A domestic abuse victim police encountered bleeding outside had apparent authority to consent to an entry and search of the property. As the police came up, she said “He beat me bad this time.” Quintero v. Vega, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107827 (E.D. Wis. June 7, 2021).
Police received a second hand 911 call about domestic violence in a home. Their warrantless entry was justified. Defendant had a gun and wouldn’t separate from his victim until the officers pulled their own. United States v. Goins, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107892 (E.D. Mich. June 9, 2021).
Defendant made an offer of proof of a Franks violation, but the court finds it inadequate to show materiality. United States v. Patterson, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107266 (W.D. Va. June 7, 2021).*
Petitioner’s habeas claim that what might be triple hearsay for a warrant is speculative on this showing and rejected as seeking an advisory opinion. Clary v. Salmonson, 2021 Mont. LEXIS 529 (June 8, 2021).*
Reason: Gorsuch Pushes Stronger Fourth Amendment Protections by Damon Root (“Can a cop enter a suspect’s home without a warrant if they’re in pursuit and have probable cause to believe the suspect has committed a misdemeanor?”):
A second officer running warrants on detainees from a justified vehicle stop did not have anything to do with the original mission of the stop. “Officer Hogan questioned the passenger while Officer Holland dealt with Brewer, and we do not see how Officer Hogan’s separate conversation delayed Holland’s investigation or the stop as a whole.” There was also reasonable suspicion the occupants were armed. United States v. Brewer, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 17130 (6th Cir. June 7, 2021).
Habeas petitioner completely fails to show that any of the suppression grounds he raises would have been granted if they were made dooms his IAC claim. Montelongo-Rangel v. Warden, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106969 (S.D. Ohio June 7, 2021).*
There was nexus between defendant’s controlled buy and a rental car to justify a tracking warrant for the car. Omitting the name of the renter of the car wasn’t material because they officer didn’t know it. The warrant for a motel room was not stale because it was based on his using the motel repeatedly for drug transactions over the previous few months. United States v. Brown, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107228 (D. Vt. June 8, 2021).*
LATimes: FBI wants to keep fortune in cash, gold, jewels from Beverly Hills raid. Is it abuse of power? by Michael Finnegan (“When FBI agents asked for permission to rip hundreds of safe deposit boxes from the walls of a Beverly Hills business and haul them away, U.S. Magistrate Steve Kim set some strict limits on the raid. The business, U.S. Private Vaults, had been charged in a sealed indictment with conspiring to sell drugs and launder money. Its customers had not. So the FBI could seize the boxes themselves, Kim decided, but had to return what was inside to the owners.”)
Posted inForfeiture|Comments Off on LATimes: FBI wants to keep fortune in cash, gold, jewels from Beverly Hills raid. Is it abuse of power?
Law.com: Hey SIRI, Does the Fifth Amendment Protect My Passcode? by Robert J. Anello & Richard F. Albert (“When law enforcement seeks to compel a subject to provide a passcode to allow them to rummage through a cellphone, courts have not spoken with a unified voice. On May 12th, the Supreme Court declined to wade in, seemingly guaranteeing that continued uncertainty on this critical issue will continue to bedevil criminal practitioners.”)
Posted inCell phones, Privileges|Comments Off on Law.com: Hey SIRI, Does the Fifth Amendment Protect My Passcode?
Forbes: Cop Who Led Accidental No-Knock Raid Against 78-Year-Old Grandfather Can’t Be Sued, Court Rules by Nick Sibilla (“It was a police raid John Oliver called ‘almost cartoonishly idiotic.’ Looking to apprehend a violent drug dealer at his home in McDonough, Georgia, more than two dozen officers executed a no-knock warrant in February 2018. Smashing the door open with a battering ram, before tossing a flash grenade inside, officers stormed in with guns drawn, and quickly subdued the home’s lone resident, forcing him down on the ground.”)
