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Recent Posts
- 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
- WaPo: Apple, Google and Venmo fight new U.S. plan to monitor payment apps
- CA4: Tracking order using cell site simulator with PC was reasonable
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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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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: September 2020
CA5: When multiple SW applications were presented together, the others supported a “sparse” one
One affidavit of many involving the multiple search warrants presented at the same time was “sparse” but the issuing magistrate could rely on the totality. Reversed and remanded, however, for a Franks review which the district court declined to do. … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Def’s “Twitter page is rife with references to drug dealing and weapon possession” and that was PC
Defendant’s “Twitter page is rife with references to drug dealing and weapon possession. Lewis’ prior relationship with Doaty, coupled with Doaty’s own statements, corroborated her information and made it sufficiently reliable to justify a search of his vehicle.” It was … Continue reading
D.Kan.: USMJ there properly issued SW for Dropbox account in California
Jurisdiction for search warrants in federal court is over the offense. Thus, a USMJ could sign a search warrant for a Dropbox account in California under the SCA. United States v. Hopkins, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 173418 (D. Kan. Sept. … Continue reading
GA: Tracking stolen cell phone by its find phone app resulted in unlawful entry onto curtilage
Defendant is accused of robbery including stealing a cell phone which was tracked to his house by the find phone app. When police arrived, they found the vehicle described by the victim, and they entered the curtilage without a warrant. … Continue reading
CA8: Def’s pickup truck was involved in a shooting, and the officers developed PC that evidence would be in it or his house where it was parked
Surveillance video at the scene gave probable cause to believe that defendant’s pickup truck was involved in a shooting, and other physical evidence of the shooting hadn’t yet been found. “The address for Flournoy and Davis was a different unit … Continue reading
MN: McNeely retroactive where properly pled
“We also conclude that McNeely applies retroactively to Edwards’s test-refusal conviction. Finally, we conclude that the postconviction court erred when it failed to follow the heightened pleading requirement and burden-shifting procedure set out in Fagin. We therefore reverse the postconviction … Continue reading
D.Me.: Admittedly valid state SW for drug evidence on phone led to finding CP and a valid federal SW
Officers got a state search warrant for defendant’s cell phone for drugs and stumbled upon child pornography otherwise linked to him by his tattoos and voice. He admits the warrant was valid for drugs. A later federal search warrant was … Continue reading
TX14: No justification for warrantless seizure of cell phone for fear of deleting its contents
Officers lacked any justification to believe that defendant was deleting or was going to delete evidence from his cell phone to justify a warrantless seizure of the phone in a robbery case. Igboji v. State, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 7647 … Continue reading
IL: Simple question during SW execution about whether def had been subjected to a SW before wasn’t interrogation where he volunteered where a gun was
A question to defendant during execution of a search warrant whether he’d been the target of a search warrant before led to an incriminating and unsolicited response about a gun that would not be suppressed. He wasn’t being interrogated. Therefore, … Continue reading
LATimes: Despite past denials, LAPD has used facial recognition software 30,000 times in last decade, records show
LATimes: Despite past denials, LAPD has used facial recognition software 30,000 times in last decade, records show by Kevin Rector & Richard Winton (“The Los Angeles Police Department has used facial recognition software nearly 30,000 times since 2009, with hundreds … Continue reading
CA9: Transcript of interaction at door during knock-and-talk was admissible
“Moore contends that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress the transcript of a conversation he had with FBI agents, which he alleges was the product of a warrantless search and seizure in violation of the Fourth … Continue reading
OH11: Police chase after bank robbery led to def’s house and RS for his stop
Officers had reasonable suspicion for stopping defendant for suspicion of being involved in a bank robbery. Police gave chase but lost him, but only after catching his license plate number. They went to his house and waited for him to … Continue reading
techdirt: Fourth Circuit Appeals Court Seems Skeptical That Baltimore’s Aerial Surveillance System Violates The Fourth Amendment
techdirt: Fourth Circuit Appeals Court Seems Skeptical That Baltimore’s Aerial Surveillance System Violates The Fourth Amendment by Tim Cushing (“The legal fight over Baltimore’s aerial surveillance system continues. Airplanes armed with powerful cameras fly constantly over the city, allowing law … Continue reading
St. Louis Public Radio: Baltimore’s Aerial Surveillance Could Offer Preview For St. Louis
St. Louis Public Radio: Baltimore’s Aerial Surveillance Could Offer Preview For St. Louis by Emily Woodbury (“Last October on St. Louis on the Air, the CEO of the Ohio-based company Persistent Surveillance Systems described his wish to bring the company’s … Continue reading
CBS4 Miami: New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Wants Massage Parlor Videos Destroyed
CBS4 Miami: New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Wants Massage Parlor Videos Destroyed (“New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft says he wants a judge to destroy the controversial spa recordings that landed him with prostitution charges. Kraft’s legal team called … Continue reading
CA11: Without Carpenter having already been made retroactive, it can’t support a successor habeas
Without Carpenter having already been made retroactive, it can’t support a successor habeas. In re Toth, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 29956 (11th Cir. Sept. 18, 2020). The record supports the district court’s conclusion defendant consented to the search of his … Continue reading
CNS: Seventh Circuit Examines Lifetime GPS Tracking of Sex Offender
CNS: Seventh Circuit Examines Lifetime GPS Tracking of Sex Offenders by Joe Kelly (“The Seventh Circuit on Friday weighed the intrusiveness of a Wisconsin statute that institutes lifetime GPS monitoring of certain convicted sex offenders against the necessity of preventing … Continue reading
DE: “Being advised of potential lawful authority is not a violation of Fourth Amendment Rights.”
“Advising a person of legitimate consequences [of a BAC test] is not considered coercion. Being advised of potential lawful authority is not a violation of Fourth Amendment Rights.” State v. Street, 2020 Del. Super. LEXIS 2791 (Sept. 17, 2020). When … Continue reading
NJLJ: Analysis: Give Us Your Cell Phone Password and Constitutional Rights, Please
NJLJ: Analysis: Give Us Your Cell Phone Password and Constitutional Rights, Please by Louis Locascio (“The issue, of first impression, was whether requiring a defendant to disclose the passcode of his cell phone violates his protection against self-incrimination provided by … Continue reading
CT Tax & Admin.: Order to DoC employees to search their cell phones for public records was excessive
An agency order to employees to search their personal cell phones for copies of public records is in excess of agency authority. Comm’r of the Dep’t of Corr. v. Freedom of Info. Comm’n, 2020 Conn. Super. LEXIS 1004 (Tax & … Continue reading