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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
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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 -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
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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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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, Let it Bleed (album, 1969) -
"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: July 2019
WaPo: A [SF] judge signed a warrant to search a journalist. But police didn’t tell her the whole story.
WaPo: A judge signed a warrant to search a journalist. But police didn’t tell her the whole story.
NYT: Your Data Were ‘Anonymized’? These Scientists Can Still Identify You
NYT: Your Data Were ‘Anonymized’? These Scientists Can Still Identify You by Gina Kolata: Computer scientists have developed an algorithm that can pick out almost any American in databases supposedly stripped of personal information.
NYT: New York City to Consider Banning Sale of Cellphone Location Data
NYT: New York City to Consider Banning Sale of Cellphone Location Data By Jeffery C. Mays: A bill would make it illegal for cellphone companies and mobile apps to share user location information collected in the city without a customer’s … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: No issue preclusion from defense favorable state court search decision being appealed
Plaintiff does not get the benefit of issue preclusion based on a motion to suppress hearing where it was granted and still being appealed. Hamberlin v. Arizona, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122475 (D. Ariz. July 23, 2019). Defendant’s claim that … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: Def satisfies burden to get a Franks hearing by showing material omissions
Defendant satisfies his burden to get a Franks hearing by showing material omissions from the affidavit. United States v. Anderson, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122131 (W.D. Va. July 23, 2019):
MA: Def’s stop a mile away without really matching description wasn’t justified
There was no reasonable suspicion for defendant’s patdown away from the scene of the alleged crime. The state claims he looked like the guy, but there was also substantial evidence he wasn’t the guy by his dress. He was also … Continue reading
CA10: While some might disagree with OCCA’s opinion on abandonment, it’s not “unreasonable” under AEDPA
This is a § 2254 habeas challenging via an IAC claim whether defense counsel properly litigated his motion to suppress over whether his backpack was abandoned. That was also resolved in the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. While people might … Continue reading
CA4: Def counsel not ineffective for not filing CSLI motion before Carpenter
Defense counsel can’t be ineffective for not anticipating Carpenter by filing a CSLI motion before it was decided. United States v. Jackson, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 21716 (4th Cir. July 22, 2019). Defendant’s motion to prevent a search of his … Continue reading
D.N.D.: The fact the state judge issuing the SW represented a potential witness named in the affidavit didn’t make him not “neutral and detached”
The search warrant issuing state judge was not a neutral and detached magistrate just because he previously represented a potential witness in the case whose name was in the affidavit. There certainly was probable cause. Besides, the good faith exception … Continue reading
govtech: Motorola Solutions Buys Body Cam Maker, Consolidating Market
govtech: Motorola Solutions Buys Body Cam Maker, Consolidating Market: The buyout of WatchGuard brings Motorola Solutions into some of the largest police departments in the country, simultaneously creating a potential path for facial recognition to those departments.
Forbes: Social Media Has Primed Us For An Eventual Surveillance State
Forbes: Social Media Has Primed Us For An Eventual Surveillance State by Curtis Silver:
TN: Def counsel can’t be ineffective for not moving to suppress where it’s apparent there was no standing
Defense counsel can’t be ineffective for not moving to suppress evidence seized off a co- defendant because defendant wouldn’t have any standing. Smith v. State, 2019 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 442 (July 22, 2019).* It was professionally reasonable for defense … Continue reading
WaPo: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data
WaPo: Never-Googlers: Web users take the ultimate step to guard their data by Greg Bensinger: As reports surface regarding how the online advertising giant tracks consumers, some try to reclaim their online footsteps.
NYT: An American Citizen Is Released From Immigration Custody After Nearly a Month
NYT: An American Citizen Is Released From Immigration Custody After Nearly a Month by Manny Fernandez
NYT: Barr Revives Encryption Debate, Calling on Tech Firms to Allow for Law Enforcement
NYT: Barr Revives Encryption Debate, Calling on Tech Firms to Allow for Law Enforcement by Katie Benner: The attorney general, reopening the conversation on security vs. privacy, said that encryption and other measures effectively turned devices into “law-free zones.”
D.Ariz.: Affidavit of another didn’t show offer of proof for standing
The declaration used to attempt to show defendant’s guest standing doesn’t tie defendant’s relationship to the property to the time of the search. Moreover, on the day in question, his truck was parked along a fence far enough from the … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Ptf’s guilty plea was collateral estoppel to his § 1983 search claim
Plaintiff’s civil search claim was barred by collateral estoppel by his guilty plea that there was sufficient evidence to convict. The officer gets qualified immunity for relying on a search warrant. Dabish v. McMahon, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121399 (E.D. … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: When the automobile exception applies and def is in custody, a SW still isn’t required
There was probable cause by a plain view so the automobile exception applies. The fact defendant as in custody doesn’t require a search warrant. United States v. Lightsey, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121669 (M.D. Fla. July 3, 2019). There was … Continue reading
OR: “related to controlled substances offenses” in a cell phone SW was not particular
The cell phone search warrant was not sufficiently particular under the state constitution because there were no practical limits in the phrase “related to controlled substances offenses.” State v. Savath, 298 Ore. App. 495 (July 17, 2019):
The Atlantic: The Stuff of Dystopian Nightmare
The Atlantic: The Stuff of Dystopian Nightmare by Garrett Epps: ACLU lawyers have stopped border agents from demanding ID after domestic flights.