. When that started, he was moving like he was trying to hide something, then he ran away. Considering the location was a high crime area, there was at least … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Observed drug deals with CI showed reliability and lack of staleness of information
A state court judge issued a tracking warrant for defendant’s car based on a heavily corroborated CI who did drug deals with the defendant while LEOs watched. This “shows that the confidential information was reliable and that the information was … Continue reading
MA: Use of some additional force in arresting def was not “disproportionate” based on what police knew about firearms in car and risk of violence
The use of some additional force in arresting defendant was not “disproportionate” based on information defendant was armed and that his girlfriend, traveling with him, could use violence to “upset” his arrest. Commonwealth v. Widener, 2017 Mass. App. LEXIS 85 … Continue reading
MA: Arrest at door alone didn’t justify protective sweep
Half a dozen officers showed up at defendant’s house with an arrest warrant. He met them at the door, and he was handcuffed and arrested and said “Let’s go.” He was asked whether others were in the house, and he … Continue reading
WaPo: How self-driving cars could determine the future of policing
WaPo: How self-driving cars could determine the future of policing by Orin Kerr
Motherboard: The Supreme Court Phone Location Case Will Decide the Future of Privacy
Motherboard: The Supreme Court Phone Location Case Will Decide the Future of Privacy by Stephen Vladeck: Later this year, the Supreme Court will decide if police can track a person’s cell phone location without a warrant. It’s the most important … Continue reading
Two on waiver of motions to suppress
Where the motion to suppress was filed the Friday before a Monday bench trial, it was within the discretion of the district court to defer the suppression motion ruling until after all the evidence was in. United States v. Hardison, … Continue reading
NE: SW for property includes vehicles found and belonging there
Search warrant for property includes vehicles parked on the property that are connected to the property [as in the owner]. State v. Hidalgo, 296 Neb. 912, 2017 Neb. LEXIS 87 (June 9, 2017). Officers coming upon an assault in progress, … Continue reading