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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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--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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Monthly Archives: April 2019
NYT: The Privacy Project
NYT: The Privacy Project:
CNET: DHS gave border agents free rein over thousands of warrantless device searches
CNET: DHS gave border agents free rein over thousands of warrantless device searches by James Martin: Border agents conducted more than 33,000 device searches in 2018. Court records show they were allowed to share what they found with other government … Continue reading
Just Security: Split Over Compelled Decryption Deepens With Massachusetts Case
Just Security: Split Over Compelled Decryption Deepens With Massachusetts Case by Michael Price and Zach Simonetti:
D.Nev.: Def’s stop for jaywalking at an uncontrolled intersection didn’t justify his patdown for weapons
Defendant’s stop for jaywalking at an uncontrolled intersection didn’t justify his patdown for weapons. United States v. Jacobs, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70241 (D. Nev. Apr. 25, 2019). Summary judgment for existence of probable cause in a § 1983 case … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Consensual encounter still requires RS for frisk, which the officer had
“Applying these principles to the facts of this case, the Court finds Moreno’s encounter with the officers was consensual until Sergeant Meola, without Moreno’s consent, initiated a protective frisk by touching Moreno’s outer clothing and the bulge he saw under … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Visiting defendant in the USM lockup directing him to provide his password for his cell phone seized under a SW exceeded the scope of the warrant
Visiting defendant in the USM lockup directing him to provide his password for his cell phone seized under a search warrant exceeded the scope of the warrant. United States v. Maffei, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70314 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 26, … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Drug dog immediately on the scene didn’t extend the stop
Because the drug dog got right there, the dog sniff didn’t extend the stop in violation of Rodriguez. United States v. Thorn, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70781 (W.D. Ky. Apr. 26, 2019). Defendant argues that his case was like Rodriguez, … Continue reading
ABCNews: Suit filed in case of 4 girls claiming school strip-search
ABCNews: Suit filed in case of 4 girls claiming school strip-search by AP:
Cal.5: Probation search condition applies to BAC blood draw
Defendant was on probation for DWI. His warrantless probation search condition applied to determining his BAC level. People v. Cruz, 2019 Cal. App. LEXIS 384 (5th Dist. Apr. 25, 2019). This condition was imposed for another DWI. Why wouldn’t a … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Warrantless strip search in drug case unjustified and suppressed
The search of defendant’s car and cell phones were justified by probable cause and, as to the phones, a warrant. His warrantless strip search, however, was not properly justified from its inception, and it is suppressed. United States v. Peterson, … Continue reading
NY4: Def’s statements during execution of SW where he wasn’t arrested weren’t custodial
“We reject defendant’s contention that County Court erred in refusing to suppress statements that he made to the police during the execution of a search warrant at his residence and thereafter at the police station. Defendant contends that he was … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Strickland prejudice is subject to harmless error review
The state court post-conviction resolution of this case under § 2254 review was not unreasonable. Even if defense counsel had moved for suppression of evidence he’d stipulated to, the outcome wouldn’t have changed because of the overwhelming other evidence of … Continue reading
CAAF: Military GFE satisfied here; three military lawyers also asked about PC
In applying the military good faith exception under M.R.E. 311(c)(3), the court finds the NMCCA properly applied the exception which, under rule, blends into probable cause. There clearly was a substantial basis for finding probable cause, and good faith was … Continue reading
D.Colo.: MMJ facility subject to IRS summons for back taxes can’t show summons was unreasonable
Petitioner is a medical marijuana facility under investigation by the IRS for selling product in violation of state law and not paying the taxes on it. (This was for tax years pre-recreational sales.) The IRS showed that the summonses were … Continue reading
NYT: Losing Our Fourth Amendment Data Protection
NYT: Losing Our Fourth Amendment Data Protection by Josephine Wolff: The courts have shielded information when we have a “reasonable expectation” it will stay private. What happens when we stop believing?
Detroit Free Press: Federal judge, civil rights icon Damon Keith dies at age 96
Detroit Free Press: Federal judge, civil rights icon Damon Keith dies at age 96 by Cassandra Spratling & David Ashenfelter Other story:
MA: Two on CSLI standing
Defendant had standing to challenge CSLI used to track his car when he was a passenger and the driver was using his cell phone. Commonwealth v. Fredericq, 482 Mass. 70 (Apr. 24, 2019). Defendant did not have standing for a … Continue reading
CA9: SW was ambiguous as to the mobile home to be searched; no PC shown as to one searched; suppressed
The search warrant authorized search of a gray mobile home. There were two on the property, and the one searched was white. The search warrant was thus ambiguous when the officers arrived, and the court finds the search unjustified because … Continue reading