Archives
-
Recent Posts
- MA: Cell phone call logs don’t require a search warrant
- D.Kan.: Drug dog touching car door handle with nose isn’t unreasonable search
- D.N.M.: DEA’s failure to make a detailed inventory in violation of policy doesn’t require exclusion of evidence
- WaPo: These cities bar facial recognition tech. Police still found ways to access it.
- C.D.Cal.: SW materials in case with weighty public interest ordered unsealed
-
-
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 -
© 2003-24,
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
-
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
Privacy Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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!”
---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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Monthly Archives: February 2024
N.D.Ohio: Drug lab results from controlled buy not required for PC
The government had probable cause for the search warrant for defendant’s house despite the fact that the drugs previously bought from him hadn’t come back from testing at the crime lab. United States v. Clark, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24651 … Continue reading
VA: SW affidavit not admissible in a civil dispute where it contained multiple levels of hearsay
In a civil dispute over a condo, one party sought to use a search warrant affidavit as evidence, and they filed a motion in limine. The trial judge first denied it, then sua sponte granted it as the trial started. … Continue reading
OH3: 9-1-1 call about possible fire in def’s home justified FD entry; plain view resulted.
A 9-1-1 call about a fire in defendant’s home revealed by heavy black smoke from the chimney brought the fire and police departments who entered. The fire scene entry and the plain view were reasonable under Michigan v. Tyler. State … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Accidental finding of A-C communications in cell phone search was not intentional and did not compromise defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel
Defendant’s Apple cell phone was searched with a warrant, and the contents were shared with defense counsel even before the government completed its own review. It was discovered that there were attorney-client communications on the phone, and the government immediately … Continue reading
CA6: No REP in “Walmart pay app” purchases; it’s a third-party record
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his “Walmart pay app” purchases from a third party subpoena of things he used in a bank robbery shortly thereafter. “Therefore, the third-party doctrine still applies to business records that might reveal … Continue reading
D.Utah: Facebook account SW was properly limited to time and to crime under investigation and not overbroad
This Facebook account warrant was properly limited. “First, both warrants here were limited to a time period of about one year, from December 11, 2020, to November 17, 2021. As a result, neither warrant allowed the government to search everything … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Neither PC nor RS required to look into a stopped vehicle’s windows
Neither probable cause nor reasonable suspicion required to look into a stopped vehicle’s windows. United States v. Walker, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22075 (D. Minn. Feb. 8, 2024). Defendant’s social media account with pictures of him holding guns and recorded … Continue reading
FL2: Suppression under Franks reversed; not material to PC
Defendant established that there were false statements in the affidavit for warrant that ran the full spectrum from negligence to likely intentionality. But probable cause remained, even excluding what was challenged. “While the temptation to advance the prophylactic purpose of … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Terry stop with guns drawn was reasonable here
An otherwise lawful Terry stop wasn’t made unreasonable because officers, fearing a weapon, approached with guns drawn. United States v. Thomas, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 234913 (D. Minn. Dec. 13, 2023), adopted 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21178 (D. Minn. Feb. … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: Odor of marijuana coming from a car is PC in this federal circuit even if it’s maybe not in state court anymore because of recreational use
The odor of marijuana coming from a car is probable cause in this circuit even if it’s maybe not be in state court anymore. United States v. Toney, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20838 (S.D. Ill. Feb. 6, 2024). Qualified immunity … Continue reading
TX5: lack of a prompt determination of PC to detain def is moot by the time the trial starts
The lack of a prompt determination of probable cause to detain defendant is moot by the time the trial starts. Moses v. State, 2024 Tex. App. LEXIS 950 (Tex. App. – Dallas Feb. 6, 2024). “Taking as true that Agent … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: The SW failed particularity, but the govt proved inevitable discovery
“Defendant seeks to suppress all evidence seized from the subsequent 2018 search in this case because he argues the 2018 warrant was unconstitutionally overbroad. Although this Court concludes the 2018 search warrant violated the Fourth Amendment’s particularity requirement because it … Continue reading
CA2: A temporal limitation on the SW would have been better, but it’s still cured by GFE
It would have been better for the search warrant to have included a temporal limitation, but that doesn’t have to be decided because the good faith exception is found to apply in any event. United States v. Saint Clair, 2024 … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Gang tattoo, baggy clothing, high crime area was RS
“Here, Officer Wardle considered an amalgam of factors: Ortiz was stopped in a high-crime area; he had a clearly visible gang tattoo; and he was wearing baggy clothing capable of concealing a weapon. While the Officers in this case did … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Affidavit for SW for def being a prohibited person for firearms possession doesn’t have to allege interstate commerce nexus
A warrant was issued for defendant’s home in California for proof of travel to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Officers found firearms and defendant was a prohibited person because of domestic violence orders. On the firearms warrant, it … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: SW for wrong house was completely lacking in PC, so no GFE
The court previously held there was no probable cause for the search warrant for the address searched, and this opinion is about the good faith exception. The court finds that no reasonably trained officer would have seen probable cause here … Continue reading
D.Minn.: DNA on firearm was a reasonable inference justifying SW for def’s DNA
It was reasonable to infer that defendant’s DNA would be found on a firearm in a car, so the warrant to take his was reasonable. United States v. Tyus, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 234639 (D. Minn. Dec. 8, 2023), adopted, … Continue reading