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Recent Posts
- W.D.Ark.: Parole search waiver moots lack of PC argument
- AR: RS shown for boating while intoxicated stop
- W.D.Mo.: Wrong address in SW wasn’t fatal where right house was searched
- NY: Failure to show independent source for officer’s observation of def required reversal
- VA: Outline of a gun in def’s pocket was RS
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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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"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: May 2019
CA5: Byrd doesn’t give the passenger any more standing than he already didn’t have
Byrd doesn’t give the passenger any more standing than he already didn’t have. United States v. James, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 15531 (5th Cir. May 24, 2019). “Under our precedent that applied to the stop at issue, the officers’ use … Continue reading
OH10: Aside from the SW for def’s house, there was PC to stop him in his car leaving for his arrest
Officers had a search warrant for defendant’s premises. Based on a controlled buy, there was also probable cause to independently stop him leaving his own house. State v. Taylor, 2019-Ohio-2018, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 2088 (10th Dist. May 23, 2019). … Continue reading
CA11: 4A claim can’t be brought in a successor 2255
Defendant filed a successor 2255 over the alleged nonexistence of his search warrant, and this doesn’t state ground for a successor petition. “Even if Mallety had presented evidence that the search of the Eden Street apartment was conducted without a … Continue reading
Palm Beach Post: Search warrant used to catch Robert Kraft built for terrorists, not johns, critics say
Palm Beach Post: Search warrant used to catch Robert Kraft built for terrorists, not johns, critics say johns, critics say by Jorge Milian: Two judges have excluded surveillance video shot with a ‘sneak-and-peak’ warrant. Their rulings could sink the state’s … Continue reading
NYTimes: San Francisco Police Chief Apologizes for Raid of Journalist’s Home
NYTimes: San Francisco Police Chief Apologizes for Raid of Journalist’s Home by Sandra E. Garcia: The chief of the San Francisco Police Department apologized on Friday for a police raid at the home of a Bay Area freelance journalist in … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Ptf’s suit against his investigation is barred by Younger abstention
Plaintiff’s suit against his investigation is barred by Younger abstention, too. It doesn’t require a pending case. Cook v. Harris County, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87297 (S.D. Tex. May 23, 2019):
DE: Def’s flight from parole and recent crimes were exigency for cell phone ping
There was exigency for an emergency cell phone ping to locate defendant. He’d just committed enough crimes to get sentenced to life and he was on the run from police. State v. Snell, 2019 Del. Super. LEXIS 249 (May 21, … Continue reading
CA6: Summary judgment for Sheriff on a civil Franks claim is reversed because there’s an issue for a jury
Summary judgment for the Sheriff on a civil Franks claim that he could smell marijuana from a really long way away is reversed. Other officers couldn’t smell it until they were right upon it, and he professed in the past … Continue reading
TN: “Process” in a child exploitation statute does not include SWs; legislature could have added SWs if it intended that
“We granted permission to appeal in this case in order to determine whether Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-17-1007, which provides that ‘[n]o process, except as otherwise provided, shall be issued for the violation of [the statutes proscribing the offenses of … Continue reading
NY3: Judge who signs SW doesn’t have to recuse from suppression hearing
“Initially, defendant failed to preserve his contention that the trial judge should have recused himself because he signed the search warrant authorizing the search of defendant’s person and residence …. In any event, were this argument preserved for our review, … Continue reading
LA5: Car in driveway near the street wasn’t on the curtilage
Defendant’s car in the driveway within an hour of the crime enabled the police to look in the windows and see proceeds from the crime inside without violating the curtilage. A search warrant was obtained, and the look was reasonable. … Continue reading
CA5: 4A IAC for not challenging search doesn’t avoid deportation
“Even if these arguments pose a constitutional claim that we may review, the IJ and BIA did not abuse their discretion in denying Trevino’s motion to reopen on the basis that his guilty plea was invalid due to ineffective assistance … Continue reading
TX3: Littering supports a stop
Littering by tossing a cigarette supports a stop. Two statutes apply when it’s something burning: one if a fire results, one if not. This was the latter. Defendant was found DWI. State v. Wood, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 4215 (Tex. … Continue reading
OH9: Thermal imaging SW lacked PC when only electrical usage was mentioned
The thermal imaging search warrant was bare bones and did not support probable cause or application of the good faith exception. Electrical usage alone was not enough: “No additional information or data regarding the properties or their electricity usage is … Continue reading
Detroit Deadline: Police Use of Facial ID Video Systems in Detroit and Elsewhere Worries US House Members
Detroit Deadline: Police Use of Facial ID Video Systems in Detroit and Elsewhere Worries US House Members:
N-M Ct.Crim.App.: Lack of CO’s actual authority to issue search authorization fatal to search; no GFE
The Court Martial judge erred in concluding that a particular major had authority to authorize searches of appellant’s body, office, and personal property because she was not a “commander” for the purposes of Mil. R. Evid. 315 even though her … Continue reading
GA: Giving computer password out gives recipient apparent authority to consent
Giving one’s wife the password to the computer showed that she had apparent authority to consent to its search. Massey v. State, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 267 (May 21, 2019). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not pursuing a motion to … Continue reading
CA11: Petr’s successor habeas claim for new evidence of a 4A violation doesn’t show actual innocence
“Petroff asserts that each of his claims rely on ‘the same newly discovered evidence.’ However, Petroff does not appear to actually describe what the new evidence he has obtained is at any point. Moreover, Petroff’s central argument appears to be … Continue reading