Posted inExcessive force, Warrant execution|Comments Off on Forbes: Cop Who Led Accidental No-Knock Raid Against 78-Year-Old Grandfather Can’t Be Sued, Court Rules
Officers had reasonable suspicion under Glover to believe the driver of a vehicle was the owner who had a suspended DL. Mitchell v. Commonwealth, 2021 Va. App. LEXIS 89 (June 8, 2021).
“Calvert’s comments to police to shoot him and release the dog, confirmed by Cook’s dashboard camera video, would lead a reasonable person to believe that Calvert posed an immediate threat to himself and the officers. Furthermore, Calvert’s comments, his attempted flight, and his refusal to comply with police commands ‘gave every indication of unwillingness to surrender[.]’ … Calvert’s unsubstantiated assertions that he did not flee or pose a threat are not sufficient to defeat the defendants’ well-supported motion for summary judgment.” Calvert v. City of Steubenville, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 16947 (6th Cir. June 8, 2021).*
Officers had reasonable suspicion to approach defendant on the street, but he didn’t submit and fled. Even if there wasn’t reasonable suspicion, he abandoned the weapon he was carrying. United States v. Hooper, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106813 (D. N.J. June 7, 2021).*
An extraterritorial seizure of art work and antiquities in Switzerland of American citizens doesn’t involve the Fourth Amendment. International law has not adopted the Fourth Amendment’s probable cause standard. There is no justification shown for applying the Fourth Amendment to Switzerland’s activities there or meddling in their investigation. Beierwaltes v. L’Office Federale de la Culture de la Confederation Suisse (Fed. Office of Culture of the Swiss Confederation), 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 16942 (2d Cir. June 8, 2021).
Filing a CSLI motion pre-Carpenter was a futile act for defense counsel, so there was no ineffectiveness. People v. Cerda, 2021 IL App (1st) 171433, 2021 Ill. App. LEXIS 282 (June 3, 2021).*
Just because defendant’s alleged drug operation was located in his apartment, that didn’t mean the officers did not also have probable cause as to his car. They did. Commonwealth v. Ortiz, 2021 Mass. LEXIS 345 (June 8, 2021).*
Posted inForeign searches, Ineffective assistance, Nexus|Comments Off on CA2: No 4A extraterritorial jurisdiction over Switzerland enforcing its own law against Americans in Switzerland
Defendant’s arrest in a common area of an apartment building was not on the curtilage. United States v. Anderson, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106278 (N.D. Ill. June 7, 2021).
Defendant’s Franks challenge fails as to what was omitted from the affidavit. Even without it, there is still probable cause because the omissions are immaterial. United States v. Blair, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106366 (N.D. Ga. May 5, 2021).*
Defendant’s Franks challenge to a child pornography search warrant fails because the officer wasn’t required to show the evidence to the USMJ issuing the warrant. A description suffices. United States v. Mileikis, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106541 (D. Mass. June 7, 2021).*
“Officers also had reasonable suspicion that Holmes was involved in at least one completed felony based on the following specific, articulable facts: (1) NIBIN analysis of ballistics evidence recovered from the March 3, 2020 shooting matched that of the firearm used in the January 10, 2020 carjacking and shooting in this case and a December 2019 shooting; (2) Holmes’ GPS location data put him at the scene of all three shootings; (3) the victim of the January 10, 2020 carjacking and shooting had previously identified Holmes as one of the perpetrators; and (4) GPS location information indicated that Holmes—to whom the Chevrolet sedan was registered—was inside the car at the time of the traffic stop. Thus, the officers’ initial stop of Holmes’ vehicle unquestionably passes Fourth Amendment muster.” United States v. Holmes, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106562 (S.D. Ohio June 7, 2021).*
The officer had reasonable suspicion to stop defendant’s vehicle on the inference that the driver was the owner who had an outstanding warrant. The court declines to adopt a higher standard for reasonable suspicion under the state constitution. Commonwealth v. Jefferson, 2021 PA Super 116, 2021 Pa. Super. LEXIS 362 (June 7, 2021).
