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- Lawfare: How Google’s Location History Program Could Upend Digital Surveillance Law
- CA6 disagrees with CA7 on de minimis injuries under § 1983 force cases
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- D.P.R.: Indictment for possession of switches to convert handguns to machine guns justified vehicle search when defendant was stopped
- N.D.Ohio: Heroin and three guns in plain view was exigency for entry with child alone inside
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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)
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--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (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: October 2017
GA: Protective sweep of a house after a street fight and stabbing outside and a brief standoff with a cut def was reasonable
A protective sweep of defendant’s house right after his arrest was reasonable. Officers responded to a 911 call about a street fight and a possible stabbing. A dying victim was found in the street, and another victim was in hysterics. … Continue reading
WaPo: Oversight board finds many D.C. officers fail to properly use body cameras
WaPo: Oversight board finds many D.C. officers fail to properly use body cameras by Peter Hermann: More than a third of cases investigated by a D.C. police oversight board after complaints were made about officers’ conduct this past year involved … Continue reading
KS suppression statute permits pretext arguments; remanded
Kansas’s suppression statute permits the defense to make a challenge based on a race-based stop, if he can prove it. The trial court didn’t apply this test, and neither did the court of appeals, so remanded for reconsideration. State v. … Continue reading
NPR: WNYC: Predicting Crime and Enforcing Law Through Big Data
NPR: WNYC: Predicting Crime and Enforcing Law Through Big Data: Cutting-edge technology that uses big data is changing the face of law enforcement, and in ways many Americans don’t know about.
D.S.D.: If bad driving alone wasn’t RS, his leaving a drug house and being known have prior drug arrests made it RS
Here, defendant allegedly drove left of center and he challenges that as the basis of the stop. The court doesn’t agree and goes one further, prior drug arrests and just leaving a drug house added to the driving was reasonable … Continue reading
KS: That def’s relative owned a black Explorer and it had been parked at def’s house wasn’t RS to stop it
Stopping a car because a relative of the wanted defendant owned it and it had been seen at defendant’s house wasn’t reasonable suspicion for a stop. State v. Carr, 2017 Kan. App. LEXIS 78 (Oct. 27, 2017):
OR: No REP in a camera and SD card left recording in a Starbucks bathroom
Defendant left a camera disguised as a cell phone charger in a Starbucks bathroom. It was found by a customer and turned over to the store manager. The manager believed it to be a camera, opened the back, and found … Continue reading
CA6: Facebook messenger SW was not overbroad because limited in time
Defendant’s guilty plea waived any suppression motion because there was no ruling to appeal. On the merits, the search warrant here was not overbroad. The Facebook search warrant sought only five months of information related to sex with minors. It … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: 21 month pole camera surveillance of def’s front door was reasonable
Pole camera surveillance of defendant’s house for 21 months didn’t violate Fourth Amendment. He had a subjective reasonable expectation privacy, but it’s not one that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable. The court traces Katz to Jardines, and concludes … Continue reading
NYLJ: Battle Over Emails Stored Overseas Reaches Supreme Court
NYLJ: Battle Over Emails Stored Overseas Reaches Supreme Court by Philip C. Patterson & Vera M. Kachnowski: In their International Criminal Law and Enforcement column, Philip C. Patterson and Vera M. Kachnowski discuss a case which highlights a recurring tension … Continue reading
CA6: Plf’s stipulation there was PC in his criminal case that led to dismissal was judicial estoppel to bringing a civil case on the same facts
Plaintiff’s stipulation there was probable cause in his criminal case that led to dismissal was judicial estoppel to bringing a civil case on the same facts. Grise v. Allen, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 21358 (6th Cir. Oct. 26, 2017). The … Continue reading
CA5: Search of wrong house leads to liability: “An officer who makes no reasonable effort to correctly identify the place to be searched does not get immunity merely because someone else was leading the search.”
Sloppy police work leading to a search of the wrong house on a warrant leads to loss of qualified immunity: “An officer who makes no reasonable effort to correctly identify the place to be searched does not get immunity merely … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Def doesn’t make a sufficient showing of some discriminatory effect to get further discovery of selective enforcement
Defendant doesn’t make a sufficient showing of some discriminatory effect to get further discovery of selective enforcement against African-Americans. United States v. Laneham, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176486 (D. N.M. Oct. 25, 2017):
CA7 en banc: Conviction affirmed for gun seen while allegedly “parking while black”
Stopping a car 7′-8′ from crosswalk for illegal stopping was reasonable under the all the facts. It necessitated a brief stop to issue a ticket, and officers saw a gun. Whren doesn’t apply just to moving offenses and not fine-only … Continue reading
Just Security: Top Experts: Can Facebook Legally Disclose Russian Ads–What does the Stored Communications Act say?
Just Security: Top Experts: Can Facebook Legally Disclose Russian Ads–What does the Stored Communications Act say? by Ryan Goodman:
Reason: Rand Paul Worries Whether Surveillance Reform Will Even Be Debated in Senate
Reason: Rand Paul Worries Whether Surveillance Reform Will Even Be Debated in Senate by Scott Shackford: Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is concerned his peers will attempt to reauthorize and possibly even expand the federal government’s surveillance powers without any public … Continue reading
Wired: Supreme Court’s Cell Phone Tracking Case Could Hurt Privacy
Wired: Supreme Court’s Cell Phone Tracking Case Could Hurt Privacy by Nick Sibilla
NYTimes: Seeing Danger in a Face
NYTimes: Seeing Danger in a Face by Alex Bastian SF ADA detained at SFO coming back from Greece and Armenia
Outside the Beltway: Amazon Would Like The Key To Your House
Outside the Beltway: Amazon Would Like The Key To Your House by Doug Mataconis: · Amazon is preparing to offer a new level of delivery service that would allow delivery persons to gain access to your house so they can leave … Continue reading