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Recent Posts
- LA4: Merely having a concealed firearm isn’t RS for a frisk
- OR: Merely driving off the road wasn’t RS, but adding the driver’s demeanor at the time was
- OH6: Trial court’s failure to explain RS under Rodriguez required remand
- CA6: Asking def before a patdown during arrest what he had on him wasn’t barred by Miranda
- NY Queens: PC shown for SW blood drawn at hospital after car wreck
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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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--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (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: April 2021
IA: Officer’s complying with 4A is not an element of the underlying crime for the jury
The officer’s complying with the Fourth Amendment in the stop and arrest is not an element of defendant’s crime [or any crime]. State v. Chivalan, 2021 Iowa App. LEXIS 381 (Apr. 28, 2021) [one can, in some cases, get an … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: A tiny scrap of mj in a trash pull doesn’t support an inference of drug dealing from the house
“Detective Aldridge could not reasonably have believed that the three tiny scraps of marijuana in the trash—unable to cover even a corner of a Post-it note [actually a stem; photo included]—could support the idea of ongoing or recurrent activity in … Continue reading
CA4: Trash container in open at curb was not on curtilage under Dunn factors
Trash at the curb for pickup was not on the curtilage under Dunn. The area was wide open. United States v. Lipford, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 12697 (4th Cir. Apr. 28, 2021). Factual disputes aside, this much is undisputed: “The … Continue reading
MD: Smell of mj isn’t RS
With recreational marijuana in Maryland, the smell of marijuana alone is not reasonable suspicion. In re D.D., 2021 Md. App. LEXIS 353 (Apr. 28, 2021):
WI: Burning mj in a house is exigency of evidence being destroyed by burning
The smell of burning marijuana is exigent circumstances because the contraband is being destroyed by burning. State v. B.W.R., 2021 Wisc. App. LEXIS 201 (Apr. 28, 2021) (unpublished). Under Birchfield, “An increased penalty for the warrantless blood draw refusal revocation … Continue reading
IL: 16 month delay in getting SW for cell phone in police custody unreasonable
Police waiting 16 months to get a search warrant for defendant’s cell phone already in their custody was unreasonable. People v. Meakens, 2021 IL App (2d) 180991, 2021 Ill. App. LEXIS 212 (Apr. 27, 2021). The trial court erred in … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Database information linking def to a car linked to a crime can be PC
Database information linking defendant to a car linked to a crime can be probable cause. United States v. White, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 80608 (S.D. N.Y. Apr. 27, 2021):
CA10: PC doesn’t need to be decided where GFE would apply; overbroad SWs are severed
Probable cause does not have to be decided where the good faith exception would apply. The warrant was for firearm evidence and had a cell phone search provision. If the cell phone provision was overbroad, that should be severed and … Continue reading
Brennan Center: The Government Can’t Seize Your Digital Data. Except by Buying It.
Brennan Center: The Government Can’t Seize Your Digital Data. Except by Buying It. by Elizabeth Goitein. Despite Carpenter:
DE: Def had no standing to complain where govt actor entered neighbor’s property to look at his
Plaintiff had no standing to challenge a government actor’s entry into his neighbor’s property to look at his. McCafferty v. New Castle County Bd. of License, 2021 Del. Super. LEXIS 343 (Apr. 26, 2021). No matter how the court views … Continue reading
CA7: Pre-Carpenter real time CSLI tracking def on streets to locate him before he committed another robbery was not unreasonable
The fact officers had probable cause to arrest is considered in determining good faith. In addition, “To conclude, we hold that Detective Ghiringhelli did not conduct a Fourth Amendment ‘search’ by requesting the real-time CSLI of a suspect for multiple … Continue reading
MD: Not IAC for defense counsel to confirm witness testimony before filing motion to suppress; which here didn’t matter
Defendant contended the search of his place was before the warrant issued at 12:01 am March 1st. It was not ineffective assistance for counsel to attempt to talk to witnesses before filing a motion to suppress. Even if the police … Continue reading
MD: Anonymous DWI tip was specific and supported stop on a liquor store parking lot
“Considering the totality of the circumstances, the officers had reasonable suspicion to suspect that the defendant was engaged in drunk driving. The anonymous 911 call had sufficient indicia of reliability—the tipster alleging the drunk driving provided the make, model, and … Continue reading
D.Vt.: Apt building parking lot not curtilage; def’s girlfriend was private searcher
Defendant’s vehicle was in an apartment building parking lot, and that’s not curtilage. There was also probable cause to search it and it was mobile. Defendant’s cell phone was privately seized from his vehicle and turned over to police by … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Def’s clothes in ER as a shooting victim were in plain view for police seizure
Defendant was in an emergency room having been shot. Having presented himself for medical treatment, his bloody clothes were cut off him, and they were reasonably seized by law enforcement officers when they were seen in plain view in white … Continue reading
MI: Anonymous tip for def’s stop was uncorroborated and unreasonable
The officer stopping defendant’s vehicle lacked reasonable suspicion that defendant was engaged in criminal activity based on an anonymous tip. Even assuming that the tipster was reliable led only to the conclusion that defendant appeared to be obnoxious and was … Continue reading
NYT: Court Chides F.B.I., but Re-Approves Warrantless Surveillance Program
NYT: Court Chides F.B.I., but Re-Approves Warrantless Surveillance Program by Charlie Savage (“Newly disclosed episodes in which analysts improperly searched for data about Americans largely came before changes at the bureau.”)
NYT: Split-Second Decisions: How a Supreme Court Case Shaped Modern Policing
NYT: Split-Second Decisions: How a Supreme Court Case Shaped Modern Policing by David D. Kirkpatrick (“Officers using deadly force rely on a legal doctrine set forth decades ago. Now, the movement launched by the death of George Floyd is trying … Continue reading