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- N.D.Ala.: All parts of a SW are read in context, and that narrows it so it’s not overbroad
- WA: No immediate bail for DV arrest violates neither 4A nor due process
- S.D.N.Y.: Overseas seizure of Russian oligarch’s megayacht not governed by 4A
- CA7: No IAC in failure to more aggressively pursue Franks challenge
- CA9: Compelled use of fingerprint to open a cell phone didn’t violate 5A
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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)
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Monthly Archives: December 2018
CA1: QI in excessive force shooting case; brief cases of reasonableness weren’t helpful
The grant of qualified immunity to the officer shooting defendant during execution of a warrant was not contrary to clearly established law. Comparing cases that show the use of deadly force was reasonable; however, isn’t helpful where excessive force is … Continue reading
NJ: GPS monitoring of sex offender still on supervision is reasonable under “special needs”; one not on supervision is not
Two sex offenders sued over their GPS monitoring. The state defended under the special needs doctrine. GPS monitoring of SO still on supervision is reasonable, but it is unreasonable as to the one off supervision. H.R. v. N.J. State Parole … Continue reading
IA: Stolen tractor tires were visible from the curtilage and entry permitted
Defendant was suspected of possession of stolen property. Police came to his rural property to talk to him where he was self-employed working on tractors in back. He had a circular driveway. From the driveway they could see the outbuildings … Continue reading
CA6: Dist.Ct.’s findings don’t support inevitable discovery, so court applies independent source instead
The district court’s analysis doesn’t support application of the inevitable discovery exception because the court didn’t make sufficient findings on the second part of the test. Instead, the record fully supports the independent source doctrine instead. United States v. Chapman-Sexton, … Continue reading
CA6: GFE applies to evidence of nexus, too
While this court has struggled with what is sufficient nexus, the evidence of nexus here is more than minimal and clearly satisfies the good faith exception, too. United States v. Ardd, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 35389 (6th Cir. Dec. 18, … Continue reading
BuzzFeed News: Apps Are Revealing Your Private Information To Facebook And You Probably Don’t Know It
BuzzFeed News: Apps Are Revealing Your Private Information To Facebook And You Probably Don’t Know It by Charlie Warzel
TX14: Drug house was under virtual surveillance for 30 years; def’s coming and going in seconds was a start to follow him
“There is a well-known drug house in Houston where law enforcement has been making drug busts for more than thirty years. Appellant approached that drug house when police were surveilling it as part of an ongoing narcotics investigation. An undercover … Continue reading
OR: Using cell phone while driving is PC for a stop
Pushing buttons on a cell phone while driving was probable cause for a stop. State v. Pham, 295 Ore. App. 322, 2018 Ore. App. LEXIS 1572 (Dec. 14, 2018).* Defendant questions a representation of the officer in the probable cause … Continue reading
Lawfare: Implementing Carpenter by Orin Kerr
Lawfare: Implementing Carpenter By Orin Kerr: I recently posted a new draft article, “Implementing Carpenter,” on the Supreme Court’s blockbuster June 2018 decision in Carpenter v. United States. The article consists of two draft chapters of a forthcoming book, “The … Continue reading
FL5: Apparent ongoing animal abuse is an exigency permitting entry onto curtilage
Police responded to a call about suspected animal abuse and a beating of a dog. When the officer arrived he could hear the beating, and he came into the backyard and saw a bloodied dog with his tongue out. The … Continue reading
CA7: State law right of privacy as to another prison inmate isn’t within the 4A
On appeal from 1915A screening, plaintiff does not a show a Fourth Amendment claim to be free from other inmates stealing his stuff. Here it was letters from his girlfriend by his former cellie then the cellie wrote to her … Continue reading
OH2: CSLI raised first in appeal reply brief isn’t timely; harmless on this record anyway
Defendant never raised CSLI until his reply brief on appeal after Carpenter came down, and a reply brief is too late. Even if he could have preserved the issue, the evidence was overwhelming and harmless. State v. Kennedy, 2018-Ohio-4997, 2018 … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Court doesn’t find running away from a wrecked car was unequivocally an abandonment
Defendant was an accused bootlegger who knew he was being tailed and he wrecked his car and ran away. The court doesn’t find this to be unequivocally an abandonment because he knew he was being followed but not necessarily by … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Roommate had apparent authority to permit entry and search of entertainment center in living room
Defendants were contract USPS carriers and Postal Inspectors believed they were involved in stealing Netflix DVDs from the mail. DVDs with serial numbers were sent on their route and disappeared. The Postal Inspectors went to defendants’ home to conduct a … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Nine state CSLI warrants were issued with PC and were particular
Nine state search warrants were issued for CSLI to attempt to solve nine pharmacy robberies in March-June 2018. Aside from potential standing on questions on some warrants, the search warrants were issued with probable cause and they were particular. Finally, … Continue reading
CA2: 4A IAC claim not to be decided on direct appeal; not ripe
Alleged ineffective assistance claim of government’s obtaining a second DNA sample isn’t going to be considered on direct appeal. Bring it in a 2255. United States v. Lee, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 35221 (2d Cir. Dec 14, 2018). The legality … Continue reading
MA: Under state const., police created exigency by attempted warrantless arrest at home suppressed
Massachusetts interprets its state constitution to provide greater protection in the home than the Fourth Amendment. Thus, when the police come to a house without an arrest warrant, they can’t use the likelihood they will create an exigency for an … Continue reading
TX7: Carpenter applied retroactively where def preserved issue
Defendant raised a Carpenter CSLI issue pretrial, and he prevails. Carpenter held retroactive (despite citing Davis). Dixon v. State, 2018 Tex. App. LEXIS 10340 (Tex. App. – Amarillo Dec. 13, 2018):
M.D.Pa.: Nexus to def’s apt shown by physical description not necessarily apt no.
There was sufficient connection to defendant’s alleged drug deals and his residence to support the search warrant. “While law enforcement officials could not determine at that time which of the residential units Jones entered, they were subsequently able to make … Continue reading