Archives
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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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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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (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 
Daily Archives: December 24, 2019
MD: Def’s burden to prove custody, but he didn’t testify
“It was [defendant]’s burden to prove custody. … Payne opted to remain silent at the suppression hearing; therefore, we have been provided no contrast to the evidence given by Detective Patterson, upon which the court reasonably relied.” The trial court’s … Continue reading
CA5: Even assuming 4A violation, ptf doesn’t show it was clearly established
“In short, we decline to opine on whether Campbell’s actions amount to a [Fourth Amendment] violation. Robles failed to meet his burden to show that such a violation was clearly established, particularly when dealing with an underlying violent crime. Accordingly, … Continue reading
AP: South Bend OKs random inspections for body camera footage
AP: South Bend OKs random inspections for body camera footage (“A new policy adopted in the wake of a black man’s fatal shooting by a white South Bend police officer calls for random inspections of officers’ body camera footage and … Continue reading
NYTimes: What You’re Unwrapping When You Get a DNA Test for Christmas
NYTimes: What You’re Unwrapping When You Get a DNA Test for Christmas by Heather Murphy (“To what extent is giving a DNA test also a present for law enforcement?”)
IN: Frisk was justified by RS, but “ball” in pocket wasn’t plain feel
The officer was observing defendant and suspected he’d be engaged in a drug transaction. Finally there was a patdown, and in defendant’s pocket was a small ball of something, which the officer reached for. It was obvious it was not … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: FIPF arrest justifies search incident
Defendant’s arrest for being a felon in possession justified his search incident. United States v. Westfall, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 217329 (E.D. Mo. Dec. 18, 2019).* Defendant’s detention was without reasonable suspicion and unreasonably extended. A probation officer was working … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Plea of guilty without plea agreement still waives 4A challenge
Defendant made a Fourth Amendment challenge then pled to the indictment without a plea agreement. He still waives his Fourth Amendment claim because he could have appealed. Dunbar v. United States, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 217464 (N.D. Tex. Nov. 14, … Continue reading
CA2: FISA violation or not? Case remanded for fact finding on whether def’s calls were reasonably collected
Defendant pled to attempting to provide support to a terrorist organization. After the plea, the government disclosed it’s prosecution derived from the warrantless obtaining of his phone calls under § 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008. He successfully … Continue reading
MS: Def was in open fields when he encountered wildlife officers and admitted he had meth on him
On the opening day of dove hunting season, wildlife officers were out. They heard shooting from open lands and went to investigate. They encountered defendant and another, and defendant tossed a bag aside when officers approached him. They asked what … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: [For the 10,000th time,] the standard of review of PC is whether there is a “substantial basis” for finding PC, not whether there actually is
“‘[T]he task of a reviewing court is not to conduct a de novo determination of probable cause, but only to determine whether there is substantial evidence in the record supporting the magistrate judge’s decision to issue the warrant.’ United States … Continue reading
CA5: COA previously granted in 2255 appeal is set aside for lack of a “substantial preliminary showing” he could prevail
A judge of the Fifth Circuit granted a certificate of appealability in a 2255 denied by the district court alleging, inter alia, a Fourth Amendment ineffective assistance of counsel claim. The issue was waived by the guilty plea. The COA … Continue reading
CA7 grants rehearing in jail strip search case where male guards got to watch females
Back July 17 was this post: CA7 declines to reinstate a 4A jail strip search claim after 8A claim went to trial; SCOTUS needs to decide re Henry v. Hulett, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 21009 (7th Cir. July 16, 2019). … Continue reading