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Recent Posts
- MO: Def’s 4A ineffective assistance claim fails because he doesn’t show he’d prevail on the 4A claim
- C.D.Cal.: Requiring a building demolition permit doesn’t state a 4A claim
- E.D.Cal.: Def’s arrest based on drunkenness was without PC
- E.D.Tex.: Corporate Transparency Act enjoined, but 4A claim as yet unresolved
- Hell Gate: 83 Percent of ShotSpotter Alerts Might Not Have Been Gunfire at All
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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 (27,400+ on WordPress as of 7/23/24) -
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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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"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: October 2022
S.D.W.Va.: Protective sweep under a bed is reasonable
The protective sweep here looking under the bed was reasonable. It’s where people hide. Defendant’s contention the sweep went further isn’t clear. Some things were moved and opened, but a search warrant had been executed between the sweep and her … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Battering down door at dawn in CP SW wasn’t unreasonable, even if uncalled for
SWAT team entry into defendant’s Queens home at dawn for child pornography on a computer was not unreasonable. The police knew that only defendant, his wife, and their children (the children were “Potential Hazards” according to their operational plan) were … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Affidavits for SWs are judged by what they contain, not what they lack
Affidavits for search warrants are judged by what they contain, not what they lack. United States v. Cass, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 195502 (D. Neb. Sep. 30, 2022), adopted, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 197043 (D.Neb. Oct. 26, 2022). It was … Continue reading
D.Md.: Using def’s key fob to find his car did not violate a REP
Using defendant’s key fob on the key removed from him in a search incident did not violate any reasonable expectation of privacy and was reasonable. United States v. Gardner, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 196575 (D. Md. Oct. 27, 2022):
D.S.D.: Traffic stop immediately moved into being a drug investigation without RS and was unreasonable
Defendant’s stop was for not having an LPN and a cracked windshield. There was a temporary permit for the vehicle and the crack wasn’t obstructing vision. Bringing in a drug dog for a sniff of car was unreasonable. The officer … Continue reading
D.D.C.: In motion to withdraw plea, waived motion to suppress was arguable and IAC
Here, failure to file a motion to suppress on the obtaining defendant’s passcode for his cell phone was ineffective assistance of counsel. At this point, it was debatable, and it should have been raised. The government had the phones, and … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Encountering 4 officers at landing on stairs who wouldn’t let him pass was a seizure
Defendant encountered four officers standing on a landing, and they impeded his movements. This amounted to a seizure. United States v. Jackson, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 194856 (D.N.J. Oct. 26, 2022). Mistaken identity on the person being seized is usually … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Anticipatory SW’s triggering condition was package going in house; landlord’s taking it in sufficient
The triggering condition in this anticipatory warrant was the package going inside the home. Here, the landlord took it in, not defendant. Still, under Grubbs, that was sufficient. United States v. Tabor, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 194653 (W.D. Pa. Oct. … Continue reading
CA9: Chalking tires not a 4A violation
Disagreeing with the Sixth Circuit, the Ninth holds that chalking tires does not violate the Fourth Amendment. It was going on for nearly a century before anyone challenged it. Verdun v. City of San Diego, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 29803 … Continue reading
MO: Def’s arrest violated state law but not the 4A, so it was not unreasonable
“This appeal presents the question of whether a police officer necessarily violates the Fourth Amendment when he makes an arrest that is prohibited by state law. Relying upon Virginia v. Moore, 553 U.S. 164, 128 S. Ct. 1598, 170 L. … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: Right to livestream traffic stops debated at Fourth Circuit
Courthouse News Service: Right to livestream traffic stops debated at Fourth Circuit by Erika Williams (“A shouting match erupted between a judge and an attorney at a hearing over whether passengers in cars pulled over by police can broadcast their … Continue reading
IN: Male occupant’s consent to search his house didn’t include the purse of a woman that lived there
Male occupant’s consent to search his house didn’t include the purse of a woman that lived there. The officer could not reasonably believe that he had apparent authority over that. Cinamon v. State, 2022 Ind. App. LEXIS 345 (Oct. 25, … Continue reading
techdirt: Investigation: Child Protective Services Agencies Nearly Always Blow Off Warrant Requirements To Enter Homes
techdirt: Investigation: Child Protective Services Agencies Nearly Always Blow Off Warrant Requirements To Enter Homes by Tim Cushing:
The Guardian: California sheriff’s office stops Black drivers five times more often than white people, data shows
The Guardian: California sheriff’s office stops Black drivers five times more often than white people, data shows by Sam Levin (“A new report says sheriffs’ patrols spend more time conducting racially biased stops than they do responding to calls for … Continue reading
CA6: Search of building next door to def’s building wasn’t reason to suppress def’s search
Officers with a search warrant for 8537 Old Rutledge Pike, Knox County, Tennessee also searched what they believed was an outbuilding at 8533 with a power cord running between them with no indication it was different property. At worst, this … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: Local officer’s arresting in Indian country prior to McGirt was with good faith
A local officer’s arrest of an Indian in Indian country prior to McGirt was with good faith. United States v. Little, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 192907 (N.D. Okla. Oct. 24, 2022). Drug interdiction officers working the Detroit Greyhound station because … Continue reading