The incriminating nature of an AR-15 was immediately apparent to the officers. They don’t have to know that it’s contraband, just that it’s reasonably likely. On this record, that was shown. United States v. Grier, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 26077 (6th Cir. Sep. 29, 2023).
Where defendant’s arrest started outside the home and she retreated inside, officers could follow to make the arrest. “Because Gordon had been lawfully arrested by the time she reentered her home, the officers could follow her inside without a warrant.” Gordon v. Commonwealth, 2023 Va. App. LEXIS 667 (Oct. 3, 2023) (unpublished).*
Defendant contends he was arrested ten minutes from home and the protective sweep of his house was unjustified. The motion to suppress was denied, but the record supports not much of anything. Reversed to develop the record. Bowman v. State, 2023 La. App. LEXIS 1615 (La. App. 5 Cir Oct. 2, 2023).*
When the search is overbroad, the remedy is to limit the product of the search not void it. Thomas v. State, 2023 Del. LEXIS 318 (Oct. 2, 2023).
There was plenty of information from the CI on which to justify the stop, and the stop led to the smell of marijuana which justified search of the car. State v. Highley, 2023-Ohio-3569 (5th Dist. Oct. 2, 2023).*
“Robinson’s unreasonable search and seizure claim must fail. Even if Officers Arnica and Cobble lacked reasonable suspicion, a reasonable officer in their position could have believed it existed. [¶] Arnica and Cobble were dispatched to an address to perform a welfare check on Ned Battle, Jr. When they arrived, the house appeared to be abandoned. They noticed two men in the garage. When they asked one of the men—Robinson—whether Mr. Battle, Jr. lived at the house, Robinson said that he was dead.” Robinson v. City of Inkster, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 177065 (E.D. Mich. Sep. 30, 2023).*
The home of a drug dealer does not create nexus without more evidence of a connection. United States v. Edwards, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176766 (W.D. Tenn. Sep. 29, 2023).
Plaintiff’s arrest for unlawful fishing in Manhattan’s Morningside Park was with probable cause when he refused to throw back the fish he caught. Caldwell v. Geronimo, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 25980 (2d Cir. Oct. 2, 2023).*
Defendant called his codefendant on a recorded jail line and told her to remove a gray safe in the house. Police got a search warrant for it and recovered way more drugs. Not a Fourth Amendment case; just a cautionary tale about jail calls. United States v. Duerson, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 26002 (6th Cir. Sep. 29, 2023).*
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A single download of child pornography eight months before the warrant was sought was at least supported by the good faith exception even if there wasn’t probable cause. United States v. Pratt, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 25977 (2d Cir. Oct. 2, 2023). (It wouldn’t have been stale anyway. No case anywhere supports that conclusion.)
Defendant’s 2255 is denied. He alleges video that was seized had been tampered with, and defense counsel was ineffective for not seeking suppression on that ground. Except that would not have led to suppression. That’s all a trial issue. The evidence was properly seized under inevitable discovery. Lopez-Casillas v. United States, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176003 (D. Utah Sep. 29, 2023).*
Defendant’s admission he had a gun in his backpack “supplied the police with all the probable cause they need to search inside the backpack and retrieve said handgun, which is exactly what they did.” State v. Register, 2023 Del. Super. LEXIS 787 (Sep. 26, 2023).*
Bloomberg Law: Supreme Court Passes on Police ‘Knock and Talk’ Arrest Challenge (“The US Supreme Court rejected a case challenging the power police have to detain people during so-called ‘knock and talk’ investigations. The justices decided on Monday not to look at whether police can detain someone who voluntarily steps outside when they come to the door without a warrant.”)
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“In summary, Officer Wiesenberg had probable cause through the collective knowledge doctrine to believe Defendant made an illegal left turn. Alternatively, law enforcement had reasonable suspicion to believe Defendant was engaged in illegal firearms purchases. Thus, his stop of Defendant at the gas station comports with the Fourth Amendment.” United States v. Harris, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 175610 (E.D. Tenn. Sep. 1, 2023),* adopted, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174216 (E.D. Tenn. Sep. 29, 2023).*
Defendant’s Franks challenge is summarily affirmed. State v. Powell, 2023 ND 176 (Sep. 29, 2023).*
The pro se father’s drug testing condition challenge in a family law case wasn’t raised in the trial court, so it’s waived for appeal. In the interest of S.I.J., 2023 Tex. App. LEXIS 7525 (Tex. App. – Dallas Sep. 29, 2023).*
Failure to make a timely return of the warrant to the issuing court is not a constitutional error, and there is no showing of prejudice. United States v. Warren, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176014 (W.D. La. Aug. 18, 2023), adopted, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174790 (W.D. La. Sep. 27, 2023).
The alleged misstatement in the warrant affidavit for a storage unit wasn’t material. “In addition, days after Mrabet’s storage unit was searched, an undercover officer purchased $1,600 worth of fentanyl and methamphetamine from Mrabet, a fact that was included in the iCloud and residence warrant applications and that also would have sufficed for probable cause for those warrants independent of the challenged misstatement.” United States v. Mrabet, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 175465 (S.D.N.Y. Sep. 29, 2023).*
Plaintiff sued the hotel he was in that called the police two hours before checkout time declaring him a trespasser and the police who arrested him, barging into his room. They get qualified immunity. Yeager v. Lively, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 175494 (M.D. Fla. Sep. 29, 2023).*
Defendant showed no reasonable expectation of privacy in a package of fentanyl shipped to his girlfriend at the place where he was staying. United States v. Harris, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 25677 (11th Cir. Sep. 28, 2023).
Defendant’s hesitation following the officer’s lawful request to exit the vehicle, combined with the fact that he had a large bulge in his front jacket pocket, presented the officer with reasonable suspicion under the Fourth Amendment that defendant was presently armed and dangerous to justify a frisk. People v. Wallace, 2023 IL App (1st) 200917 (Sep. 29, 2023).*
When the police first encountered defendant, they made it clear they wanted his cooperation more than anything. On the totality, the court finds he consented to the interaction. United States v. Seferino-Nunez, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 175082 (D. Ariz. Sep. 29, 2023).*
Plaintiff did not have an objective reasonable expectation of privacy in preventing entry into his hospital room by law enforcement officers investing his shooting. Stoots v. Sparti, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 175529 (W.D. Va. Sep. 29, 2023).
“Nor does the possibility that the government misstated facts in the cell-site warrant application and complaint give rise to ‘manifest injustice’ if a new trial is not granted.” It’s not the place to raise a Franks issue (n.2). United States v. Hewitt, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 25799 (2d Cir. Sep. 29, 2023).*
Defendant’s equal protection argument over his stop wasn’t raised in the trial court, so it’s rejected. State v. Peterson, 2023-Ohio-3544 (6th Dist. Sep. 29, 2023).*
In a Franks civil case, removing the alleged false statements from the affidavit, there still is probable cause. Bradley v. Balt. Police Dep’t, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174952 (D. Md. Sep. 28, 2023).*
The court’s credibility determination is that the warrant here was executed after 6:00 a.m., not before. Even if they arrived early, they didn’t enter until 6:00 a.m. “Assuming, arguendo, the officers searched Defendant’s home before 6:00 a.m., the facts demonstrate the search would have still occurred. Law enforcement was explicitly authorized to execute the search warrant after 6:00 a.m. Thus, the search would have still occurred if they had waited until after 6:00 a.m. Based on the facts adduced at the hearing, Defendant has not shown he suffered prejudice due to the alleged Rule 41 violation.” United States v. Montgomery, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174310 (W.D. Mo. Sep. 7, 2023).
Defendant’s history of drug use and the offense justified a warrantless search condition on supervised release. United States v. Williams, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 25845 (4th Cir. Sep. 29, 2023).*
The evidence at trial “preponderates” against the trial court’s finding that no traffic offense occurred. Reversed. State v. Poe, 2023 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 382 (Sep. 29, 2023).*
Defendant was properly convicted of tampering with evidence for wiping his phones and MacBook to eliminate evidence of child pornography. Behrens v. Commonwealth, 2023 Ky. LEXIS 293 (Sep. 28, 2023).
