Archives
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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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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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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)
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Monthly Archives: April 2022
CA8: Court can consider GFE rather than decide PC
“‘[T]his Court ‘may consider the applicability of the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule,’ without addressing whether probable cause exists.” Here, there was enough to likely show probable cause so the officer reasonably believed in the validity of the warrant. … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: No blanket rule passengers can be asked pedigree questions during traffic stop
There is no blanket rule that passengers in a traffic stop can be asked their pedigree information. The cases the government rely on are pre-Rodriguez and of no real value. Here, those questions extended the stop. United States v. Wright, … Continue reading
CA11: QI for officers sued in Florida spa video surveillance case
Plaintiff’s § 1983 case over the video surveillance in the East Sea Spa case (see here) fails on qualified immunity for lack of clearly established law. Thompson v. Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 10266 (11th Cir. … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: USDJ doesn’t second guess USMJ’s credibility determinations in the R&R
USDJ doesn’t second guess USMJ’s credibility determinations in the R&R on a motion to suppress. United States v. Bowman, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69156 (E.D.Tenn. Apr. 14, 2022).* A bag left outdoors at an apartment complex for more than a … Continue reading
Kansas Reflector: Kansas law enforcement routinely produces error-filled reports on seized cash and property
Kansas Reflector (via Rawstory): Kansas law enforcement routinely produces error-filled reports on seized cash and property by Duane Schrag:
E.D.Ark.: City’s court order made clean up and removal of ptf’s property reasonable
Plaintiff was told for years to clean up his property from unsightly construction materials and equipment. After many failed efforts to get him to do so, the city obtained a court order to remove the property. It removed nine trailerloads … Continue reading
Cal.1: Being “under investigation” for something else and then being in a “high crime area” is not RS
Being “under investigation” for some crime and then being seen in a “high crime area” is not reasonable suspicion. “And ‘a person’s Fourth Amendment rights cannot be lessened simply because he or she is “under investigation” by the police. Just … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Empty sandwich bag in car not subject to plain view; incriminating nature not immediately apparent
The government failed to establish reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop on an anonymous tip where nothing of substance was furnished contrary to Navarette. Moreover, it wasn’t immediately apparent an empty sandwich bag in the car was incriminating for plain view. … Continue reading
OR: A metal box next to def when stopped was subject to search incident here
Even under Oregon’s restrictive search incident doctrine, the search of a metal box next to defendant was reasonable. She was suspected of stealing from a Salvation Army donations trailer when she was stopped. Practically anything in her vehicle looked like … Continue reading
Three on Franks
This Franks argument fails. “Here, there is no indication that any false statement was intentionally, or with reckless disregard for the truth, included in the affidavit. Even assuming the information provided by the CI was false or misleading, there is … Continue reading
MT: Magistrate’s jurisdiction for SW is over place it could be found, not crime
The geographic limitation on magistrates issuing search warrants applies to the location of the evidence sought, not the location of the crime. State v. Grussing, 2022 MT 76, 2022 Mont. LEXIS 319 (Apr. 12, 2022). The telecommunication records here could … Continue reading
CA3: Police created exigency during stop not justification to extend it
Police can detour from the mission of a traffic stop to investigate other crimes just because the stop is in a high crime area, but they can’t use that to create exigency that doesn’t exist as to this defendant. United … Continue reading
CA10: Def’s actions were completely consistent with innocence and did not add up to RS
The officer did not have reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop or its continuation. Defendant’s actions were consistent with somebody who had nothing to hide, and the district court’s findings got no presumption of correctness. Denial of the suppression motion reversed. … Continue reading
WaPo: No-knock raids have led to fatal encounters and small drug seizures
WaPo: No-knock raids have led to fatal encounters and small drug seizures by Nicole Dungca and Jenn Abelson WaPo: What to know about no-knock warrants by Courtney Kan (“Amir Locke and Breonna Taylor were killed while police executed no-knock warrants. … Continue reading
NPR: WNYC: The Takeaway: How Crime, Technology, and Civil Liberties Collide Through Geofence Warrants
NPR: WNYC: The Takeaway: How Crime, Technology, and Civil Liberties Collide Through Geofence Warrants (“Last month, a federal judge in Richmond, Virginia ruled that the use of a geofence warrant to make an arrest in a robbery case was unconstitutional … Continue reading
CNS: St. Louis County defends wanted alert system at Eighth Circuit
CNS: St. Louis County defends wanted alert system at Eighth Circuit (“The system allows police officers to issue alerts for suspects based on their own probable cause without having a judge sign off on a warrant.”)
NM: Motion to suppress checkpoint stop too general to put state on notice
“We conclude Defendant’s motion was insufficiently particular to alert the metropolitan court or State that the grounds for suppressing evidence related to the checkpoint’s illegality.” “Defendant’s motion, rather, was based upon the State lacking reasonable suspicion to detain Defendant. The … Continue reading
OH: Material witness warrant requires PC
“Based on the language in the [Fourth Amendment] and Ohio Constitutions, we now hold that material witnesses are entitled to these basic, fundamental rights and therefore agree with the Eighth District that the state’s request for a warrant to detain … Continue reading
Officers engage in small talk to see if RS develops
“The Court finds this stop was constitutional. There was reasonable suspicion that justified the prolonged detention. The arresting officer, Texas Department of Public Safety State Trooper John Loftin, developed reasonable suspicion during the course of the stop. The driver of … Continue reading