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Recent Posts
- NY3: No REP in SHU surveillance
- E.D.Mich.: PC and nexus to cell phone shown by drug deal arranged on an app
- W.D.Tex.: Texas Request to Examine Statute fails under Patel
- Forbes: FinCEN Says Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) Reports Are Voluntary Following Court Decision
- S.D.W.Va.: Issuance of a criminal citation is not a seizure
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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,
citations, and links -
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Research Links:
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Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
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General (many free):
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F.R.Crim.P. 41
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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)
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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
Privacy Foundation
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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: May 2024
CA7: Officers’ fear force would be used against them was reasonable
“When the deputies encountered him, he appeared intoxicated; they reasonably feared that he might become dangerous, and he became so when, as Culley later admitted in state court, he lunged at them and resisted arrest before they pushed him to … Continue reading
Forthcoming in the fall
Oxford Press. I’m looking forward to it.
MT: Nervousness and failure to immediately produce DL not RS
There was no reasonable suspicion to extend defendant’s traffic stop by tribal police based on nervousness. “It is not uncommon for individuals to appear nervous when confronted by law enforcement, especially when considering Panasuk’s prior interactions with law enforcement, the … Continue reading
Cal.1: GFE applied to probation search term
The good faith exception applied to defendant’s probation search. The officer checked and reasonably concluded that defendant was still on searchable probation at the time. People v. Pritchett, 2024 Cal. App. LEXIS 348 (1st Dist. May 8, 2024), certified for … Continue reading
Three on exigency
The emergency aid exception permitted entry into victim’s home. She hadn’t been seen all day and her child was unaccounted for. This entry was objectively reasonable, and the police were not required to use alternate means to seek to find … Continue reading
D.Nev.: A website’s cookies linked def’s personal email address for nexus
In a criminal copyright case, cookies on website led to defendant’s business and personal email accounts, and that gave nexus to them for the warrant. “Under the totality of the circumstances, the Court finds that the search warrant reveals a … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Change in facts after SW application emailed to USMJ but before signing wasn’t material or knowing false statement
There was no Franks violation where the government emailed to the USMJ the search warrant request where defendant was arranging to meet an officer in a sting operation before defendant called off the meeting. This change wasn’t material to the … Continue reading
GA: Merely having a traffic accident doesn’t justify SW for car for cause
Probable cause didn’t exist for a warrant to search defendant’s car after a traffic accident for the cause of the accident. “Here, given the circumstances as they existed when the search warrant was issued, we find that the magistrate did … Continue reading
RI: REP in a police interrogation room when he was led to believe conversation with mother was private
Defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in a police interrogation room while he was talking to his mother under both the Fourth Amendment and the state constitution when he was led to believe it was private. “Finally, the state … Continue reading
DC (en banc): Flight in a high crime area alone isn’t RS
“With this opinion, we first reaffirm the division’s [Mayo v. United States, 284 A.3d 403 (D.C. 2022)] predicate holding, uncontested by the government, that Mr. Mayo was seized when the GRU officer dove to tackle him and grabbed his foot, … Continue reading
CA2: Unlicensed and uninsured motorcycle parked on street was subject to community caretaking function when def was arrested
“Because Owens’s motorcycle was on a public street with no displayed license plate and was uninsured, the community caretaking function applied, even though it was parked at the time of his arrest.” Owens v. Fitzgerald, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 12292 … Continue reading
D.Utah: License plate readers can’t be compared to CSLI
Automatic license plate readers showing points where a vehicle was located at various times can’t be compared to CSLI. The officers also had reasonable suspicion during this stop. It also did not violate state law. United States v. Salcido-Gonzalez, 2024 … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: PC not shown for Jan. 6th target’s cell phone in California three years later
The government sought search warrants for cell phones in California in 2024 for six alleged misdemeanors at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The court finds no probable cause to believe that there is evidence on the phones three … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Reliable informant’s report defendant had a gun wasn’t RS because this is an open carry state
Defendant’s motion to suppress is granted on the exhibits and briefs without a hearing because there was no reasonable suspicion for the stop. “However, the information provided by the caller was insufficient on its own for the police to have … Continue reading
CA7: Officer punching arrestee four times after arrestee punched him gets QI
“After Charles Brumitt struck Evansville Police Department Sergeant Sam Smith, Smith defended himself by punching Brumitt four times in the face, knocking him unconscious. Brumitt sued Smith under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, asserting that Smith used excessive force in violation … Continue reading
CA4: When PC and GFE are the issue on appeal, both have to be appealed or it’s waiver
“In his first claim, Juarez-Sanchez argues that two search warrants issued in this case were not supported by probable cause. Below, the district court rejected this argument and, in the alternative, held that the good faith exception to the exclusionary … Continue reading
NY: Community caretaking function justified stop of a moving vehicle but its continuation was unreasonable
NY evaluates the stop and continued seizure of a moving vehicle under the community caretaking function, and concludes this one continued past the need for the stop and was unreasonable. (The court notes a lot of state decisions on the … Continue reading