“The Second Search Warrant authorized, among other things, without any limitation as to time, the seizure of a vast array of ‘[f]inancial information’ related to Mr. Moore and ‘associated businesses’ that constitute evidence of a crime and all electronics that constitute evidence of a crime, which were located at Mr. Moore’s office and the Moores’ home and inside any of Mr. Moore’s vehicles located at or near these places. But Officer Garnand’s affidavit failed to establish probable cause to believe that all these items were connected to criminal activity. The affidavit also failed to explain why evidence of a crime would fairly be found on any electronics. Indeed, the affidavit did not even mention the use of electronics in connection with any crimes. We have found similar warrants unconstitutionally overbroad. See, e.g., United States v. Kow, 58 F.3d 423, 427 (9th Cir. 1995); United States v. Hill, 459 F.3d 966, 976 (9th Cir. 2006); United States v. Cardwell, 680 F.2d 75, 77 (9th Cir. 1982). Thus, the Second Search Warrant was unconstitutionally overbroad.” The officers don’t get qualified immunity because they didn’t properly plead it on appeal. Moore v. Garnand, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 25824 (9th Cir. Sept. 29, 2023).
Police went to a fast food restaurant on a tip to see if a 14-year-old girl who was missing would show up, and defendant brought her. She recounted videoed sexual encounters. The search warrant for his house was valid. “The language of the search warrant can be interpreted reasonably as authorizing a search for pornographic material ‘located within’ all three of the listed devices — computers, laptops, and electronic storage devices — found at Hunt’s home.” United States v. Hunt, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 25676 (11th Cir. Sep. 28, 2023).*
“Whether use of a License Plate Reader (‘LPR’) system to track Appellant’s movements is a search under the Fourth Amendment is a question of first impression before this Court. The purpose a license plate attached to a vehicle is to provide information, and such license plate is in plain view when the vehicle is operated on the roadways. Thus we find there is no reasonable expectation of privacy, and such use of the LPR is not a search.” LPR’s don’t compare to CSLI in Carpenter. Commonwealth v. Watkins, 2023 PA Super 189, 2023 Pa. Super. LEXIS 444 (Sep. 29, 2023) (2-1).
“Pérez-Greaux’s statement that he was not outside of his residence with any type of firearm during the relevant period amounts to what we have described in the past as a conclusory assertion. It also neither illustrates that Agent Rivera acted ‘knowingly and intentionally, [n]or with reckless disregard for the truth,’ as required by Franks. 438 U.S. at 155. [¶] We have previously held that flat denials of allegations, like Pérez-Greaux’s, fall short of the ‘substantial preliminary showing’ required to justify a Franks hearing because this only ‘set[s] up a swearing contest’ — one side has to be lying — but a flat denial alone ‘do[es] not demonstrate a substantial possibility of affiant perjury.’ Southard, 700 F.2d at 10 ….” United States v. Pérez-Greaux, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 25705 (1st Cir. Sep. 28, 2023).*
The affidavit for warrant here completely failed to link defendant’s residence to drugs. One fact was that he left there, met up with a confederate, and went to a drug deal. That wasn’t enough. Still, the good faith exception saves the search. The inference alone that drugs are usually kept at home is enough. United States v. Dejesus, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174312 (D. Minn. Aug. 4, 2023):
Taking the government’s six proffered circumstances which they claim add up to reasonable suspicion, the court finds them lacking on the totality. But, as defendant was being pulled over, he fled, and that made reasonable suspicion. United State v. Shelton, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174069 (D. Ariz. Aug. 7, 2023). [He had no right to refuse contact.]
Compare:
Defendant was sitting in an idling car outside a drug house. A police car pulled up behind him, and the officer got out. Defendant got out of the car and walked away, and the officer followed asking questions, some of which were answered. Finally, defendant ran away, and officers gave chase. He had a gun on him. The stop was unreasonable. He had a right to not talk to the officers, and fleeing when he did was not even reasonable suspicion. State v. Ivery, 2023-Ohio-3495, 2023 Ohio App. LEXIS 3392 (10th Dist. Sep. 28, 2023). [He had a right to refuse contact.]
None of defense counsel were ineffective for not challenging the search warrants for defendant’s property. “Taking these observations in their totality, combined with evidence of Vasquez’s status as a ‘long-time, successful, drug-trafficker,’ show that there was a nexus between evidence of drug activity and Vasquez’s residence under both the ‘mov[ing] back and forth’ and ‘communications hub’ standards. … Thus, both probable cause and a nexus between evidence of drug activity and Vasquez’s home are found such that the information in the affidavit provided an adequate basis for the Magistrate Judge to issue a warrant.” United States v. Vasquez, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 173862 (D. Mass. Sep. 28, 2023).*
NBC News: Marion, Kansas, police chief suspended following series of raids (“The Marion, Kansas, police chief was suspended this week following a series of raids that included the office of a local newspaper and the home of the city’s vice mayor. Marion Mayor David Mayfield suspended Police Chief Gideon Cody on Thursday, according to the Marion County Record, the same newspaper that was raided.”)
No justification needed for police to run a LPN number. State v. Carter, 2023-Ohio-3452, 2023 Ohio App. LEXIS 3360 (9th Dist. Sept. 27, 2023).
The court takes the government at its word that the search warrant defendant seeks doesn’t exist, so the motion is denied. United States v. Hampton, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 172286 (D. Alaska Aug. 10, 2023).*
The motion to suppress because of activities of UPS is denied because it’s not a government actor. United States v. Hampton, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 172282 (D. Alaska Aug. 10, 2023)* and 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 172292 (D. Alaska Aug. 29, 2023),* adopted, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 169769 (D. Alaska Sep. 22, 2023).*
Officers came to defendant’s house with a parole arrest warrant, and a parole search was permitted. United States v. Dippre, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 173368 (M.D. Pa. Sep. 27, 2023).*
A search warrant affidavit based on Snapchat posts that were not or cannot be dated was stale. People v. Mendoza, 2023 NY Slip Op 23291, 2023 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 5696 (Queens Co. Aug. 27, 2023):
“Regardless of whether Cosme was aware of the search condition prior to conducting the traffic stop, the district court did not err in denying Marr’s motion to suppress. We thus find it unnecessary to address the broader question of whether the existence of the parole condition alone sufficed to justify the search. This is because under the totality of circumstances, both the stop and the search were reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.” United States v. Marr, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 25527 (6th Cir. Sep. 26, 2023).*
Defendant’s stop but not submitting to authority and then taking off again justified his stop after the flight. United States v. Shelton, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 172533 (D. Ariz. Sep. 27, 2023).*
2255 petition for ineffective assistance of counsel on a Fourth Amendment claim is dismissed for lack of standing. United States v. Holley, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 172711 (E.D. Ky. Sep. 27, 2023).*
An erroneous DL suspension record still led to a valid search. (Evans; Herring) United States v. Boxx, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 172377 (N.D. Ohio Sep. 27, 2023).
Appellant’s request that the court of appeals reject Franks and state supreme court precedent following it is rejected. State v. Boyd, 2023 Iowa App. LEXIS 752 (Sep. 27, 2023).*
There was probable cause for defendant’s cell phone: “The communications used to support probable cause were directly related to the homicide, as explained by Morris during interviewing.” State v. Morris, 2023 Iowa App. LEXIS 743 (Sep. 27, 2023).*
Defendant’s stop led to a view of a 10″ knife which the officer believed violated his probation. That reasonably led to a frisk that produced a gun. State v. Keck, 328 Or. App. 295 (Sep. 27, 2023).*
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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, Let it Bleed (album, 1969)
"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]
“Children grow up thinking the adult world is ordered, rational, fit for purpose. It’s crap. Becoming a man is realising that it’s all rotten. Realising how to celebrate that rottenness, that’s freedom.” – John le Carré, The Night Manager (1993), line by Richard Roper
"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)
The book was dedicated in the first (1982) and sixth (2025) editions to Justin William Hall (1975-2025). He was three when this project started in 1978.