The affidavit for the search warrant here showed probable cause, so the good faith exception did not have to be decided. United States v. Moore, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 16846 (6th Cir. June 7, 2021).*
There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s continued detention on the highway because the paperwork on the vehicle was quite inadequate. United States v. Louis, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 16853 (11th Cir. June 7, 2021).*
“In analyzing Wright’s argument, the Court is ever mindful that ‘[t]he line between a lawful Terry stop and an unlawful arrest is not bright.’ United States v. Askew, 403 F.3d 496, 507 (7th Cir. 2005).” Here, defendants were lawfully stopped, and furtive movements during the stop produced reasonable suspicion. United States v. Wright, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106258 (N.D. Ind. June 7, 2021).*
BBC: ANOM: Hundreds arrested in massive global crime sting using messaging app (“More than 800 suspected criminals have been arrested worldwide after being tricked into using an FBI-run encrypted messaging app, officials say. [¶] The operation, jointly conceived by Australia and the FBI, saw devices with the ANOM app secretly distributed among criminals, allowing police to monitor their chats about drug smuggling, money laundering and even murder plots. [¶] Officials called it a watershed moment.”). There’s likely no reasonable expectation of privacy in a messaging app, even hoping it’s a third-party’s and not the government’s,
Social workers must comply with the Fourth Amendment, and they can plead exceptions. Scharbrough v. South Central Ohio Job & Family Servs., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105993 (S.D. Ohio June 7, 2021)*:
GPS information as to defendant’s location can be reasonable suspicion despite defendant’s claims it might not be admissible at trial. United States v. Martin, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 16822 (8th Cir. June 7, 2021):
Defendant’s using his cell phone to arrange a drug transaction justified a search warrant for it. If firearms are “tools of the trade,” then so are cell phones. United States v. Eggerson, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 16823 (8th Cir. June 7, 2021):
Defendant’s consent to search his apartment was obtained after telling him that it was based on the death of his roommate in the parking lot. He was in “custody,” and this was mere acquiescence to a claim of authority. “In conclusion, we determine this situation is akin to the scenario envisioned in Mil. R. Evid. 314(e)(4), specifically ‘[m]ere submission to the color of authority of personnel performing law enforcement duties or acquiescence in an announced or indicated purpose to search.’ Considering the totality of the circumstances, we find the military judge abused his discretion in finding that appellant freely and voluntarily consented to the search of his apartment on 23 December 2016.” United States v. Hale, 2021 CCA LEXIS 274 (Army Ct. Crim. App. June 3, 2021).
Defendant was seized by being told not to run and that the police had dogs, and it was without reasonable suspicion of any wrongdoing. The fact the neighborhood was known for drug dealing says nothing about defendant. United States v. Celes, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105596 (E.D. Cal. June 4, 2021).
Defendant has no standing to contest a search of his co-conspirator’s house. United States v. Pelayo, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105670 (W.D. Wash. June 4, 2021).
Police got a search warrant for defendant’s car in late May 2019 for three controlled buys from the car in the first two weeks of May. The warrant wasn’t executed for nine days. It wasn’t stale. Vehicles are mobile and not fixed like a house. The officers tried to find it, and the delay did not make it stale. State v. Waters, 2021 Del. Super. LEXIS 455 (June 2, 2021).
Posted inConsent, Seizure, Staleness, Standing|Comments Off on Army: Consent to search was mere acquiescence to a claim of authority
“On the certified question, we conclude that the answer depends on the totality of circumstances surrounding an encounter. Further, while VanBeek was not seized when Officer Oetzel took her driver’s license to run a records check, VanBeek was seized when Oetzel returned to her vehicle, withheld her driver’s license and continued to question her and her passenger in order to hold her until a drug-sniff dog, i.e., the K9 unit, that he had requested arrived. Finally, we conclude that the seizure was unlawful because, based on the totality of circumstances, Oetzel did not have reasonable suspicion that VanBeek was engaged in criminal activity at the time he seized her. Accordingly, we reverse the circuit court’s judgment of conviction and remand with instruction to grant VanBeek’s motion to suppress.” State v. Vanbeek, 2021 WI 51, 2021 Wisc. LEXIS 85 (June 4, 2021).
The officer here watched defendant stop in front of a house at 3:36 am and turn off the lights. A person in the house came out to the car, got in, and got out in 10-15 seconds. There was reasonable suspicion of a drug transaction justifying a stop. State v. Genous, 2021 WI 50, 2021 Wisc. LEXIS 72 (June 4, 2021).*
Posted inReasonable suspicion|Comments Off on WI: Holding def’s DL without RS made the stop unreasonable while drug dog was summoned
“The Court concludes that the protective sweep exception applies. When the officers first attempted to pull Canada over, Canada took an abnormal amount of time to stop his vehicle, despite a clear roadway with no obstructions. The officers testified that in their training and experience, a slow stop can indicate that the driver is attempting to retrieve or conceal a weapon or other contraband. Then, upon the officers’ approach of the vehicle, Officer Jensen observed that Canada had his shoulders pinned up against the back of his seat with his hips lifted off the seat and was reaching his right arm behind his seat. Officer Jensen immediately became concerned that Canada was attempting to conceal or reach for a weapon. The Court concludes that Canada’s slow stop combined with his furtive gesture to the area beneath his seat as the officers approached gave rise to the reasonable, articulable suspicion that Canada had access to weapon and may have posed a danger to the officers.” United States v. Canada, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105076 (D.Kan. June 4, 2021).*
Defendant’s lack of particularity argument wasn’t made to the district court, and it’s waived. His probable cause challenge fails because there is probable cause on the totality. His isolation of facts doesn’t apply the totality standard. Kindle v. State, 2021 Tex. App. LEXIS 4403 (Tex. App. – Dallas June 4, 2021).*
Redacted search warrant application showed probable cause even with redactions. United States v. Rivers, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104195 (E.D. Mich. June 3, 2021).
The officer had called for a tow truck for defendant’s car and an inventory was inevitable, the decision already having been made. Therefore, inevitable discovery applies. United States v. Brown, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 16747 (4th Cir. June 4, 2021).
Defendant objectively consented to the search of her cell phone. The officer “testified that he asked ‘Can I search your phone?’ to which Defendant nodded and handed her phone to him. Trooper Ford testified that he did not qualify his request by asking to search Defendant’s email only. The object of interest in this search was Defendant’s phone, not Defendant’s email. Accordingly, I find that Trooper Ford did not exceed the scope of Defendant’s consent when he examined photos contained on her phone.” United States v. Ramos-Colon, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104097 (E.D. Pa. June 3, 2021).*
A “court order” for tracking defendant’s vehicle satisfied the warrant requirement, and it didn’t have to be called a search warrant. It was issued with probable cause, and the good faith exception applied. Whittington v. State, 2021 Md. LEXIS 255 (June 2, 2021).
A wiretap warrant issued and executed in Kings County had jurisdiction even if the cell phones had traveled or were outside of NYS. People v. Schneider, 2021 NY Slip Op 03486, 2021 N.Y. LEXIS 973 (June 3, 2021).
Defendant’s failure to come to a complete stop justified his traffic stop, and that supported the plain view of a gun in the door visible when it was opened. United States v. Gallman, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104107 (E.D. Pa. June 3, 2021).*
It is possible for a search warrant affidavit to suggest the lack of credibility of the CI, but, here, the CI’s credibility was corroborated by other facts and her willingness to be identified. United States v. Woods, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 16757 (6th Cir. June 3, 2021):
"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.
