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- 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: July 2019
KS: Inevitable discovery not fully developed and remanded
Another case on inevitable discovery finds two of the three Brown factors satisfied. “Here, the officer discovered an arrest warrant that predated his encounter with Tatro. And Tatro has not argued the warrant was tainted, invalid, or related to the … Continue reading
CA9: Use of tear gas to enter house, even where consent given, was not clearly unreasonable considering a dangerous, potentially armed, and suicidal felon was barricaded inside
“The panel held that assuming the consent was voluntary and defendants exceeded the scope of the consent by shooting tear gas into the house, they were still entitled to qualified immunity. The panel held that given that defendants thought they … Continue reading
KS: If the officer had RS, he waited 24 minutes to call for a drug dog and then couldn’t get one for hours; stop too long and unreasonable
The officer supposedly had reasonable suspicion early into the stop, but he delayed 24 minutes before even attempting to locate a drug dog and it was then found that a drug dog couldn’t get there for quite a while. The … Continue reading
KS: The state has to plead inevitable discovery and allow a record to be made or it defaults it
All the factors of inevitable discovery favor suppression of the evidence, even under Strieff. Moreover, for the state to claim inevitable discovery, it has plead it in the trial court and allow a record to be made. State v. Sanders, … Continue reading
WaPo: Two people were killed in a botched drug raid. Investigators say the official story was a lie.
WaPo: Two people were killed in a botched drug raid. Investigators say the official story was a lie. by Brittney Martin and Eli Rosenberg:
Lawyer’s false affidavit in disciplinary investigation apparently leads to SW for his cell phone and ultimate disbarment
Respondent is a lawyer accused of (aggressively) pursuing a sexual relationship with a divorce client during the representation and succeeding. When it came out, the state bar opened an inquiry. The lawyer filed an affidavit flatly denying any inappropriate conduct … Continue reading
Motherboard (Vice): Amazon Requires Police to Shill Surveillance Cameras in Secret Agreement
Motherboard (Vice): Amazon Requires Police to Shill Surveillance Cameras in Secret Agreement by Caroline Haskins: The Lakeland, Florida police department is required to ‘encourage adoption’ of Ring products as part of a secret agreement with the company.
CA8: SWAT team’s use of a flashbang device to search a house for a cell phone was unreasonable (it was also the wrong house because the suspect hadn’t been there in two years)
It was objectively unreasonable for a SWAT team to break in a door and use a flashbang device to search a house for a cell phone where the suspect was already in custody and they knew it, they were at … Continue reading
LA4: Constructive possession to convict isn’t the test for PC; suppression order reversed
The trial court erred in granting the motion to suppress a gun, essentially conflating the probable cause inquiry and sufficiency of evidence to convict the defendant at trial of possession. State v. LangState v. LangState v. Lang, 2019 La. App. … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Holding def’s driver’s license shows he’s not free to leave
The officer continued to hold defendant’s driver’s license, and that meant to him he sure wasn’t free to leave. United States v. Steffens, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122096 (N.D. Iowa July 23, 2019). Defendant was stopped for a muddy license … Continue reading
CA4: Arrest for obstruction wasn’t objectively justified and QI denied
The actions of the plaintiff didn’t reasonably rise to the level of obstruction of an officer, and her arrest and throwing her to the ground was unjustified. Qualified immunity is denied. Hupp v. Cook, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 22208 (4th … Continue reading
10News (KGTV San Diego): Home surveillance company Ring teams with local law enforcement agencies, leading to privacy concerns
10News (San Diego): Home surveillance company Ring teams with local law enforcement agencies, leading to privacy concerns by Jeff Lasky:
CA9: Seizure of 12 firearms from the home during a mental health crisis and then delaying return was reasonable under community caretaking function
Plaintiff called the police on her husband because of a mental health crisis, and the police seized 12 firearms from the home. She petitioned for return on the firearms, and the Superior Court denied relief and she appealed, and it … Continue reading
MI: Reaching out one’s door to pass identification doesn’t justify a “hot pursuit.” Protection of home is highest 4A value
Reaching out one’s door to pass identification doesn’t justify a “hot pursuit.” “In this case we must decide whether defendant’s constitutional right to be free from unreasonable seizures was violated when a police officer entered her home to complete her … Continue reading
WSJ: Prosecutors Back Barr’s Call for Access to Encrypted Devices
WSJ: Prosecutors Back Barr’s Call for Access to Encrypted Devices by James Rundle: U.S. attorneys from New York say law-enforcement authorities need access to encrypted communications to catch criminals
CA9: Officer who drafted clearly overbroad SW doesn’t get qualified immunity just because a judge signed off on it
The officer who drafted a clearly overbroad warrant that a judge approved that sought diaries and other papers wasn’t entitled to qualified immunity. Estate of Brown v. Lambert, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 22087 (9th Cir. July 24, 2019). Plaintiff’s decedent … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Lack of paperwork on inventory at hearing is troubling, but the inventory was still valid
Not leaving defendant’s car in the “largest shopping mall in the Caribbean” justified removal and inventory of the car. The lack of paperwork at the hearing was troubling, but not unconstitutional. United States v. Villa-Guillen, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 123537 … Continue reading
CA9: Warrantless entry into def’s home after tracking device went off and created exigency
“The agents secured a court order authorizing insertion of a tracking device to conduct a controlled delivery of a package of methamphetamine, but their subsequent entry into defendant’s residence to secure the package was warrantless. [¶] The panel affirmed the … Continue reading
Dallas Morning News: No shower for 23 days: U.S. citizen says conditions were so bad that he almost self-deported
Dallas Morning News: No shower for 23 days: U.S. citizen says conditions were so bad that he almost self-deported by Obed Manuel: Francisco Erwin Galicia, a Dallas-born U.S. citizen, spent 23 days in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border … Continue reading
The Hill: Opinion: Don’t ban facial recognition
The Hill: Opinion: Don’t ban facial recognition by Amitai Etzioni: