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Recent Posts
- MA: Cell phone call logs don’t require a search warrant
- D.Kan.: Drug dog touching car door handle with nose isn’t unreasonable search
- D.N.M.: DEA’s failure to make a detailed inventory in violation of policy doesn’t require exclusion of evidence
- WaPo: These cities bar facial recognition tech. Police still found ways to access it.
- C.D.Cal.: SW materials in case with weighty public interest ordered unsealed
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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,
citations, and links -
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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)
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Monthly Archives: August 2020
OH2: Conduct two days before seeing defendant on street justified stop
The officer’s conclusion that the car associated with defendant had fled from him two days earlier had support in the record, and there was reasonable suspicion for the stop. State v. Stanton, 2020-Ohio-4087, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 2978 (2d Dist. … Continue reading
W.D.La.: Furtive conduct before getting in car justified stop of car
Defendant’s furtive activity before the stop observed on a parking lot and during the stop was reasonable suspicion. United States v. Pierre, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147127 (W.D. La. July 17, 2020).* Defendant admitted to there being drugs in the … Continue reading
OH6: Def’s neighbor was citizen informant in reporting seeing him looking at CP through an open window
Defendant’s neighbor could see him from his house masturbating to child pornography. He called the police and the police corroborated it but walked on the curtilage, too. The neighbor was shown as a confidential informant but was really a citizen … Continue reading
MD: Defense counsel in drug case had conflict of interest in representing police officer in a divorce case who arrested and searched client and the search wasn’t contested
Defense counsel had a conflict of interest where he represented both a drug case client and the police officer who arrested and searched him and his cell phone. Defendant made a sufficient showing of actual prejudice to warrant a new … Continue reading
CA6: No 4A right to recording testimony that supplements affidavit, but there’s got to be a record
The state judge who issued the search warrant was a neutral and detached magistrate under the Fourth Amendment. Whether the magistrate had state law jurisdiction is a kind of circular argument under state law, but the Fourth Amendment only requires … Continue reading
CA11: Questions unrelated to the stop unreasonably extended it, but it complied with law at time, so GFE applies
The officer’s questions here about what was in the car were unnecessary and unreasonably added 25 seconds to the stop. They were, however, before Rodriguez was decided [but what about Caballes?] and complied with the law in effect at the … Continue reading
CA2: Ebola quarantine order is entitled to QI under the 4A essentially for lack of a case on point
An Ebola quarantine order is entitled to qualified immunity under the Fourth Amendment essentially for lack of a case on point that it could be unreasonable. Liberian Cmty. Ass’n of Conn. v. Lamont, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 25804 (2d Cir. … Continue reading
Cal.: Defense has to put state on notice of issues in motion to suppress
When the defense makes a motion to suppress, it is obligated to put the state on notice as to all the issues. This suppression hearing took nine days, and still the defense claims the state didn’t fully get the issues. … Continue reading
Cal.: PC shown for SW for murder crime scene
The affidavit for the search warrant of a trailer and curtilage as a crime scene showed probable cause to believe evidence could be there. People v. Suarez, 2020 Cal. LEXIS 5355 (Aug. 13, 2020). Defendant’s appeal raised a substantial question … Continue reading
Cal.: Defense SDT for Facebook account of shooting victim remanded for reconsideration under standards of state constitution of victim’s privacy rights
In a California specific holding, a criminal defense subpoena to Facebook for a shooting victim’s Facebook account (private and public) made enough of a sufficient showing of necessity to get a remand for consideration of the factors that justify intrusion … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: PC supports arrest even if officer cites wrong statute
It doesn’t matter that the officer didn’t cite the right offense as long as the facts of probable cause support any offense. United States v. Simmons, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 145562 (N.D. Ga. June 15, 2020):
NY1: Failure to get a ruling on search issue in trial court is waiver
Failure to get a ruling on a search claim in the trial court is waiver of the issue for appeal. People v. Collins, 2020 NY Slip Op 04517, 2020 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4610 (1st Dept. Aug. 13, 2020). Drug … Continue reading
WaPo: Ex-FBI lawyer, accused of falsifying document in probe of Trump’s campaign, to plead guilty
WaPo: Ex-FBI lawyer, accused of falsifying document in probe of Trump’s campaign, to plead guilty by Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett:
E.D.Cal.: SI for a bicycle riding infraction is unjustified
Defendant was lawfully stopped for riding his bicycle on the sidewalk over a bridge, but it was only an infraction and a search incident was unreasonable. United States v. Harris, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 145000 (E.D. Cal. Aug. 12, 2020). … Continue reading
CA6: Alleged false statement to get an arrest warrant overcame QI
Alleged false statement to get an arrest warrant overcame qualified immunity. Tlapanco v. Elges, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 25595 (6th Cir. Aug. 12, 2020). The state failed to show exigent circumstances excused obtaining a search warrant for defendant’s BAC. Commonwealth … Continue reading
CA3: FBI notice of being “armed and dangerous” justified stop and furtive movement a frisk
“Here, McKee testified that the FBI notice describing Robinson stated that he was armed and dangerous. McKee also testified that Robinson failed to comply with his first order to put his hands up and kept reaching for his waistband. These … Continue reading
FL3: Some discretion in the seizing officers as to what should be seized was not unreasonable or a lack of particularity
Some discretion in the seizing officers as to what should be seized was not unreasonable or a lack of particularity. An unfilled-in blank on the warrant didn’t make it vague, either. Also, defendant waived his probable cause argument on appeal … Continue reading
OH5: 911 call of man carrying long gun on street wasn’t RS
Police received a 911 call that a man was carrying an “AK”-like long gun, hiding from passersby, and was apparently going to rob a store. Defendant was encountered openly carrying a gun, legal conduct, but he wasn’t hiding because the … Continue reading