Defense counsel had no duty to raise lack of an arrest warrant for defendant’s arrest because it was frivolous and wouldn’t affect the outcome of the case at all. Brown v. United States, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69027 (C.D. Ill. Apr. 23, 2019).*
Defendant’s presence at the execution of a search warrant elsewhere where he had nothing on him was relevant and admissible to RICO overt acts 96 & 98 showing his part in the conspiracy. Actual possession of drugs isn’t required. United States v. Robinson, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68462 (E.D. Mich. Apr. 23, 2019).*
Defendant brought drugs over to a woman’s house. She had the authority to consent to a search of her own place that resulted in seizure of the drugs. State v. Crawford, 2019-Ohio-1507, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 1607 (5th Dist. Apr. 23, 2019).*
The search warrant authorized search of a gray mobile home. There were two on the property, and the one searched was white. The search warrant was thus ambiguous when the officers arrived, and the court finds the search unjustified because there was no showing of probable cause as to the place actually searched. The court also finds the good faith exception does not apply. United States v. Alcazar-Barajas, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 12187 (9th Cir. Apr. 24, 2019): Continue reading →
Posted inGood faith exception, Warrant execution|Comments Off on CA9: SW was ambiguous as to the mobile home to be searched; no PC shown as to one searched; suppressed
The search warrant for a hotel room authorized seizure of the key to the hotel room to gain access when the officers came upon it. Plain view applied. Even if plain view didn’t apply, the only suppression would be the key itself, and not the search of the room. The search warrant was issued on probable cause. United States v. Joyner, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 67996 (D. Conn. Apr. 23, 2019).
A search claim adjudicated in the direct appeal can’t be relitigated in a post conviction proceeding. State v. Restrepo-Duque, 2019 Del. Super. LEXIS 205 (Apr. 24, 2019).*
The probation search was not shown to be a subterfuge for a criminal investigative search, and it was valid. State v. Spriggs, 2019 La. App. LEXIS 720 (La. App. 5 Cir. Apr. 24, 2019).
Even if, arguendo, the NIT warrant issued in the E.D.Va. was void ab initio for violating Rule 41, that does not mean that the good faith exception cannot apply. The court concludes that it does. United States v. Ganzer, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 12203 (5th Cir. Apr. 24, 2019): Continue reading →
Posted inGood faith exception|Comments Off on CA5, 1 & 10: Even if the Playpen SW was void ab initio, that does not mean the GFE would not apply
Federal courts can get jurisdiction to try cases involving searches conducted by state officers. This isn’t Younger v. Harris in reverse. Green v. United States, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70988 (N.D. Ohio Apr. 27, 2019).
Police leaders hope technology will minimize the number of dangerous chases
So: installation by exigency. It should work constitutionally.
Posted inGPS / Tracking Data|Comments Off on Denver Post: Holy police tech, Batman! Denver officers can now shoot your car with a GPS tracker if you try to flee
Pinging a cell phone to find its location was a search under the Massachusetts Constitution and Fourth Amendment, but it was reasonable because the state showed true exigent circumstances. Commonwealth v. Almonor, 482 Mass. 35 (Apr. 23, 2019).
Washington declines to adopt a per se rule that “We need not decide if Washington should adopt a per se rule that the obstructing of the accused’s exit in a car always constitutes a seizure. Other factors, along with the officer’s blocking the Monte Carlo’s passageway, contribute to our conclusion.” State v. Carriero, 2019 Wash. App. LEXIS 978 (Apr. 25, 2019).*
Arrest for violation of a state domestic relations no contact order justified a search incident of defendant’s car at the scene because it could have contained evidence of the violation, such as a weapon. United States v. Al-Amin, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68315 (D. Minn. Apr. 23, 2019): Continue reading →
Posted inSearch incident|Comments Off on D.Minn.: Arrest for violation of a mutual no contact order justified search incident of car at scene
Speedy trial does not start with the execution of a search warrant, even though the execution of the warrant was embarrassing to him. United States v. Mitrovich, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68460 (N.D. Ill. Apr. 23, 2019): Continue reading →
Posted inWarrant execution|Comments Off on N.D.Ill.: Speedy trial does not start with the execution of a search warrant
A suspect from whom body samples (like DNA) are being taken is entitled by due process to participate in the search warrant issuance process. Here, he wasn’t. Reversed. People v. Goldman, 2019 NY Slip Op 02976, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3010 (1st Dept. Apr. 23, 2019).
“Kight’s only contention regarding the lack of probable cause for the search warrant for his residence is that the affidavit failed to allege facts showing ‘probable cause that contraband would be located at the house.’ His argument is without merit because the affidavit provided sufficient facts to establish a nexus between the crimes under investigation and the residence.”
United States v. Kight, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68619 (N.D. Ga. Mar. 11, 2019), adopted, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68432 (N.D. Ga. Apr. 23, 2019).*
Posted inBody searches, Probable cause|Comments Off on NY1: Def denied opportunity to participate in hearing for body samples required reversal
The Golden State Killer case was just the start. Hundreds of cold cases are hot again thanks to a new genealogy technique. The price may be everyone’s genetic privacy.
Posted inDNA|Comments Off on NYT: Sooner or Later Your Cousin’s DNA Is Going to Solve a Murder
"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.
