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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: July 2022
NE: State showed exigency for warrantless blood draw
Driver’s going in and out of consciousness at the scene of a wreck was probable cause for a blood draw. Medical treatment at ER would interfere with it. “This case presents a textbook case of exigent circumstances under Mitchell.” State … Continue reading
D.N.M.: SW for computer files created in a one week period was particular
The warrant here was for computer files created in a one week period. That was particular. United States v. Riego, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130233 (D.N.M. July 22, 2022). The district court’s findings of fact support the finding of exigent … Continue reading
CA6: Sex offender’s being around children justified parole search of house
A report that a sex offender had been around children is reasonable suspicion for a parole search of his house. United States v. Sharp, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 20291 (6th Cir. July 22, 2022). “Davis contends that the search was … Continue reading
S.D.Iowa: Video surveillance of an apartment door from a camera planted in a common area was subject to GFE
Officers planted a video camera hidden in a fake fire alarm in defendant’s apartment building hallway aimed at his door to record his comings and goings. The government argues whether this was reasonable doesn’t need to be decided because, even … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Saying police couldn’t search when it hadn’t yet come up was part of PC on totality
Defendant was stopped for an LPN that didn’t match the vehicle. Defendant’s name came back as having 20 felonies, and the officer recognized him from arresting him for drugs two weeks earlier. Before any officer mentioned searching the vehicle, defendant … Continue reading
CA9: While RS for owner evaporated because he wasn’t in car, independent RS developed for driver
The officer had reasonable suspicion that the owner of a vehicle parked at a gas station had a warrant. When he stopped the vehicle, the officer discovered that the owner of the vehicle was not there, but independent reasonable suspicion … Continue reading
CA8: Vehicle inventory after arrest on outstanding warrant was reasonable
Defendant was arrested by tribal and federal officers on an outstanding warrant. The inventory search of his vehicle thereafter followed policy and was reasonable. United States v. Blacksmith, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 20084 (8th Cir. July 21, 2022).* “Accordingly, considering … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: RS not required for knock-and-talk
Reasonable suspicion is not required for a knock-and-talk. United States v. Raley, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128634 (W.D. Ky. July 20, 2022). The officer ran defendant’s LPN and it came back with “verify proof of insurance status.” That justified the … Continue reading
Three on consent from 7/20
Police responded to a shots fired call. The bodycam video shows that there was consent for entry into the home, albeit granted reluctantly. (Based on the factual recitation, it was likely a warrantless entry could have occurred because there was … Continue reading
OH5: Both patdowns without RS
Defendant’s first minute-long patdown was unreasonable, but produced nothing. There was no separate reasonable suspicion for the second one. State v. Barcus, 2022-Ohio-2491, 2022 Ohio App. LEXIS 2355 (5th Dist. July 20, 2022). Police went to defendant’s house on a … Continue reading
AP: Lawsuit: Chicago police misused ShotSpotter in murder case
AP: Lawsuit: Chicago police misused ShotSpotter in murder case by Garance Burke & Michael Tarm (“A federal lawsuit filed Thursday alleges Chicago police misused ‘unreliable’ gunshot detection technology and failed to pursue other leads in investigating a grandfather from the … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Govt’s motion to reopen suppression hearing after R&R is granted
The government didn’t like the R&R so it moved to put on additional evidence before the USMJ. Granted. “Therefore, in light of the Court’s ‘responsibility to make an informed decision’ on Wright’s suppression motion, Khan, 2018 WL 2214813, at *2, … Continue reading
MS: Minor errors in paperwork didn’t obscure a thing and didn’t prejudice def
Minor errors in the paperwork for the warrant were not prejudicial to defendant. There was no challenge to probable cause, and the papers as a whole show the warrant timely executed after issuance. Jenkins v. State, 2022 Miss. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA11: Absolute prosecutorial immunity doesn’t apply to failure to recall a material witness warrant leading to arrest
Absolute prosecutorial immunity does not apply to failure to recall a material witness warrant that caused a voluntary witness to be arrested later. Kassa v. Fulton Cty., Ga., 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 19762 (11th Cir. July 18, 2022). There was … Continue reading
CA5: Being handcuffed during traffic stop for officer safety wasn’t “custody” for Miranda purposes
Defendant was handcuffed during a traffic stop for officer safety, and the officer’s on the street questions were not custodial for Miranda purposes. United States v. Coulter, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 19751 (5th Cir. July 18, 2022). This protective sweep … Continue reading
CA4: Def’s Facebook post and demeanor justified stop-and-frisk
Defendant’s Facebook post and his past supported reasonable suspicion for his stop and frisk of his fanny pack at a fair. He was a known member of a violent gang with a felony conviction, his house had been recently shot … Continue reading
CA7: Stop-and-frisk at gunpoint was reasonable
Defendant’s actions justified a stop and frisk at gunpoint, and it was still a mere detention and not an arrest. United States v. Olson, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 19744 (7th Cir. July 18, 2022):
IL: Arrest on a CPD “investigative alert” unreasonable
The use of an CPD “investigative alert” to arrest defendant was unreasonable and a violation of the Fourth Amendment (but harmless on the totality). People v. Smith, 2022 IL App (1st) 190691, 2022 Ill. App. LEXIS 329 (July 18, 2022). … Continue reading
D.Md.: Cell phone dump on a SW wasn’t shown to be overbroad
A cell phone dump after a search warrant wasn’t necessarily overbroad, and didn’t show it. “More particularity was impractical, and was not required.” United States v. Nelson, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125994 (D. Md. July 15, 2022). Officers who used … Continue reading