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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)
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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 2022
Reason: Faulty Police Field Tests Said This Trucker Was Carrying 700 Gallons of Meth. It Was Diesel.
Reason: Faulty Police Field Tests Said This Trucker Was Carrying 700 Gallons of Meth. It Was Diesel. by Ed Ciaramella (“Juan Guzman spent nearly six weeks in jail based on unreliable field tests that have resulted in hundreds of other … Continue reading
WY: Flight broke any causal connection between unlawful stop and later search of person
Evidence supporting defendant’s charges was admissible under the attenuation doctrine. His flight and the circumstances surrounding his flight broke the causal connection between the alleged unlawful police conduct and the evidence supporting his charges. Also, where the trial court denied … Continue reading
CA6: All family members have common authority over common areas of the house
All family members have common authority over common areas of the house. United States v. Campany, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 9518 (6th Cir. Apr. 8, 2022). Defendant’s Franks claim for ineffective assistance of counsel fails for failing to show what … Continue reading
CA9: PC of digital theft from Microsoft by employee also led to his home computer
There was probable cause to believe that defendant’s home computer would have evidence of his $10m digital theft from Microsoft from when he worked there. United States v. Kvashuk, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 8275 (9th Cir. Mar. 28, 2022).* There … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Def’s delay on his own paperwork extended the stop
The stop was reasonably extended by the passenger’s not providing paperwork timely and in giving apparently false information. United States v. Wise, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65558 (D.S.D. Apr. 8, 2022).* There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop. “The totality … Continue reading
D.N.J.: That officers could have investigated more isn’t a Franks violation
“None of these allegations is sufficient to warrant a Franks hearing either. At bottom, Rodriguez is merely criticizing the tactics employed by the police during their investigation. See United States v. Swanson, 210 F.3d 788, 791 (7th Cir. 2000) (explaining … Continue reading
CA4: The fact a traffic stop could have been more efficient doesn’t mean it was otherwise unreasonable
“In sum, though the stop could have been shorter (and begun more efficiently), it wasn’t impermissibly prolonged. Marcel and Haigler’s actions were reasonably related to investigating an expired license plate. And this basis for the stop quickly mushroomed into other … Continue reading
D.D.C.: SW not needed to search seized oligarch’s yacht in foreign port
A warrant for search of a Russian oligarch’s seized yacht under sanctions for the Ukraine invasion is denied as probably unnecessary. “The Fourth Amendment does not apply to the search and seizure of property owned by a nonresident alien located … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: Officer’s testimony of traffic offense wasn’t believed based on his words on video
“Considering the totality of the circumstances, the Court finds that Phillips’ testimony that he observed a lane violation prior to initiating a traffic stop is not credible. The only evidence tending to support the commission of a traffic violation is … Continue reading
CA6: Failure to file state SW papers with clerk not 4A violation
Failure to file the state search warrant papers with the state clerk under state law is not a Fourth Amendment violation. United States v. Baker, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 9315 (6th Cir. Apr. 5, 2022). The signed affidavit being incorporated … Continue reading
MA: Dog alert to buttocks PC for strip search
After witnessing suspicious movement, and observing white powder on the vehicle dashboard where defendant had been sitting, police had probable cause to arrest defendant on drug charges and consequently were justified in conducting a search of the defendant incident to … Continue reading
Rawstory: ‘Outrageous’: Judges slam FBI for not breaking down rich suspect’s front door to preserve ‘aesthetics’
Rawstory: ‘Outrageous’: Judges slam FBI for not breaking down rich suspect’s front door to preserve ‘aesthetics’ by Matthew Chapman (argument video, too):
W.D.Ky.: Crime victim with animosity toward def is not unreliable CI just because of that
A crime victim isn’t unreliable for informant hearsay just because of animosity toward the defendant. United States v. Collins, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63999 (W.D.Ky. Feb. 7, 2022). The trial court erred in finding defendant’s consent to a blood draw … Continue reading
VA: Firefighters could call ME and police for dead body
When firefighters entered defendant’s property in response to a fire call, they found a body. It was within the scope of the fire entry to call the police and medical examiner. “Thus, all that the firefighters observed was no longer … Continue reading
OR: Officer’s conclusion def violated traffic law here not reasonable
The officer’s conclusion defendant violated a traffic law here wasn’t a reasonable conclusion, and the motion to suppress should have been granted. State v. Brown, 318 Ore. App. 713, 2022 Ore. App. LEXIS 585 (Apr. 6, 2022). A named CI’s … Continue reading
CA3: “[R]easonableness [of force] under the Fourth Amendment should frequently remain a question for the jury”
“Given the totality of the circumstances, the District Court erred in concluding as a matter of law that the use of force was objectively reasonable. See Giles v. Kearney, 571 F.3d 318, 327 n.4 (3d Cir. 2009) (denying summary judgment … Continue reading
NJ: Destruction of recording of telephonic SW application requires suppression
State’s destruction of recording of a telephonic warrant application for weapons in a domestic violence case leads to suppression of the search in New Jersey. The prejudice to defendant is because he can’t now challenge the search without it. State … Continue reading
Another crime leads to more surveillance
The Hill: Former federal prosecutor says Jan. 6 led to FBI increasing surveillance of American public by Brad Dress (“Journalist and former federal prosecutor Ankush Khardori on Wednesday contended that the events of January 6 have led to the increased … Continue reading
Crime Report: Installing a Security Camera? In Chicago That Will Earn $$$
Crime Report: Installing a Security Camera? In Chicago That Will Earn $$$ by TCR staff (“Chicago authorities have announced a new program that reimburses residents and businesses for installing security cameras. There’s one caveat: the cameras must be registered with … Continue reading