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- D.Mont.: 30-day delay in getting SW for seized storage building not unreasonable
- E.D.Cal.: Smell of MJ still PC in a California National Park even though not under state law
- CA10 dissent: Bivens on its last legs
- VA: Consent to look in backpack permitted search of pill bottle
- NY3: Warrantless arrest body cavity search was unreasonable
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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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (2012)
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Section 1983 Blog -
"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: July 2021
WaPo: Private Israeli spyware used to hack cellphones of journalists, activists worldwide
WaPo: Private Israeli spyware used to hack cellphones of journalists, activists worldwide by Dana Priest, Craig Timberg, and Souad Mekhennet (“NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, licensed to governments around the globe, can infect phones without a click”):
Vox: From Macy’s to Ace Hardware, facial recognition is already everywhere
Vox: From Macy’s to Ace Hardware, facial recognition is already everywhere by Rebecca Heilwell (“Facial recognition is popping up at our favorite stores, but customers are largely unaware.”)
Atlanta Black Star: ‘We Said No’: Los Angeles Officers Storm Black Couple’s Home Hours After They Refused a Blood Draw for Their Newborn Daughter Following a Home Birth
Atlanta Black Star: ‘We Said No’: Los Angeles Officers Storm Black Couple’s Home Hours After They Refused a Blood Draw for Their Newborn Daughter Following a Home Birth by Niara Savage (“A Black Los Angeles couple says officers stormed their … Continue reading
CT: Statutorily required HIV testing in sex case without showing of need violated state constitution
Compulsory HIV testing of a person accused in a sex crime violates the state constitution’s privacy and search and seizure provision. There is a lack of medical justification for it. State v. Bemer, 2021 Conn. LEXIS 205 (July 14, 2021). … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Pushing shopping cart at night with an ATM in it was RS
Defendants having an ATM machine in a shopping cart late at night during a BLM “disturbance” was reasonable suspicion. United States v. Pennycooke, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132128 (E.D. Pa. July 15, 2021).* Since defendant concedes there was probable cause … Continue reading
The Crime Report: How Civil Asset Forfeiture Turns Authorities into ‘Bounty Hunters’
The Crime Report: How Civil Asset Forfeiture Turns Authorities into ‘Bounty Hunters’ by Eva Herscowitz (“Civil asset forfeiture gives police officers the right to seize cash, cars and homes from people who haven’t been convicted of a crime, which is … Continue reading
CA7: Confrontation clause doesn’t apply in suppression hearings
The confrontation clause does not apply in suppression hearings. United States v. Bebris, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 20974 (7th Cir. July 15, 2021). The apartment’s search warrant was for evidence of drug sales from it. Those found there at the … Continue reading
CA9 & TX 11: Video of use of force shows it reasonable
“Here, viewing the sequence of events as depicted in the videotapes, we conclude that no material facts are in genuine dispute and that a reasonable factfinder would necessarily find that the officers’ use of force was objectively reasonable.” Amons v. … Continue reading
TN: AT&T’s requirement cell phone record SWs go through FL office doesn’t deprive court of jurisdiction
The fact AT&T wants cell phone search warrant for a Tennessee cell phone to be served at West Palm Beach, Florida for its convenience does not make the warrant without jurisdiction. The digital information could be accessed from anywhere, but … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Any RS was dispelled before stop
The officer may have had reasonable suspicion as he approached the defendant, but, as he got closer, suspicion was dispelled. No reasonable suspicion for the stop. Motion to suppress granted. United States v. Chavous, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131326 (E.D. … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Lev Parnas can’t get discovery of Rudy Giuliani search for his own emails
Lev Parnas seeks discovery of Rudy Giuliani’s later search warrant return for his own emails. Denied as cumulative. He already has them. United States v. Parnas, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131253 (S.D. N.Y. July 14, 2021).* Officers conducting the stop … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: 4A IAC claim fails for failing to show how outcome would change and because 4A wasn’t violated
“Movant argues that the warrantless search and seizure of the victim’s blood-stained clothing violated his Fourth Amendment rights and that his trial counsel’s failure to challenge the search and seizure was ineffective assistance because ‘there exists more than a reasonable … Continue reading
CA7: Extended pole camera surveillance not 4A violation
Extended pole camera surveillance not a Fourth Amendment violation. United States v. Tuggle, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 20841 (7th Cir. July 14, 2021). If you have a pole camera case, you need to read this. What follows is part of … Continue reading
CA6: Officer continuing a prosecution on false evidence states a § 1983 claim
“A reasonable jury could find that Deputy Edmonds’s post-arrest incident reports contained knowing or reckless falsehoods. Drawing all inferences in favor of Ernest, Deputy Edmonds knew that Ernest never pointed his gun at her and that Ernest did not know … Continue reading
NY2: Failure to object to SW papers admitted into evidence at trial was waiver
Failure to object to admission of the search warrant papers into evidence at trial was waiver. People v. Mack, 2021 NY Slip Op 04377, 2021 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4456 (2d Dept. July 14, 2021).* “The Supreme Court reversed our … Continue reading
OR: History of drug possession and admission to recent use not RS for person or car
“Defendant’s history of drug possession together with his acknowledgement of recent drug use do not give rise to reasonable grounds to request his consent to search his person or his car at the time of the stop. The state failed … Continue reading
NJ: “Red flag” petition denial reversed for lack of findings
Denial of red flag petition reversed for lack of findings. “The Extreme Risk Protective Order Act of 2018 (the Act), New Jersey’s ‘red flag law,’ empowers a court to remove firearms from a person who ‘poses a significant danger of … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: “Hot watch” order for real time travel information isn’t disclosable yet; matter still under investigation
The government made an “Application request[ing] an order compelling Sabre, a travel technology firm, ‘to provide representatives of the FBI complete and contemporaneous ‘real time’ account activity’ for an individual subject to an arrest warrant—what the government refers to as … Continue reading
LA5: Chain of custody issue after search isn’t a motion to suppress issue
A chain of custody dispute from a search isn’t proper in a motion to suppress. That’s a trial issue. State v. Mackey, 2021 La. App. LEXIS 1068 (La. App. 5 Cir. July 12, 2021). “Plaintiff Sally Gaetjens sued various local … Continue reading
CA2: Parole search valid under “special needs” even without RS
The parole search here lacked reasonable suspicion, but it was justified by the special needs exception to the warrant requirement. “Because a search undertaken by a parole officer of a parolee to detect parole violations is ‘reasonably related to the … Continue reading