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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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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)
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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!”
---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: July 2024
CA11: While prison visitor strip search violated 4A, SCOTUS and this circuit have never ruled, so QI applies [and QI reigns supreme]
A prison visitor was fully strip searched on entry into a Georgia state prison. This search violated the Fourth Amendment. But, because this circuit and SCOTUS have never confronted this issue, the law is not “clearly established” and she loses … Continue reading
CA8: When PC and GFE are the district court’s holding, challenging only PC on appeal means affirmed
When the district court holds that the warrant is valid both on probable cause and good faith, only challenging probable cause on appeal means that the alternative basis is sufficient to affirm. United States v. Bryant, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
MN: PC required to get order to produce DNA for comparison to evidence
A court order for defendant’s saliva for a touch DNA comparison required a showing of probable cause. State v. Steeprock, 2024 Minn. App. LEXIS 345 (July 29, 2024). “[T]he record evidence demonstrates that three police officers ran from the police … Continue reading
Kansas Reflector: Spyware turned this Kansas high school into a ‘red zone’ of dystopian surveillance
Kansas High School uses AI to analyze students’ “homework assignment, email, photo, and chat on your school-supplied device is being monitored by artificial intelligence for indicators of drug and alcohol use, anti-social behavior, and suicidal inclinations.” Kansas Reflector: Spyware turned … Continue reading
MI: Partially blocking a car can be a seizure, here without RS
“A seizure may occur when a police vehicle partially blocks a defendant’s egress if the totality of the circumstances indicate that a reasonable person would not have felt free to leave; while the position of the police vehicle is an … Continue reading
TX3: Wife conducted private search of husband’s cell phone by using his thumb to open it while he was asleep
In Texas where a private search can be suppressed, defendant showed that his wife accessed his cell phone without his consent, and the search was suppressed. She used his thumb to open the phone while he was asleep. State v. … Continue reading
MI: Unreasonable mistake of law justifies exclusion
Defendant was stopped based on what the court previously found was a lack of reasonable suspicion from an unreasonable application of law. It previously remanded to the court of appeals to determine whether the exclusionary rule should apply. The court … Continue reading
D.Mass.: No discovery of covert Shapchat accounts for lack of materiality
Officers set up covert Snapchat accounts to communicate with defendant. He’s not entitled to discovery about that for Brady or Franks purposes because he can’t show materiality. United States v. Stroup, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132483 (D. Mass. July 26, … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Def had standing to challenge inventory but not the stop
“In sum, the Court finds that the failure to comply with each of these clearly-written standardized procedures contributes to a finding that the purported inventory search was improperly conducted.” Also, defendant didn’t have standing to challenge the stop of the … Continue reading
CA8: When it was immediately apparent that RS for the stop no longer existed, it should have ended
As the officer approached the car stopped for suspicion of shoplifting, it was immediately apparent that the occupants did not match the description of the shoplifters he was looking for. The stop should have ended then. Storrs v. Rozeboom, 2024 … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: CBP needs SW for cell phone border search
This case involves a border search of defendant’s cell phone, followed by a search warrant, and child pornography was found. “Sultanov now seeks to suppress both the contents of his cell phones and the statements he made to law enforcement … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: A gun seized in plain view can be run to see if it’s stolen
An officer seizing a firearm in plain view off defendant could run it to see if it was stolen. United States v. Reid, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130770 (E.D. Mo. June 11, 2024). 2255 petitioner’s IAC claim on Fourth Amendment … Continue reading
CA5: San Antonio’s rental property inspection program doesn’t mandate inspections without warrant; preliminary injunction properly denied
“Although the Complexes are correct that the Fourth Amendment applies to the City’s inspectors, the PAIP [rental property inspection program] on its face does not authorize or mandate warrantless searches. Section 6-71, titled ‘Monitoring, inspection, and condition standard,’ does not … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: SW for multiple cell phones was valid because all were shown to be involved
This search warrant for multiple cell phones showed enough that multiple cell phones were involved in the offense under investigation, and, thus, the warrant was not overbroad, distinguishing United States v. Griffith, 867 F.3d 1265 (D.C. Cir. 2017) where there … Continue reading
PIX11: NYC implements gun-detecting technology in subway
PIX11: NYC implements gun-detecting technology in subway by Finn Hoogensen:
MT: No REP from look in apt window from common area of apt complex; not his curtilage
Officers did not violate defendant’s reasonable expectation of privacy by looking in the window of his apartment from a common area in his apartment complex. It was not his curtilage. City of Whitefish v. Zumwalt, 2024 MT 153, 2024 Mont. … Continue reading
Cal.4: Defense subpoena for social media records was not improperly issued and enforced; holders of records got to be heard under SCA
Denying the state’s motion to quash a criminal subpoena duces tecum issued to social media companies was not error. Under the Stored Communications Act, the trial court allowed the companies an opportunity to be heard, conducted a sufficient analysis of … Continue reading