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- NY Queens: PC shown for SW blood drawn at hospital after car wreck
- CA7: Hotel room vacated by tenant could be searched by hotel management
- W.D.N.Y.: SW for devices used for video surveillance included cell phones because apps can be used to view cameras from cell phones
- CA3: PC for ptf’s arrest for punching a police horse
- D.N.M.: Three Franks challenges, one successful
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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)
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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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Monthly Archives: April 2020
CA7: Consenter had apparent authority; no signs she might not have actual authority
Based on all the evidence, the consenter had apparent authority to consent to the search of the house. While she’d supposedly moved out, she had a key and still had stuff there, and the officers had no suggestion that she … Continue reading
Lawfare: Disease Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment
Lawfare: Disease Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment by Alan Z. Rozenshtein (“Like governments around the world, the United States is struggling with the ‘coronavirus trilemma’: It wants to protect lives, ease social isolation, and protect privacy and civil liberties, but … Continue reading
DE: Roadblock to catch fleeing bank robbers was reasonable
Realtime GPS tracking information from a bank money pack taken in a bank robbery led police to a block in Wilmington, Delaware. It was reasonable for the police to cordon off the entire block and seize every car in it … Continue reading
MD: SW for car didn’t include cell phone in def’s pocket when stopped
The search warrant for defendant’s car was specific as to the car and it’s contents, but didn’t include a cell phone found in defendant’s pocket when the car was stopped. State v. Zadeh, 2020 Md. LEXIS 173 (Apr. 3, 2020).
E.D.Wash.: Seizure of e-mails between def and lawyer prior to adversary proceedings didn’t violate 6A
The seizure of defendant’s emails between him and his lawyer didn’t violate the Sixth Amendment when adversary proceedings had not yet begun – defendant wasn’t indicted for more than a year later. United States v. Smith, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA4: Police exceeding private search of a computer isn’t treated the same as other private searches
The police likely exceeded the private search of a computer, but the product will not be suppressed. A search warrant was issued, and the police relied on it in good faith. The private search doctrine as to computers is more … Continue reading
KY: After DL found suspended, stop can be extended
When defendant was stopped and found to have a suspended license, the normal incidents of a traffic stop are accordingly extended, and that didn’t make waiting for a drug dog unreasonable. Olmeda v. Commonwealth, 2020 Ky. App. LEXIS 40 (Apr. … Continue reading
CA11: Protective weapons search of car or an envelope in the car unjustified by any facts
A purported protective sweep of defendant’s car for a weapon was not justified by any facts, and neither was a search of an envelope which would hardly contain a weapon. Neither was there probable cause for the automobile exception. “In … Continue reading
CA8: Police looking at undercarriage of stopped car doesn’t require PC
The officer here had reasonable suspicion on the totality to extend the stop aside from the fact the two adults in the vehicle had no drivers licenses and the insurance card didn’t match them. The officer’s looking at the undercarriage … Continue reading
OH2: 911 call not anonymous for RS purposes because number captured
A 911 call wasn’t anonymous because the number called from was captured. “‘Some factors that significantly support the reliability of an anonymous tip include: “eyewitness knowledge”; a “contemporaneous report”; the fact that an event is startling; and use of the … Continue reading
CA6: While federal law requires RS for a supervised release search, it wasn’t error for district court here to permit suspicionless searches
District court did not plainly err in imposing a suspicionless search condition separate from federal law that normally requires reasonable suspicion. United States v. Sulik, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 10450 (6th Cir. Mar. 31, 2020). “Nothing in the record suggests … Continue reading
Cal.: Forgetting to take something under SW and getting another and coming back in days didn’t make it stale
Defendant’s alleged unlawful detention by the feds didn’t create a Fourth Amendment claim to suppress his statement to state officials while in custody. Police had at least four other ways to find defendant’s cell phone number, which they did to … Continue reading
SCOTUS: LPN check that comes back showing owner’s DL was revoked justifies a stop unless the officer has reason to believe the driver is not the owner
An LPN check that comes back showing owner’s DL was revoked justifies a stop unless the officer has reason to believe the driver is not the owner. Kansas v. Glover, 2020 U.S. LEXIS 2178 (Apr. 6, 2020):
Just Security: How Much Liberty Must We Give Up? A Constitutional Analysis of the Coronavirus Lockdown Proposals
Just Security: How Much Liberty Must We Give Up? A Constitutional Analysis of the Coronavirus Lockdown Proposals by Ahilan Arulanantham (“Benjamin Franklin once said that ‘those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Although stop might have been unreasonable, def fled from car and abandoned his drugs
Defendant’s stop likely was without reasonable suspicion, but he fled from the car after the stop and tossed a bag of drugs under another car. That was abandonment. United States v. Wilkins, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58058 (D.Mass. Apr. 2, … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Possession of an unauthorized smartphone was RS and justified its search
Possession of an unauthorized smartphone was a violation of defendant’s probation and provided reasonable suspicion for a search of the phone. Aside from the legitimate reasons for having a smartphone, “[c]onsidering that a smartphone is often used as an instrumentality … Continue reading