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- W.D.Ark.: Parole search waiver moots lack of PC argument
- AR: RS shown for boating while intoxicated stop
- W.D.Mo.: Wrong address in SW wasn’t fatal where right house was searched
- NY: Failure to show independent source for officer’s observation of def required reversal
- VA: Outline of a gun in def’s pocket was RS
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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: March 2022
Denver7: Federal jury awards $14 million to protesters injured in 2020 demonstrations in Denver
Denver7: Federal jury awards $14 million to protesters injured in 2020 demonstrations in Denver (“Jury finds First, Fourth amendment violations of protesters by police”)
NM: Social media platforms reporting to NCMEC are reliable informants
Social media providers sent suspected child pornography to NCMEC, and they were reliable informants. “The State appeals the district court’s grant of Defendant James Henz’s motion to suppress child pornography found in the search of his home, arguing that the … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Def doesn’t show a right to see whether the SW in his case was validly issued; that’s the lawyer’s call; and he pled guilty
“Petitioner alleges that Attorney Greene failed to present critical documents for Petitioner’s review prior to his guilty plea. Petitioner contends that he should have been shown ‘evidence of there being a valid search warrant,’ ‘computer chat logs where the government … Continue reading
OR: Questions unrelated to stop unreasonably extended it
“At the outset of the stop, West asked defendant a series of questions: (1) ‘Do you live in this area?’; (2) ‘What are you doing up here?’; (3) ‘Where are you coming from today?’; and (4) if West could see … Continue reading
CA2: Swearing to arrest warrant at direction of a prosecutor does not confer prosecutorial immunity
“Long-standing precedent makes clear that swearing to an arrest warrant affidavit and executing an arrest are traditional police functions, and performing such functions at the direction of a prosecutor does not transform them into prosecutorial acts protected by absolute immunity.” … Continue reading
D.Mass.: The drug/currency courier profile is back
United States v. $48,940 in United States Currency, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51246 (D.Mass. Mar. 22, 2022):
PA: Warrantless entry to arrest for DUI here was unreasonable; no exigency
A warrantless entry into defendant’s house because he’d been driving drunk was unreasonable. “Considering all the foregoing, we do not believe the Roland factors weigh in favor of an exigency here. Police were investigating a suspected drunk driver and nothing … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Inevitable discovery cures otherwise unreasonable inventory
“The search here was generally unreasonable, but it was saved by inevitable discovery. “In the present case, the Government does not contend that Hobbs had probable cause to search Defendant’s vehicle. Hobbs did not have a warrant. His search was … Continue reading
NY: No-knock warrant execution creates “special duty” for NY negligence law
For purposes of NY negligence law, execution of a no-knock warrant creates a “special duty” between the police and the public. Ferreira v. City of Binghamton, 2022 NY Slip Op 01953, 2022 N.Y. LEXIS 392 (Mar. 22, 2022):
D.Guam: Issuing magistrate’s later recusal for knowing target’s dad doesn’t show he wasn’t neutral and detached
After search warrant was issued, the issuing magistrate recused from the rest of the matter because defendant’s father was a longstanding employee of the court. There apparently was no relationship with defendant. This did not present a constitutional problem for … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Traffic stop devolving into investigation of violation of parole conditions was without RS
“The Court finds that Chronister unlawfully prolonged the traffic stop by pursuing an investigation into whether or not Lewis was in violation of his parole conditions.” “The Court finds that Chronister did not believe at the time of the traffic … Continue reading
E.D.Wash.: Tribal membership confers no standing; Art. III standing isn’t 4A standing
Tribal membership confers no standing. “Article III standing is not Fourth Amendment standing, and Defendants’ argument that the Confederated Tribes [and Bands of Yakima Nation v. Yakima County, 963 F.3d 982 (9th Cir. 2020)] decision, by negative implication, means that … Continue reading
Not being candid about the SW or affidavit in the motion to suppress isn’t good for the defense
“Moreover, even if Defendant is correct that SAPD lacked probable cause to search his vehicle, a motion to suppress is unlikely to succeed. Defendant focuses on one paragraph of the search warrant affidavits and ignores the other four paragraphs detailing … Continue reading
CA8: SW not needed for parked car just driven there
A dog alert on a parked Yukon did not require a search warrant before the search. It was parked on the property of a storage facility, and it was just driven to that spot while officers were getting a warrant … Continue reading
WaPo: Cellphone dragnets can help catch criminals. Judges say they can also violate constitutional rights.
WaPo: Cellphone dragnets can help catch criminals. Judges say they can also violate constitutional rights. By Justin Jouvenal & Rachel Weiner (“Police requests for ‘geofence’ data showing active cellphones near crime scenes have skyrocketed.”)
D.D.C.: No RS for sniff of luggage carried by Amtrak passenger
On the whole, there wasn’t reasonable suspicion for the dog sniff of the luggage they were carrying. Moreover, the court does not find they consented to it. The court declines to credit the testimony of the officer about nervousness and … Continue reading
CA9: Two on QI: pepper spraying and Tasering
Officer denied qualified immunity for pepper-spraying a non-violent protester in the face. “In sum, every reasonable officer had notice at the time of the incident that, if reasonable alternatives are available, even in somewhat chaotic circumstances, he or she cannot … Continue reading
IA: Boilerplate language alone in an affidavit for SW does not establish nexus
Boilerplate language alone in an affidavit for warrant does not establish nexus. State v. Bracy, 2022 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 29 (Mar. 18, 2022) (citing § 6.14 of Treatise (§ 3:13 of 3d ed.). Omitting a CI’s criminal history from the … Continue reading
NY Co.: SW for cell phone without time limitation was unreasonable
One search warrant for searching defendant’s phone with Cellebrite was without time limitation and was overbroad. People v. Gonzalez, 2022 NY Slip Op 22074, 2022 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 928 (N.Y.Co. Mar. 7, 2022). Defendant claimed his jail calls after 48 … Continue reading