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Recent Posts
- CA7: Jail officials holding plaintiff under a valid court order aren’t liable for not releasing him sooner after a sentencing error
- Volokh: Do Fourth Amendment Protections Change When Property Is Moved?
- M.D.Pa.: Def was neither shipper nor recipient of USPS parcel, so he had no standing in it
- WI: Obtaining def’s DNA by ruse wasn’t an illegal search
- WaPo: Apple, Google and Venmo fight new U.S. plan to monitor payment apps
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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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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
NY Kings Co.: Claim def was Stingrayed was speculative; hearing to be set on CSLI
The same cell phone was used to set up three Craigslist robberies. Defendant’s claim that a cell site simulator was used to track his number is speculative at best and is rejected. He gets a hearing, however, on whether the … Continue reading
D.Kan.: FPD has standing to join in Rule 41(g) litigation to recover illegally recorded attorney jail calls and meetings
The Federal Public Defender has standing to participate in Rule 41(g) litigation to recover the recordings of attorney-client meetings and telephone calls that were recorded at a private prison used as a federal detention center. The government’s concerns over standing … Continue reading
KS: College dorm lobby not curtilage
Defendant was arrested in the lobby of his college dorm at WSU. His room was on the fourth floor. The lobby was not part of his curtilage because hundreds come through there, residents and non-residents alike. State v. Bannon, 2018 … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Affidavit for SW was wholly deficient in showing nexus, and GFE does not save it
The affidavit for the search warrant for defendant’s house failed to show nexus to his house, and the affidavit on nexus was so deficient it doesn’t satsify the good faith exception. About all there was on the document was the … Continue reading
NJ: Misapplication of statute to make stop means stop is bad; Heien not yet applied in NJ
The law requires a working taillight. Defendant had one. “The officer’s erroneous application of the functioning taillight requirement was not an objectively reasonable mistake of law.” Therefore, Heien and the objectively reasonable mistake of law doesn’t apply here. The court, … Continue reading
TX13: The natural dissipation of alcohol in the blood alone is not exigency for a warrantless taking of blood
The natural dissipation of alcohol in the blood alone is not exigency for a warrantless taking of blood. State v. Ruiz, 2018 Tex. App. LEXIS 302 (Tex. App. – Corpus Christi – Edinburg Jan. 11, 2018). Defendant didn’t object to … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Decision on merits on appeal of 4A claim collaterally estops § 1983 action
The Fourth Amendment decision that the search was reasonable and lawful in defendant’s criminal case is collateral estoppel to a civil claim over the search. Harvey v. United States, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5282 (S.D. Fla. Jan. 9, 2018). The … Continue reading
Forbes: Congress Decides Fourth Amendment Is Outdated 256-164
Forbes: Opinion: Congress Decides Fourth Amendment Is Outdated 256-164 by Frank Miniter: It’s controversial because the National Security Agency (NSA) and other agencies also listen in on an unknown number of communications from American citizens—something the Fourth Amendment was written … Continue reading
NYTimes: House Extends Surveillance Law, Rejecting New Privacy Safeguards
NYTimes: House Extends Surveillance Law, Rejecting New Privacy Safeguards by Charlie Savage, Eileen Sullivan, and Nicholas Fandos:
Wired: Congress Renews Warrantless Surveillance—And Makes It Even Worse
Wired: Congress Renews Warrantless Surveillance—And Makes It Even Worse by Louise Matsakis:
D.Conn.: “observation of a small amount of marijuana not clearly labelled for medicinal use creates probable cause that evidence of illegal drug activity would be found within the car”
“Because Officer Diaz had reason to believe that a gun would be found within the Defendant’s car prior to the stop, his observation of a small amount of marijuana not clearly labelled for medicinal use creates probable cause that evidence … Continue reading
Albuquerque Journal: Gov. wants to grant immunity to police
Albuquerque Journal: Gov. wants to grant immunity to police by Dan Boyd:
WIRED: How the Government Hides Secret Surveillance Programs
WIRED: How the Government Hides Secret Surveillance Programs by Louise Matsakis:
NYTimes: Surveillance and Privacy Debate Reaches Pivotal Moment in Congress
NYTimes: Surveillance and Privacy Debate Reaches Pivotal Moment in Congress by Charlie Savage:
CA5: LEO’s lie to FBI about leaked SW was a crime even though FBI knew he was lying
A police officer leaked the existence of an FBI investigation that enabled the target of a search warrant to move his stash. “His statement [to the FBI] denying that he had disclosed the investigation was capable of influencing the FBI’s … Continue reading
WI: Even though RS dissipated before the driver could be asked for DL, it was still reasonable to check all paperwork
Even though reasonable suspicion dissipates on the stop, here because the owner was a woman with a suspended DL but a man was driving, it is still reasonable for the officer to check the paperwork of the driver and car. … Continue reading
Techdirt: Jury Awards Couple No Damages For Bungled Marijuana Raid Predicated On Wet Tea Leaves
Techdirt: Jury Awards Couple No Damages For Bungled Marijuana Raid Predicated On Wet Tea Leaves by Tim Cushing. A raid on 4/20.
Just Security: Customs and Border Protection’s New Policy for Searching Devices Offers Thin Protection
Just Security: Customs and Border Protection’s New Policy for Searching Devices Offers Thin Protection by Carrie DeCell: