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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
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© 2003-23,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 350,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 45,000 posts since 2003 (25,700+ on WordPress as of 12/31/22)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and linksLatest Slip Opinions:
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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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ACLU on privacy
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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!”
"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."
---Pepé Le Pew
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948)
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Monthly Archives: February 2023
GA: SW for practically everything on cell phone was a general warrant
The search warrant for defendant’s cell phone was overbroad, essentially permitting a general search of the entirety of information on it. Limiting it to a homicide was of no help. The good faith exception also does not apply. The fact … Continue reading
S.D.Miss.: Acting “shifty” during a stop justified patdown for officer safety
The patdown here was reasonable for officer safety because defendant was known to associate with firearms, wore baggy clothing that could have concealed a firearm, and he was acting “shifty” and “favoring his pockets.” United States v. Gillin, 2023 U.S. … Continue reading
SCOTUS has a third-party records tax summons case, but not necessarily a 4A case, yet; it might become one
Added to Most Recent SCOTUS cases is Polselli v. Internal Revenue Service, 21-1599, cert. gr. Dec. 9, 2022, argument Mar. 29, 2023 (ScotusBlog). It is a third-party records summons case where the parties’ cert papers don’t even mention the Fourth … Continue reading
IA: With a judicial finding of PC, there’s no immediate right to release on bail without a bail hearing
There was probable cause for arrest involving a magistrate’s issuance of the warrant. Because there is probable cause, there’s no right to immediate release on bond under the state and federal constitutions’ bail provisions. Howsare v. Iowa Dist. Court for … Continue reading
CA11: Inventory applied even if automobile exception not satisfied
The search of defendant’s car would have happened as a result of an inventory search whether or not the automobile exception applied. Therefore, inevitable discovery was satisfied. United States v. Russell, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 3820 (11th Cir. Feb. 17, … Continue reading
VT: Realtime CSLI (“pinging”) requires a SW under state constitution
Realtime CSLI (“pinging”) requires a search warrant under the state constitution, following some states. That information is not regularly kept by cell phone providers, and the state has an interest in protecting that privacy interest. State v. Murphy, 2023 VT … Continue reading
D.Neb.: DTF officer’s moving luggage out of an interstate bus luggage hold wasn’t an unreasonable interference with possessory interest
Defendant was riding on an interstate bus, and at the stop at Omaha, a DTF officer pulled defendant’s bag out of the luggage hold to see who would claim it. This interference with the luggage was minimal and did not … Continue reading
M.D.Ga.: No standing in packages sent to one’s address but with all different names on them
Defendant failed to show standing in packages searched coming to an address he claimed as his “primary address,” but the addressee and sender were not him. United States v. Williams, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26755 (M.D. Ga. Feb. 16, 2023). … Continue reading
CO: Probation search condition of all electronic devices was unreasonable
A sex offender’s probation condition that requires unfettered access to defendant’s electronic devices is unreasonable. It has to be tailored to the need. People v. Silvanic, 2023 COA 16, 2023 Colo. App. LEXIS 217 (Feb. 16, 2023). A probation search … Continue reading
NE: Failure to deliver SW to def not 4A violation and doesn’t warrant suppression
Defendant was the subject of a search warrant for a blood draw. The fact he wasn’t given a copy of the warrant doesn’t require reversal. He clearly knew what was going on. State v. Svendgard, 31 Neb. App. 596, 2023 … Continue reading
OH8: Not following up on obvious window tint violation didn’t make stop for that unreasonable
The officer reasonably believed the car’s tint violated the law because he literally could not see in it. The fact he didn’t follow up more on that doesn’t make it pretext. State v. McDonald, 2023-Ohio-464, 2023 Ohio App. LEXIS 444 … Continue reading
KARE 11: Bungled raid led to innocent pregnant woman’s shackling
KARE 11 Investigates: Bungled raid led to innocent pregnant woman’s shackling (“Taxpayers are on the hook for $500,000 after a detective’s misconduct led to a woman’s arrest and Hennepin County jailers illegally shackling her while in labor.”)
AR: Search incident to sex offense produced microSD cards that could be seized
Defendant was arrested for a sex offense, and his search incident produced three microSD cards that fell to the ground. They were properly seized and then searched with a warrant finding child porn. Lewis v. State, 2023 Ark. 12, 2023 … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Search of cell phone at school for explicit photos of 14-year-old reasonable under T.L.O.
A 13-year-old male student was showing explicit pictures of a 14-year-old girl on his phone at school. The search of the phone by school officials was reasonable under T.L.O., and it led him to juvenile court. O.W. v. Sch. Bd. … Continue reading
Reason: The Feds Are Buying Their Way Around the 4th Amendment
We gave away our privacy, fair and square, and capitalism trumps the Fourth Amendment: Reason: The Feds Are Buying Their Way Around the 4th Amendment by David McGarry (“Government agencies have paid to access huge amounts of Americans’ data.”)
WaPo: Youngkin opposes effort to shield menstrual data from law enforcement
WaPo: Youngkin opposes effort to shield menstrual data from law enforcement by Laura Vozzella & Gregory S. Schneider (“The administration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) helped defeat a bill this week to put menstrual data stored on period-tracking apps beyond … Continue reading
Bing’s ChatBot: NYT: Help, Bing Won’t Stop Declaring Its Love for Me
NYT: Help, Bing Won’t Stop Declaring Its Love for Me by Kevin Roose (“A very strange conversation with the chatbot built into Microsoft’s search engine left me deeply unsettled. Even frightened.”):
W.D.N.Y.: 108-day delay in SW for cell phone was unreasonable
An unreasonable 108-day delay in retrieving defendant’s cell phone from local police after the DEA adopted the case required suppression of the search of the phone. United States v. Adams, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23973 (W.D.N.Y. Feb. 13, 2023). Officers … Continue reading
