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- 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
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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: October 2017
Forbes: Is Warrantless Access To Cell Site Info A Fourth Amendment Violation? A Primer On Carpenter v. US
Forbes: Is Warrantless Access To Cell Site Info A Fourth Amendment Violation? A Primer On Carpenter v. US by John Villasenor
E.D.Mich.: Def driving back to his house after a drug sale establishes nexus to the house
Driving back to one’s house after a drug sale establishes nexus to the house. United States v. Rich, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 173634 (E.D. Mich. Oct. 20, 2017). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not moving to suppress defendant’s stop which … Continue reading
FL5: Driver can be ordered out of car for dog sniff
Defendant’s car was going to be subjected to a dog sniff, and the handler wanted him out. The first officer directed defendant out of the car, which is reasonable in any traffic stop. At that point, a gun could be … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Govt established RS to detain def’s express mail package
The officers here had reasonable suspicion to detain defendant’s express mail parcel. United States v. Zirkle, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 173863 (S.D. W.Va. Oct. 20, 2017):
D.Haw.: 20 day delay in getting SW for backpack was unreasonable
The seizure of defendant’s backpack for 20 days without seeking a search warrant was unreasonable. It infringed on defendant’s possessory interest, even though he did not seek return of the backpack. United States v. Uu, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 170636 … Continue reading
VT: Where no testimony supports the trial court’s finding of fact, the finding is clearly erroneous
“One of the findings could be based only on testimony from the officer: ‘Although [defendant’s girlfriend] had not expressly stated that [the officer] could come into the house, he interpreted her action as inviting him in.’ There is no testimony … Continue reading
MS: SW request was for blood alcohol but SW said drugs too; warrant not unreasonable or overbroad
The showing of probable cause for defendant’s blood testing specified alcohol, but the warrant actually said alcohol or drugs could be tested for. This was not unreasonable considering defendant’s driving which was a part of the probable cause. Roberts v. … Continue reading
NY Times: Body Cameras Have Little Effect on Police Behavior, Study Says
NY Times: Body Cameras Have Little Effect on Police Behavior, Study Says by Amanda Ripley and Timothy Williams:
LA: No REP in a contraband cell phone found in a jail
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a contraband cell phone found in a jail. Riley provides no protection in a jail cell phone. State v. Kisack, 2017 La. LEXIS 2314 (Oct. 18, 2017). A traffic stop was based … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Pinging cell phone to locate def after arrest warrant issued didn’t implicate 4A
Pinging defendant’s cell phone to locate him after an arrest warrant issued didn’t implicate the Fourth Amendment. There was also exigency from fear for safety of the CI and of destruction of evidence. United States v. Sauceda, 2017 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
KS: Warrantless teargassing of house wasn’t under the “civil authority” exclusion under the insurance policy for the damage
Execution of a search warrant might be excluded from insurance coverage on a home under the “civil authority” exclusion under the policy, but here the search was based on the suspect’s flight into the house while wanted for a violent … Continue reading
OH1: Warrantless search of def’s cell phone in kidnapping investigation was reasonable and justified by exigency
The warrantless search of defendant’s apartment, his person, and his cell phone was justified by exigent circumstances under the Fourth Amendment because the still-missing kidnapping victim’s life was in danger. The police reasonably believed that his phone had been used … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Third Leon test essentially shores up PC here
The affidavit for the child pornography search warrant here was issued at least with a reasonable belief in probable cause under the third Leon test. [The court should have just found probable cause because it certainly looks like there is … Continue reading
WaPo: The Fourth Amendment and querying the 702 database for evidence of crimes
WaPo: The Fourth Amendment and querying the 702 database for evidence of crimes by Orin Kerr:
OH8: 4A IAC claim requires defendant allege and offer proof of standing
Defendant doesn’t allege any facts to support that he had standing such that a motion to suppress would be granted. Therefore, no IAC shown. State v. Musleh, 2017-Ohio-8166, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 4533 (8th Dist. Oct. 12, 2017).* Defendant’s 2255 … Continue reading
CA5: Minivan and FedEx truck meeting up twice in commercial parking lots at 2am when FedEx is never there is RS
Officers had reasonable suspicion for stop of a minivan and a FedEx truck because they met up in a commercial parking lot at 2 am, and the officer on patrol in that area had never seen a FedEx truck at … Continue reading
D.Utah: Officer apparently still had DL when consent sought; motion to suppress granted
The record doesn’t show when defendant got his license and paperwork back from the officer before consent was sought, but it all appears that consent was sought when defendant and his passenger would not feel free to leave [or able … Continue reading
Miami Herald: Guantánamo guards seize confidential Sept. 11 terror trial defense files
Miami Herald: Guantánamo guards seize confidential Sept. 11 terror trial defense files by Carol Rosenberg: In the latest challenge to attorney-client confidentiality here, prison guards on Wednesday seized the court-approved, non-networked laptop computers and hard drives issued to the accused … Continue reading