Archives
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Recent Posts
- E.D.Ky.: When court can’t tell the dog alerted, motion to suppress granted
- OH1: A malnourished child isn’t exigency for an infant
- E.D.Pa.: Mandamus doesn’t lie to unseal SW papers
- D.Me.: Looking around house when allegedly “freezing” it was an illegal search
- OR: Police listening to attorney-client jail calls because attorney calls not properly segregated leads to dismissal of some counts and setting aside guilty plea
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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,
citations, and links -
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General (many free):
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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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (2012)
ACLU on privacy
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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: June 2023
MO: Virginia v. Moore does not require officer see the crime to have PC for arrest outside jurisdiction
Virginia v. Moore does not require that an arresting officer personally have seen the act that led to the arrest outside the officer’s jurisdiction as long as there was probable cause. State v. Barton, 2023 Mo. LEXIS 183 (June 27, … Continue reading
TX: Def had no REP in work truck searched by owner at police request three days after his arrest and expiration of SW
Recognizing that Byrd holds that a person can have standing in a vehicle owned and maybe even operated by another: “Does an employee retain standing to contest a search or seizure in his work vehicle several days after he was … Continue reading
D.Vt.: Hiding a fanny pack in a trash can from the police was abandonment without evidence of intent to recover it
Defendant put a fanny pack in a trash can when the police were around. Without evidence he intended to retrieve it, it is treated as abandoned property that he has no standing in. United States v. Moffitt, 2023 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
GA: Refusal to consent to taking a DNA swab in a rape investigation is admissible at trial
Defendant’s refusal to consent to taking a DNA swab in a rape investigation is admissible at trial. Post-arrest cheek swabs do not violate the Fourth Amendment because they are accepted police booking and jailing procedures, similar to fingerprinting and photographing. … Continue reading
NM: SW for bodily standards in case pending for trial not 4A or due process violation
After defendant was indicted a search warrant for bodily standards was sought from the metropolitan court. It didn’t lose jurisdiction for a search warrant, even in a case pending in a “higher” trial court. “[P]ost-indictment warrants are lawful in New … Continue reading
CA6: Opening car door without warning exceeded community caretaking function
The police community caretaking function has a long and important history that goes back nearly 800 years. But, seeing defendant parked in the snow with the engine running and apparently asleep, opening his car door to check on him was … Continue reading
CA11: Inmate email has same 1A protection snail mail does
Prison email to family members is protected by the First Amendment. “Just as the Fourth Amendment protects against searches by technology unknown in the 18th century, see Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27, 34-38 (2001), the First Amendment protects … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Officers don’t have to corroborate CIs by doing controlled buys or traffic stops of the target
Law enforcement officers don’t have to corroborate CIs by doing controlled buys or traffic stops of the target. “However, in reviewing a search warrant for probable cause, a court is ‘to look holistically at what the affidavit does show, instead … Continue reading
CA11: Magistrate who came to the scene to sign SW was still neutral and detached
The issuing magistrate was still neutral and detached. He came to the location of the search to assist in getting the warrant issued, but he stayed away from the building and signed the paperwork. He did not get involved or … Continue reading
NJ: Smell of mj in the passenger compartment doesn’t justify search of trunk or engine compartment
Where the officer smelled marijuana in the passenger compartment and searched for it finding nothing, a search of the engine compartment and trunk was excessive under the automobile exception. From the syllabus : “Expanding the search to the engine compartment … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Failure to file SW return doesn’t require suppression
Failure to file the warrant return doesn’t require suppression. It’s a curable ministerial act. Besides, the defendant can’t show prejudice. As to the merits, the search warrant was issued with probable cause and the good faith exception applies in any … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Defense counsel can’t make a false argument belied by evidence the govt. agreed to suppress
Defense counsel’s closing argument that was flatly contradicted by evidence the government elected to not put in in response to a motion to suppress maybe could have come in. Defense counsel can’t make a false argument to the jury without … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Address alone isn’t enough to confer standing in a mailed package; name on it has to be yours
Defendant wasn’t shown as an addressee of this package, but it was sent to his address. That alone doesn’t give him standing. United States v. Roberts, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107828 (M.D. Ala. May 18, 2023), adopted, 2023 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
MI: Terry justified this search and seizure, not plain feel
The court of appeals erred in not applying Terry to this frisk inside defendant’s coat, instead relying on plain feel. Remanded. People v. Turner, 2023 Mich. LEXIS 937 (June 21, 2023). “Here, the warrant specifically identified the offenses for which … Continue reading
DE: SW for “trace evidence” was particular; we know what that means
The search warrant might appear general, but it was limited by the things to be searched for. The reference to “trace evidence including but not limited to blood, hair, fibers, fluids, and fingerprints” did not make it unparticular. Trace evidence … Continue reading
Bloomberg: Abortion Fears Spur Reverse Search Warrant Bill in California
Bloomberg: Abortion Fears Spur Reverse Search Warrant Bill in California by Titus Wu (“Privacy advocates are pushing California to be the first to crack down on a controversial investigative tool used by police that compels technology companies to turn over … Continue reading