Archives
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Recent Posts
- OH2: Police responding to report of shot dog who heard an animal had exigency to enter the curtilage
- CA4: Court instructing that the legality of searches were questions for the court wasn’t error
- W.D.N.C.: No REP in a police interview room
- TX2: No SW needed to get IMEI number of an abandoned cell phone to trace the owner
- W.D.Pa.: Affidavit for SW doesn’t have to say CI was reliable when the facts and circumstances alleged showed it
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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,
citations, and links -
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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: January 2018
D.Nev.: There is no REP from a govt license plate reader’s collection of one’s movements
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy from a government license plate reader collecting information on the movements of one’s car. It can’t be compared to GPS tracking, and it’s not an electronic trespass. United States v. Yang, 2018 U.S. … Continue reading
The Verge: Exclusive: ICE is about to start tracking license plates across the US
The Verge: Exclusive: ICE is about to start tracking license plates across the US by Russell Brandom:
WaPo: How to fight mass surveillance even though Congress just reauthorized it
WaPo: How to fight mass surveillance even though Congress just reauthorized it by Bruce Schneier What the battle looks like after Section 702’s reauthorization.
E.D.Va.: A claim that government agents disclosed the contents of the search of his house to FoxNews didn’t state a claim under The Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552a
A claim that government agents disclosed the contents of the search of his house to FoxNews didn’t state a claim under The Privacy Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552a. “Rule 41 does not authorize a court to manage the collection, storage, … Continue reading
IN: FBI’s search was used in state court; since state doesn’t recognize attenuation, the uncontested suppression of the search also suppresses def’s statements
The FBI’s search of defendant’s computers was governed by the Indiana Constitution in state court, and the search was unlawful under that. Since Indiana doesn’t recognize the attenuation doctrine, defendant’s statements are suppressed as well. Wright v. State, 2018 Ind. … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Govt’s failure to argue validity of scope of protective sweep before USMJ waived it
The government didn’t raise validity of the scope of the full protective sweep before the USMJ and waived it after the R&R. United States v. Salazar, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10212 (D. N.M. Jan. 23, 2018). Defendant’s cell phone search … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: The stairwell of a hotel was a public place for arrest purposes
The government had detailed facts connecting defendant to a bank robbery and traced his movements, some with surveillance video. This was probable cause, and his arrest was in a public place, the stairwell in a hotel. United States v. Peeples, … Continue reading
American Enterprise Institute: Congress renews major surveillance law with little change: The end of an era?
American Enterprise Institute: Congress renews major surveillance law with little change: The end of an era? by Claude Barfield:
ABAJ: Traveling lawyers get new protections in device searches at border
ABAJ: Traveling lawyers get new protections in device searches at border by Lee Rawles. The ABA is meeting soon in Vancouver. What about protecting privileged information at Customs when they return:
Motherboard: Florida Cop Bought Powerful Phone Malware That Can Intercept Emails and WhatsApp
Motherboard: Florida Cop Bought Powerful Phone Malware That Can Intercept Emails and WhatsApp by Joseph Cox:
E.D.Ky.: Jail call to wife that def knew would be recorded not privileged
In a jail call, marital privilege succumbs to the lack of a reasonable expectation of privacy because defendant knew his calls were being recorded. As to a letter to his wife in his cell, it disclosed a request to her … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Claim that Franks applies because the CI must have been paid and it was omitted is insufficient as speculative
“In his motion to suppress, Davison did not identify any false information included in the affidavit. Rather, Davison alleged only that he believed the CI could have been paid for information and that fact had been omitted from the affidavit. … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Search of a small container on a key chain was reasonable as search incident
“Here, the officers’ search of the container attached to Mr. Nichols’s keys was within the time, control, and place constraints for the search of an arrestee’s personal property incident to arrest. Mr. Nichols had the keychain in his exclusive control … Continue reading
WaPo: Baltimore Police officer who turned off body camera charged with tampering with evidence
WaPo: Baltimore Police officer who turned off body camera charged with tampering with evidence by Justin Fenton: A grand jury has indicted a Baltimore Police officer on charges of misconduct and fabricating evidence in connection with a body camera video … Continue reading
NYTimes: New York Detective Guilty of Lying About Drug Arrest
NYTimes: New York Detective Guilty of Lying About Drug Arrest by Joseph Goldstein and John Surico: A Queens jury on Wednesday convicted a detective of lying under oath in a trial that raised troubling questions about the prevalence of false … Continue reading
CA9: Taking children from parents without exigency or court order violated 4A and right to family unity
When Arizona state social workers removed plaintiffs’ children from the home without judicial authorization and without a reasonable belief they were in danger or exigency, they violated plaintiffs’ rights to family unity and the Fourth Amendment. The right was clearly … Continue reading