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- CA5: CBP dog sniffing for people was PC even if it couldn’t differentiate between the driver and alleged hidden passengers
- D.D.C.: Here, RS was thin, and frisking under jacket was unreasonable
- NE: LEO’s statutory jurisdictional authority is not an unreasonable search and seizure question
- MA: Cell phone call logs don’t require a search warrant
- D.Kan.: Drug dog touching car door handle with nose isn’t unreasonable search
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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)
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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: September 2017
WaPo: Cross-border slaying: Can dead teen’s family sue US agent? — Reargument in CA5
WaPo: Cross-border slaying: Can dead teen’s family sue US agent? by Kevin McGill:
CA7: Def’s false suppression hearing testimony gets him 2 level obstruction sentencing enhancement
Defendant’s false testimony at suppression hearing results in 2 level enhancement under the Sentencing Guidelines. United States v. Jones, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 18204 (7th Cir. Sept. 20, 2017):
DC: Using Stingray to track a cell phone is a 4A search because it extracts cell phone numbers from phones
The use of a Stingray device by the police to track a cell phone is a search governed by the Fourth Amendment. Stingrays “[f]orce the person’s cellphone to identify itself and reveal its exact location. It is in this sense … Continue reading
Politico: Judge inches toward demand for data on Trump inaugural protest website
Politico: Judge inches toward demand for data on Trump inaugural protest website by Josh Gerstein: A judge is pressing forward with plans to allow enforcement of a search warrant against a website used to organize protests against President Donald Trump’s … Continue reading
Maine Wire: Unlawful rental registries: Coming soon to a city near you
Maine Wire: Unlawful rental registries: Coming soon to a city near you by Jacob Posik:
CA9: Arrest on mistaken identity gets QI, but continuing the arrest after learning mistake doesn’t; Summers doesn’t apply to arrest warrants
Plaintiff’s initial arrest on mistaken identity was not in violation of clearly established law, and, thus, the officers had qualified immunity. After learning, however, that plaintiff was not the person sought, officers did violate the Fourth Amendment by keeping him … Continue reading
TX: Officer’s training and experience must be considered in the totality of RS
The court of appeals failed to consider and credit the officer’s training and experience in considering the totality of circumstances that the officer had reasonable suspicion under the Fourth Amendment to continue to detain defendant after the purposes of the … Continue reading
CA3: Def lacked standing to challenge search of co-def cell phone
Defendant lacked standing to challenge the search of a cell phone taken off a co-defendant that didn’t belong him. Besides, the search of that cell phone was valid. United States v. Brewer, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 18003 (3d Cir. Sept. … Continue reading
The Hill: iPhone’s facial recognition could lead to real life ‘Minority Report’
The Hill: iPhone’s facial recognition could lead to real life ‘Minority Report’ by Kimberly Wehle: The iPhone X moves us closer to a world in which, by simply walking outside or picking up a personal iPhone, we will be monitored … Continue reading
Conservative Review: How the feds swipe your stuff — and how Congress could stop it
Conservative Review: How the feds swipe your stuff — and how Congress could stop it by Nate Madden:
OH2: No record of suppression hearing brought up means no appellate review
The trial court’s denial of the motion to suppress couldn’t be considered on appeal because the record of the hearing was never filed for the appeal. State v. Tscheiner, 2017-Ohio-7641, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 3962 (2d Dist. Sept. 15, 2017). … Continue reading
OH10: Stopping the first person officers see after hearing gunshots was without RS
Officers heard gunshots and stopped the first person they saw. That essentially was a stop on a hunch and without reasonable suspicion. State v. Hairston, 2017-Ohio-7612, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 3934 (10th Dist. Sept. 14, 2017). “Here, the team of … Continue reading
CA9: Suspicionless mandatory supervision search, without more, is reasonable (on rehearing)
United States v. Cervantes, 859 F.3d 1175 (9th Cir. June 19, 2017) (posted here) had a new opinion issued on rehearing, United States v. Cervantes, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 18017 (9th Cir. Sept. 11, 2017), coming to the same result … Continue reading
CA8: Shooting ptf’s dog was objectively reasonable; it was running on a busy freeway and refused to be captured and caused safety hazard
Plaintiff’s dog escaped and ran down I-29 and cars were swerving dodging the dog. The defendant officer attempted to capture the dog but the dog eluded capture. With the patrol car in the road keeping cars back, traffic quickly backed … Continue reading
CA7: When inmate dies in custody before PC determination, 4A governs the inquiry
When an inmate has been booked into a jail and no judicial probable cause determination has been made, the Fourth Amendment governs the denial of medical care issue. Estate of Perry v. Wenzel, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 18010 (7th Cir. … Continue reading
Posts lost in the transition have been restored
Manafort’s no-knock warrant and Facebook’s search warrants in Russia investigation
The New York Times reports tonight that search warrants were used for the first time in a Special Counsel’s investigation: Not in Watergate, not in Iran-Contra, not in Whitewater, not in the Valerie Plame investigations. With a Picked Lock and … Continue reading
Koddos: CIA Discovered to Hack Wi-Fi Routers for Over a Decade
Koddos: CIA Discovered to Hack Wi-Fi Routers for Over a Decade
Articles on constitutionality of Arpaio pardon for conviction for contempt for violating court order on 4A rights
Politico: Legal groups move to challenge Trump’s Arpaio pardon by Madeline Conway Truthout: Will Judge Overturn Arpaio Pardon? by Marjorie Cohn Slate: Was Trump’s Pardon of Joe Arpaio Unconstitutional? by Dahlia Lithwick DiversityInc: Arpaio Pardon Unconstitutional, Justice Groups Challenge by … Continue reading
Techcrunch: Report: Facebook gave special investigator Robert Mueller detailed info on Russian ad buys
Techcrunch: Report: Facebook gave special investigator Robert Mueller detailed info on Russian ad buys by Jonathan Shieber: