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- CA: Avoiding the police in a high crime area isn’t RS
- CA7: Jail officials holding plaintiff under a valid court order aren’t liable for not releasing him sooner after a sentencing error
- Volokh: Do Fourth Amendment Protections Change When Property Is Moved?
- M.D.Pa.: Def was neither shipper nor recipient of USPS parcel, so he had no standing in it
- WI: Obtaining def’s DNA by ruse wasn’t an illegal search
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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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--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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Daily Archives: September 19, 2019
CA11: Criminal trial record not fully binding on ptf who was on trial there because incentives to litigate were different
The defendants observed plaintiff’s actions and they saw probable cause to believe he committed trespass. Therefore, the false arrest claim fails. His excessive force claim, however, survives summary judgment. Using the criminal trial testimony wasn’t particularly helpful or controlling because … Continue reading
CA9: Failure to list a cell phone on the inventory sheet doesn’t void its seizure
Defendant’s cell phone was seized from his car when it was impounded after a high speed chase. The fact it was omitted from the inventory sheet does not make its seizure unreasonable. It was ultimately searched with a search warrant. … Continue reading
NC: Failure to raise legality of arrest in trial court precluded appellate review
Defendant was an anti-abortion protestor with a sound system, and he was detained for a noise violation after officers with a 3M sound meter found him over the sound ordinance limit. He was to be arrested for that and he … Continue reading
NC: When two CIs are used, both need to be known and reliable; here, one wasn’t
Defendant raised multiple issues in his motion to suppress that led to a general denial “with some reluctance.” The court of appeals doesn’t find enough in the record to resolve what the court was thinking and vacates and remands for … Continue reading
NC: Recognizing tension between prior cases and Navarette, the court finds this stop the same as Navarette
The NC courts have long recognized detailed anonymous tips as providing reasonable suspicion for a traffic stop, even before Navarette. “However, in light of the State’s argument, we must acknowledge the apparent tension between our prior case law addressing similar … Continue reading
FoxNews: Judge Andrew Napolitano: Police surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology threaten our privacy
FoxNews: Judge Andrew Napolitano: Police surveillance cameras and facial recognition technology threaten our privacy:
W.D.Wis.: Officers had a reasonable belief under Payton def was on the premises for execution of an arrest warrant
Based on surveillance, officers had a reasonable belief, even probable cause, to believe that defendant was in the house when they came with an arrest warrant. United States v. Burgess, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 157755 (W.D. Wis. Aug. 12, 2019),* … Continue reading
PA directs parties to brief whether Carpenter applies to real time CSLI
Pennsylvania withdraws a CSLI opinion (Commonwealth v. Pacheco, 2019 PA Super 208, 2019 Pa. Super. LEXIS 662 (July 3, 2019)) and directs that the parties brief whether Carpenter applies to real time CSLI. Commonwealth v. Pacheco, 2019 Pa. Super. LEXIS … Continue reading
Cal.6: A broad SW is permissible in a computer search because it may be difficult to locate the subject of the search
The search warrant was sufficiently particular for a computer because it is more difficult to determine what is where in a computer when searching it. It was reasonable to allow a broad search of defendant’s computer to find what was … Continue reading
TN: Defense counsel’s failure to predict Riley wasn’t IAC
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not raising Riley before it was decided, and the case was tried just before Riley. Once Riley was issued, defense counsel tried to get it into the case by a motion for new trial. Other … Continue reading
SD: There was reason for def’s stop, but no PC for search of the car
There was reason for defendant’s stop and reasonable suspicion developed from excessive nervousness and a masking agent, but there was no probable cause and exigency for a search of defendant’s car. State v. Terry, 2019 Del. Super. LEXIS 431 (Sept. … Continue reading