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- NY Queens: PC shown for SW blood drawn at hospital after car wreck
- CA7: Hotel room vacated by tenant could be searched by hotel management
- W.D.N.Y.: SW for devices used for video surveillance included cell phones because apps can be used to view cameras from cell phones
- CA3: PC for ptf’s arrest for punching a police horse
- D.N.M.: Three Franks challenges, one successful
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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)
--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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Monthly Archives: March 2018
N.D.N.Y.: Rental inspection code use of may not shall to get admin. warrant not 4A violation
The fact the City of Schenectady’s rental building inspection code says that the inspectors may get a warrant instead of shall doesn’t state a Fourth Amendment violation. There’s no evidence that the city has applied it unconstitutionally yet. Hafez v. … Continue reading
The Intercept: ICE Uses Facebook Data to Find and Track Suspects, Internal Emails Show
The Intercept: ICE Uses Facebook Data to Find and Track Suspects, Internal Emails Show by Lee Fang: ICE, the federal agency tasked with Trump’s program of mass deportation, uses backend Facebook data to locate and track suspects.
NYTimes: Our Increasingly Unenforceable Constitution
NYTimes: Our Increasingly Unenforceable Constitution by Stephen I. Vladeck
AF: Inevitable discovery validated finding CP while looking for text messages with minor
The search authorization was valid for text messages between defendant and a supposed 14-year-old girl. The AFOSI investigator found child pornography in what was thus found to be plain view. Even if, arguendo, the officer was looking for child pornography, … Continue reading
KY: Deploying drug dog at the beginning of the stop without reasonable suspicion unreasonably prolonged the stop in violation of Rodriguez
Defendant was stopped for not using a turn signal. Deploying the drug dog at the beginning of the stop without reasonable suspicion unreasonably prolonged the stop in violation of Rodriguez. Commonwealth v. Smith, 2018 Ky. LEXIS 128 (Mar. 26, 2018):
PA: Reasonableness inquiry always required for warrantless blood draw
Trial court failed to make a reasonableness inquiry of whether the warrantless search of defendant’s blood was objectively reasonable. Reversed and remanded. Commonwealth v. Trahey, 2018 PA Super 72, 2018 Pa. Super. LEXIS 276 (Mar. 26, 2018):
TN: Uncorroborated anonymous tip insufficient
The anonymous tip in this case was not corroborated, and it was insufficient even under the Tennessee Supreme Court’s 2017 adoption of Gates and rejection of Aguilar-Spinelli. State v. Dibrell, 2018 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 224 (Mar. 26, 2018). There … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: Seventh Circuit Hears Privacy Case Over Smart Meters
Courthouse News Service: Seventh Circuit Hears Privacy Case Over Smart Meters by Lorraine Bailey:
CA5: Attenuation of statement from arrest found: “Suppression of inculpatory evidence is an extraordinary remedy.”
The Fifth Circuit finds defendant’s statement is attenuated from his arrest. The time factor favors defendant but the rest favors the government. “Finally, the purpose and flagrancy factor favors the Government with respect to both the stop and subsequent search. … Continue reading
ABAJ: North Carolina police issue broad warrants for data from Google users near crime scenes
ABAJ: North Carolina police issue broad warrants for data from Google users near crime scenes by Jason Tashea:
S.D.Fla.: Former lawyer could not sue Disciplinary Counsel in bankruptcy after already losing in another similar case
Plaintiff is a former lawyer who sued the Pennsylvania Office of Disciplinary Counsel alleging Fourth Amendment violations from seizure of his office files. After losing that case, he attempted to relitigate the same issue through bankruptcy court. He is collateral … Continue reading
WA: SW for everything on a cell phone was overbroad
Defendant was investigated for sexual exploitation of a child, and the police obtained a search warrant for his phone seeking a “physical dump” of the phone, including everything on the phone: “Images, video, documents, text messages, contacts, audio recordings, call … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Seizure of all emails since inception of account shown justified
A warrant seeking emails from the opening of the account was justified by the nature of the probable cause alleged and the time period at issue. Also, even if the officer went too far, the good faith exception would have … Continue reading
OK: Plain error review of SW fails for lack of a record
Defendant didn’t challenge the search warrant for his DNA in the trial court, so the issue is addressed on plain error. Since the search warrant and affidavit in support aren’t in the record, defendant fails in bringing up a record … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: SW for defendant’s cell phone for emails was ordered modified to more narrow the search to drug offenses
The search warrant for the defendant’s cell phone for emails was ordered modified to more narrow the search to drug offenses. Defendant also acceded to an order to open his phone with a fingerprint. [Note that this is a contested … Continue reading
cgn.com: Unlocking iPhones at $50 a pop
cgn.com: Unlocking iPhones at $50 a pop by Sara Friedman
Legal Insurrection: “ACLU Effect” — Profs find reduction in Chicago Stop and Frisk led to hundreds of additional killings
Legal Insurrection: “ACLU Effect” — Profs find reduction in Chicago Stop and Frisk led to hundreds of additional killings by William A. Jacobson:
Ars Technica: Feds pushing new plan for encrypted mobile device unlocks via court order
Ars Technica: Feds pushing new plan for encrypted mobile device unlocks via court order by Cyrus Farivar:
WNYC: The U.S. Citizens ICE Wants to Deport
WNYC: The U.S. Citizens ICE Wants to Deport, hosted by Hari Kondabolu