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Recent Posts
- CA5: Deficient privilege log after records search was waiver
- E.D.Ky.: When court can’t tell the dog alerted, motion to suppress granted
- OH1: A malnourished child isn’t exigency for an infant
- E.D.Pa.: Mandamus doesn’t lie to unseal SW papers
- D.Me.: Looking around house when allegedly “freezing” it was an illegal search
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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)
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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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Daily Archives: September 17, 2018
techdirt: FBI Facial Recognition Expert Helps Denver PD Arrest Wrong Man Twice For The Same Crime
techdirt: FBI Facial Recognition Expert Helps Denver PD Arrest Wrong Man Twice For The Same Crime by Tim Cushing
techdirt: Qualified Immunity Contradicts Congressional Intent. It’s Time To Kill It Off.
techdirt: Qualified Immunity Contradicts Congressional Intent. It’s Time To Kill It Off. by Tim Cushing:
AZ: The drug courier profile has its place in supporting RS, but it doesn’t have any place at trial
Drug courier profile evidence has its place (“Drug-courier profile evidence suggests that a defendant possesses one or more behavioral characteristics typically displayed by persons trafficking in illegal drugs. See State v. Haskie, 242 Ariz. 582, 585 ¶ 14, 399 P.3d … Continue reading
FL1: Possessor of USB drives who acquired them trading for drugs had apparent authority to consent
Defendant’s vehicle had been burglarized and USB drives were also stolen. The police report omitted them. Later, another guy acquired the USB drives when he was buying drugs. When he was busted, he turned them over to the police telling … Continue reading
CA10: You can’t tell the court it needs to apply the independent source case law a certain way and then complain on appeal that it did what you asked
This case started with hotel housekeeping coming in to clean a room and seeing obvious drug paraphernalia. The police were called, and they were shown. A search warrant was prepared showing probable cause to connect defendants to the room by … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: “Particularity is not to be confused with breadth — they are ‘related but distinct concepts.’”
A broad Facebook warrant for electronically stored information was not unconstitutionally overbroad. “Particularity is not to be confused with breadth — they are ‘related but distinct concepts.’” A Facebook warrant can be issued in New York and served on Facebook’s … Continue reading
D.Idaho: RS for continuing a traffic stop can be based on a violation of probation conditions
Reasonable suspicion for continuing a traffic stop can be based on a violation of probation conditions, as was this one. United States v. Durr, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 157472 (D. Idaho Sep 15, 2018). Petition for writ of error coram … Continue reading
OH5: Stop became unreasonable where officer extended stop 13 minutes and never started on ticket for failure to signal
The trial court suppressed because the stop was overly extended. Defendant was stopped for alleged failure to signal, and it dragged on for 13 minutes without the officer ever starting on writing a ticket. Conceding the stop was likely valid, … Continue reading
NE: Reliance on pre-Birchfield law meant GFE applied
The officer’s objective reliance on pre-Birchfield law meant the good faith exception applied. State v. Nielsen, 301 Neb. 88, 2018 Neb. LEXIS 158 (Sep 15, 2018). Pre-Carpenter CSLI by SCA order without probable cause was the law prior to Carpenter, … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Def parked car near his house but left it in gear with the key in the ignition; it was not abandoned
Defendant did not abandon his car. He parked it at his house and went inside. His dog was still inside. The entry into his car was reasonable under the community caretaking function because it was left in gear, and a … Continue reading
NE: Shots fired at car led to officers seeing likely kicked in door and blood on doormat and that was exigency
Officers responded to a call about shots fired hitting a car, and, at defendant’s apartment building, defendant and his cohort fled when the police approached. Possible blood was found on his doormat, and the door had a boot mark that … Continue reading
MA: Violation of a state regulation leading to identifying def juvenile doesn’t warrant suppression
Alleged violation of a state regulation that led to defendant juvenile’s identity didn’t warrant suppression. Suppression would require the statute align with a constitutional requirement. Moreover, there was no police misconduct; indeed, the police did good work here in locating … Continue reading
OH8: Hard to show prejudice for IAC on not raising a motion to suppress until mid-trial
Defense counsel didn’t file a motion to suppress because she didn’t see a reason for it until testimony at trial revealed the issue. Therefore, the defense made a mid-trial motion to suppress. The trial court denied it on two grounds: … Continue reading
IL: Not error for court to decline to continue suppression hearing for what would have been merely cumulative evidence having no affect on outcome
It was not error to deny a continuance in a suppression hearing after it started because one officer was unavailable due to a death in the family. The defense didn’t even know what he would testify to when asked, but … Continue reading