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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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"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 2019
WaPo: DEA’s bulk collection of phone data ‘raised significant legal questions’
WaPo: DEA’s bulk collection of phone data ‘raised significant legal questions’ by Joe Davidson:
TN: IAC claim re SW fails because SW isn’t in appellate record
Defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim about defense counsel’s handling of an alleged defective search warrant claim couldn’t be considered on appeal where nobody put the search warrant in the appellate record. Holland v. State, 2019 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
NH: Cell phone SW for pictures and texts in a homicide case was particular
The search warrant for defendant’s cell phone was still particular enough for photographs that could be tied to text messages in a murder case. Even deleted photographs were subject to recovery. State v. Page, 2019 N.H. LEXIS 53 (Mar. 19, … Continue reading
Lexology: Has Investigative Genealogy Become the Wild, Wild West?
Lexology: Has Investigative Genealogy Become the Wild, Wild West? by Kathleen E. Dion
PA: “The Fourth Amendment does not have a time limit; it protects individuals from unreasonable seizures, no matter how brief.”
“The Fourth Amendment does not have a time limit; it protects individuals from unreasonable seizures, no matter how brief.” The brief detention here wasn’t based on reasonable suspicion and implicated the Fourth Amendment. Commonwealth v. Adams, 2019 Pa. LEXIS 1734 … Continue reading
D.N.M.: When standing depends on permission to drive another’s car, the standing of the other has to be shown, too
When a defendant claims standing based on another’s right to possess, he has to prove the other person had standing, too. Reasonable suspicion for this stop was based on a traffic violation and suspicion the occupants in the vehicle were … Continue reading
techdirt: Utah Senate Passes Bill That Would Lock The Government Out Of Warrantless Access To Third Party Records
techdirt: Utah Senate Passes Bill That Would Lock The Government Out Of Warrantless Access To Third Party Records by Tim Cushing: Perhaps no state has unrolled and rolled up a welcome mat set out for a federal guest faster than … Continue reading
NBC15: Frustration over spike in gun violence prompts district push for police checkpoints
NBC15: Frustration over spike in gun violence prompts district push for police checkpoints by Nicole Fierro: MOBILE, Ala. (WPMI) — Frustration over heightened gun violence is driving councilmembers to propose new actions. However, Mobile’s public safety director says some ideas … Continue reading
WA: It’s defendant’s burden to show a seizure occurred
“An appellant making an unconstitutional seizure claim has the burden of proving that a seizure occurred. … [¶] Here, Yang consented to Koster’s entry. Throughout their time in the house, Lucas and Koster told Ho what they were doing. They … Continue reading
AZ: Probation search could reasonably include cell phone because of nature of allegations
Defendant on felony probation and subject to a warrantless search condition. It was reasonable to search his cell phone under this condition because his mother reported threats and it was possible the cell phone’s contents could corroborate it. State v. … Continue reading
D.S.C.: Forced catheterization of children for UA stated a 4A claim
Plaintiff stated a claim that forced catheterization of her children for a UA was a Fourth Amendment violation. Whether there was consent in the face of an alleged threat to take the children without a UA also goes to a … Continue reading
KnowTechie: LA wants rideshare scooter companies to share your location data with them
KnowTechie: LA wants rideshare scooter companies to share your location data with them by Joe Rice-Jones: Maybe this will stop the number of abandoned scooters.
CA5: Ptf’s 4A claims were Heck barred because they would interfere with the state prosecution.
Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment claims were Heck barred because they would interfere with the state prosecution. Shipman v. Sowell, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 8736 (5th Cir. Mar. 23, 2019):
IN: Officer at front door to do knock-and-talk could look through gap in blinds
Officer who was at front of house to do a knock and talk did not conduct an illegal search when he heard noise inside and looked through a gap in the blinds. Jardines is distinguished, and the court used the … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: AirBnB can’t block all discovery of customer’s third-party records
In AirBnB’s case against NYC, the city gets discovery of some of AirBnB’s customer records because it is third-party information subject to disclosure at least to determine the extent of an expectation of privacy. AirBnB, Inc. v. City of New … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Def did nothing to show his standing in the car or the things seized from it
Reasonable suspicion supported the stop for no license plate light. Then, defendant lacks a reasonable expectation of privacy in the car or its contents. “However, neither Defendant’s affidavit nor the evidence adduced at the hearing establish that Defendant had any … Continue reading
NY4: State didn’t show that CI actually existed; reversed
The state didn’t make a sufficient showing required by NY law that the CI actually existed. The motion to suppress should have been granted. People v. Givans, 2019 NY Slip Op 02220, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2237 (4th Dept. … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Factual assertion in SW affidavit based on inference was reasonable and not false
Defendant’s Franks challenge fails. The officer’s assertion of fact was a reasonable inference based on what he saw and wasn’t false. United States v. Cruz-Arroyo, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47172 (D. P.R. Mar. 19, 2019).* Defendant’s Franks challenge fails for … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Unsealing of SW materials not granted preindictment
The Sacramento Bee and defendant seek unsealing of search warrant materials in an extradition matter, but the motion is denied. Extradition is different than prosecution. If a criminal prosecution will result in the United States, and it still could, the … Continue reading