Archives
-
Recent Posts
- W.D.Ark.: Parole search waiver moots lack of PC argument
- AR: RS shown for boating while intoxicated stop
- W.D.Mo.: Wrong address in SW wasn’t fatal where right house was searched
- 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
-
-
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 2017
WaPo: Former Ariz. sheriff Joe Arpaio, who took extreme stance on immigration, is convicted of criminal contempt [including 4A violations, with opinion link]
WaPo: Former Ariz. sheriff Joe Arpaio, who took extreme stance on immigration, is convicted of criminal contempt by Matt Zapotosky. Opinion link below. Arpaio was also found to have violated the Fourth Amendment rights of detainees: Courthouse News Service: Judge … Continue reading
WaPo Editorial: Police brutality is no joke, Mr. President
WaPo Editorial: Police brutality is no joke, Mr. President:
Minneapolis Star Tribune: Opinion: Here’s why the new Minneapolis body camera policy isn’t clearer about consequences
Minneapolis Star Tribune: Opinion: Here’s why the new Minneapolis body camera policy isn’t clearer about consequences by Adam Belz:
CAAF: Digital SWs have to expire sometime, so here it was with def’s conviction; search after that unreasonable
A search warrant had issued for defendant’s thumb drive, but it hadn’t been searched. He was convicted of the crime for which the search warrant had issued. There are no specific time limits for when a digital search has to … Continue reading
MD: Court order to access def’s location from murder victim’s cell phone by cell site simulator was in good faith
The use of a cell site simulator to find defendant who was suspected of having taken his alleged murder victim’s cell phone was done in objective good faith because officers relied on an order to initiate the tracking. [Since Maryland … Continue reading
D.Utah: DEA SDT to Utah’s prescription database was reasonable and didn’t offend 4A; state law requires SW for access
The DEA, via authority of the AG, issued an administrative subpoena under 21 U.S.C. § 876(a) to the Utah prescription drug database for information on a particular user. Utah statute required a search warrant. The state and intervenors showed standing … Continue reading
NY3: Def’s live-in girlfriend shared premises and had apparent authority to consent
Defendant’s girlfriend with whom he lived had apparent authority to consent to a search of their joint premises. People v. Gray, 2017 NY Slip Op 05873, 2017 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5809 (3d Dept. July 27, 2017).* There were two … Continue reading
TX4: Seizure and search of teacher’s cell phone by school administrator was private and not subject to TX statutory exclusionary rule
Defendant was a substitute teacher, and his cell phone was used to upskirt girls in the school. Some of the students figured it out and reported it to the school administration. One of the administrators confronted defendant and he admitted … Continue reading
NH: SW jurisdictional argument has to be presented to trial court first
Defendant’s jurisdictional argument that AOL’s emails were in Virginia and not amenable to a New Hampshire search warrant wasn’t presented to the trial court, so it’s waived. State v. Bergeron, 2017 N.H. LEXIS 143 (June 30, 2017). [Note: Jurisdiction of … Continue reading
DE: Stop exceeded its justification; seizure of money in backpack unreasonable
The owner of cash in this forfeiture action showed that the stop exceeded the time necessary for writing a ticket for a seat belt violation, so he prevails in the forfeiture of his cash seized from a backpack in the … Continue reading
CA9: Entry into glove box to get registration unreasonable where it’s all on police computers already and VIN on dash
Police officer’s entry into defendant’s glove compartment for registration was unreasonable where the VIN is visible on the dashboard (see New York v. Class) and could be run on the patrol car’s computer to retrieve the same information. It may … Continue reading
WGRZ: Cuomo orders state review of ‘textalyzer’
WGRZ: Cuomo orders state review of ‘textalyzer’ by Jeff Prevail:
N.-M. Ct.Crim.App.: Trial judge’s findings on deterrence for exclusion lacking, so remanded
Defendant was charged in Washington state court with child pornography after he was arrested in a prostitution sting and police obtained access to his cell phone by getting his password. The state court suppressed the search of the cell phone, … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Govt’s email SW in identity theft scheme is overbroad; applications need to be limited and resubmitted
The government’s email search applications are overbroad and don’t sufficiently protect the privacy rights of the account holders. The government, however, can limit the applications and submit them again. In the Matter of the Search of Information Associated with Fifteen … Continue reading
CA8: When a gun is seized in a business, govt must show justification; here it failed to show officer safety was an issue. A gun on a shelf in a business is not exigency per se.
An undercover officer entered a tattoo parlor looking for a “person of interest” in an unrelated case. A gun was seen on a shelf in the “work area.” Officers came back. Customers were allowed in the “work area” by invitation … Continue reading
CA4: After seizure of cell phone, actual search under SW doesn’t have to happen by the date on the SW to be reasonable
The seizure then search of defendant’s cell phone under a search warrant was reasonable because the search followed the terms of the warrant. Actually analysis of the data doesn’t have to happen within the time on the face of the … Continue reading
KS: While stop and frisk must be objectively reasonable, officer’s subjective beliefs have evidentiary relevance and are “not to be ignored”
While objective facts must support a frisk, an officer’s subjective beliefs are at least relevant evidence on how objective it is. “In short, an officer’s subjective fear or belief that a stopped person is armed and presently dangerous is not … Continue reading
D.R.I.: Warrantless ping of def’s cell phone was based on exigency of threatened suicide
Defendant sent texts suggesting he’d commit suicide rather than go to prison for child pornography, something he’d been involved with before. The officers had exigent circumstances to have his cell phone pinged to find him. There was a factual dispute … Continue reading
WaPo: U.S. police chiefs blast Trump for endorsing ‘police brutality’
WaPo: U.S. police chiefs blast Trump for endorsing ‘police brutality’ by Cleve R. Wootson Jr. & Mark Berman:
The Hill: It’s time for Congress to update the law governing digital surveillance
The Hill: It’s time for Congress to update the law governing digital surveillance by Jonathon Hausenschild: