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- Reason: Will ICE Use the Alien Enemies Act To Enter Homes Without Warrants?
- Reason: The FBI Seized This Woman’s Life Savings—Without Telling Her Why
- MI: Nighttime entry onto curtilage was reasonable because officers were responding to a dangerous situation
- D.Neb.: Officer asking same question three different ways didn’t unreasonably prolong the stop
- PA: Entry of curtilage to inquire of a chop shop in operation was reasonable
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (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 -
© 2003-25,
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,
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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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"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: January 2020
MA: Def’s frisk during his traffic stop was unjustified and unreasonable
The granting of defendant’s motion to suppress is affirmed. Although the stop of his vehicle was proper, his frisk was improper as was the search of his car which was based on the results of the improper frisk. Defendant’s actions … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: In a 3 page affidavit for SW, showing the crimes under investigation was particular enough
The affidavits for search warrant are only three pages long, and they reference the crimes under investigation on page one or the first paragraph. That is enough here to show particularity. “The Court concludes that the fact that these brief … Continue reading
EFF: New Bill Would Make Needed Steps Toward Curbing Mass Surveillance
EFF: New Bill Would Make Needed Steps Toward Curbing Mass Surveillance by India McKinney & Andrew Crocker (“The Safeguarding Americans’ Private Records Act is a Strong Bill That Builds on Previous Surveillance Reforms”)
D.Me.: It wasn’t unreasonable for the officer to delay def’s arrest until they moved to where another officer was for safety
It wasn’t unreasonable for the officer to forgo defendant’s arrest and get him to walk with the officer to the house where another officer was waiting. This was for safety purposes. United States v. Brigley, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13938 … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Explicit collective detail of three CIs was probable cause
The explicit collective detail of the three informants was probable cause. United States v. Morelock, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 225737 (N.D. Ga. Dec. 9, 2019), adopted, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12596 (N.D. Ga. Jan. 27, 2020)*:
CA2: CI’s reliability supported because he also testified under oath before warrant issued
“[The CI’s] reliability is further supported by the fact that he ‘testified under threat of the criminal sanction for perjury,’ and that his eye-witness report of the crime was incredibly detailed.” United States v. Martin, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 2738 … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: For purposes of entry on an arrest warrant, officers can reasonably believe def had two addresses
“Under the facts of this case, the Court concludes that law enforcement agents had the requisite reasonable belief that Sparks was residing at 6825 Walrond Avenue and/or 5501 Smart Avenue and was present at the addresses at the time of … Continue reading
CA8: Judge authorizing rubberstamp of signature by clerk after PC for arrest found not 4A violation
“Hamilton’s complaint alleged that Judge Ragland is liable in damages for his unconstitutional actions in allowing [clerk] Overbey to issue arrest warrants and set bonds using his signature stamp, and in setting a schedule requiring cash-only bonds without regard to … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: Traffic stop was valid and led to plain view of drugs on passenger seat
The headings tell us the case: “A. Lieutenant Kennedy had the requisite reasonable, articulable suspicion of unlawful conduct to initiate a traffic stop on Defendant’s vehicle based upon traffic violations and erratic driving consistent with that of an impaired driver.” … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Def lacked standing in apts he owned and rented to relatives
Defendant lacked standing to contest the search of an apartment building he owned but rented the units out to relatives. The CI, however, puts the defendant in one of the apartments with cocaine and a firearm ten days before the … Continue reading
ME: Statute requiring blood draw in fatal accident without PC violates 4A; but GFE applied here
Maine’s statute that requires a blood draw of the driver in a fatal or near fatal accident without probable cause violates the Fourth Amendment. Thus, the 2007 case upholding the statute is overruled. It cannot be categorized under the special … Continue reading
EFF: U.K. Police Will Soon be able to Search Through U.S. Data Without Asking a Judge
EFF: U.K. Police Will Soon be able to Search Through U.S. Data Without Asking a Judge by Joe Mullin:
CA9: Tasering a man in his own bed not cooperating in being arrested could be found excessive
A jury could reasonably conclude that using a Taser on plaintiff lying on his own bed, on his cell phone trying to call his lawyer, who didn’t violently resist but just pulled his arm away, was an unreasonable use of … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Three SWs not part of case were not subject to judicial notice
In a civil case, the court refuses to take judicial notice of the facts alleged in three search warrants that are not part of the case. Aubrey v. D Magazine Partners, L.P., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12304 (N.D. Tex. Jan. … Continue reading
WaPo: Perspective: Facebook will now show you exactly how it stalks you — even when you’re not using Facebook
WaPo: Perspective: Facebook will now show you exactly how it stalks you — even when you’re not using Facebook by Geoffrey A. Fowler (“The new ‘Off-Facebook Activity’ tool reminds us we’re living in a reality TV program where the cameras … Continue reading
The Intercept: The Rise of Smart Camera Networks, and Why We Should Ban Them
The Intercept: The Rise of Smart Camera Networks, and Why We Should Ban Them by Michael Kwet (“The rise of all-seeing smart camera networks is an alarming development that threatens civil rights and liberties throughout the world. Law enforcement agencies … Continue reading
techdirt: Supreme Court Asked To Tell Cops That Consenting To A Search Is Not Consenting To Having Your Home Destroyed
techdirt: Supreme Court Asked To Tell Cops That Consenting To A Search Is Not Consenting To Having Your Home Destroyed by Tim Cushing:
Bloomberg Law: INSIGHT: State Investigations—50 Takes on Subpoena, Privilege, Document Rules
Bloomberg Law: INSIGHT: State Investigations—50 Takes on Subpoena, Privilege, Document Rules by Brendan Parets: