Evidence from the wiretap in coded language strongly supported the inference that defendant had drugs in his house. United States v. Flynn, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209546 (D.Mass. Dec. 12, 2018).*
Defendant was outside of his car walking away when he was stopped and arrested. The search of his car was based on the automobile exception because of the smell of marijuana coming from it. United States v. Mitchell, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208851 (W.D. Ky. Dec. 12, 2018).*
Posted inAutomobile exception, Probable cause|Comments Off on D.Mass.: Coded language on wiretap supported issuance of SW for house; inference of drug dealing was apparent
Immigration status questions require reasonable suspicion. It was lacking at first because they thought at first defendant was somebody else, but the officer quickly concluded the correct facts. Then there was reasonable suspicion. United States v. Hernandez-Hernandez, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208349 (E.D. Ky. Dec. 11, 2018): Continue reading →
Posted inImmigration arrests|Comments Off on E.D.Ky.: Immigration questions require RS; here they had it
A reasonable but mistaken belief defendant’s car was just involved in a burglary justified its stop. United States v. Morgan, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208715 (W.D. Mo. Oct. 31, 2018), adopted, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207735 (W.D. Mo. Dec. 10, 2018): Continue reading →
Posted inReasonableness|Comments Off on W.D.Mo.: A reasonable but mistaken belief defendant’s car was just involved in a burglary justified its stop
A surreptitiously made recording invalid by Georgia statute is still admissible in federal court. United States v. Kilpatrick, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208799 (N.D. Ga. Nov. 1, 2018), adopted, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208223 (N.D. Ga. Dec. 10, 2018).
At the pleading stage, plaintiff overcomes qualified immunity, but doesn’t tell us how. “Here, viewing the allegations in the complaint in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, the complaint stated a cause of action based upon Forbes’s conduct in connection with obtaining the search warrant (see Delgado v City of New York, 86 AD3d at 510). We cannot say at this stage of the action whether Forbes is entitled to qualified immunity.” Sculti v. Finley, 2018 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8429 (2d Dept. Dec. 12, 2018).*
Posted inQualified immunity, Reasonableness|Comments Off on N.D.Ga.: Surreptitiously made recording invalid by Georgia statute is still admissible in federal court
“Dubose raises a slew of arguments [not a good sign] in support of her contention that the affidavit fails to establish probable cause to search the iPhone; however, none of those arguments has merit.” There was an argument that a critical fact which would explain contact between people on a cell phone was buried, but it wasn’t. Transcripts of jail calls supporting probable cause are not required. United States v. Dubose, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207399 (N.D. Ga. Nov. 16, 2018), adopted in part, granted in part United States v. Obie, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206781 (N.D. Ga., Dec. 6, 2018).
Ordering defendant out of the car and patting him down was justified under the Fourth Amendment. The state argues that defendant’s state constitutional argument was waived in the trial court. Waived or not, the rule is the same. Negash v. State, 2018 Ind. App. LEXIS 467 (Dec. 11, 2018).*
Posted inPrison and jail searches, Stop and frisk|Comments Off on N.D.Ga.: When jail calls are a part of the PC for a SW affidavit, transcripts aren’t required
Defendant was in a “catastrophic car crash” and was at the hospital. Officers suspected defendant had been driving under the influence. Medical treatment and IVs were expected, and a warrantless blood draw was done. It turned out that it was all premature. The trial judge found no facts supporting exigency, and that binds appellate review. State v. Garcia, 2018 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1209 (Dec. 12, 2018): Continue reading →
A tracking device was put on defendant’s Jeep by warrant, and it was tracked into New Jersey as well. The court offers that it’s a difficult question whether the vehicle could be tracked in New Jersey too, but decides the case on inevitable discovery. Metelus v. State, 2018 Del. LEXIS 556 (Dec. 10, 2018) (same: Ways v. State, 2018 Del. LEXIS 550 (Dec. 11, 2018)): Continue reading →
Posted inInevitable discovery, Tracking warrant|Comments Off on DE: Whether a state tracking warrant permits tracking in NJ is avoided in favor of inevitable discovery
Defendant argues that the officers violated Washington state law in his search and seizure. That doesn’t matter in federal court. United States v. Dauenhauer, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 34797 (9th Cir. Dec. 11, 2018).
Under Hudson, “The federal exclusionary rule, therefore, does not apply to a violation of the knock and announce rule.” The officers said they did, and petitioner says they didn’t. Doesn’t matter, especially on post-conviction. Potter v. United States, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208782 (N.D. Tex. Dec. 11, 2018).*
Posted inConflict of laws, Knock and announce|Comments Off on CA9: Whether state officers violated state law in the search doesn’t matter in federal court under the 4A
Plaintiff’s pat down at the jail after a valid arrest led officers to believe that he had something protruding from his anus. He denied anything was there, and he refused to consent to removing it. Officers got a search warrant for an anal cavity search at the jail. A doctor performed the search and nothing was found. Plaintiff then sued arguing that the search should never have occurred. The defendants get qualified immunity because there was probable cause. Charlot v. City of Houston, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 34633 5th Cir. Dec. 10, 2018)*: Continue reading →
Posted inBody searches, Qualified immunity|Comments Off on CA5: Officers get QI for body cavity search with SW that turned up nothing
Apparent authority to consent is also standing. Lack of apparent authority to consent is no standing. State v. Madewell, 2018 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 896 (Dec. 12, 2018).
The smell of marijuana was probable cause for the search of defendant’s car. United States v. Mitchell, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208851 (W.D. Ky. Oct. 29, 2018),* adopted, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207517 (W.D. Ky. Dec. 7, 2018).*
“In the wiretap context, [the particularity] requirements are satisfied by identification of the telephone line to be tapped and the particular conversations to be seized.” United States v. Campos, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207456 (D.D.C. Dec. 10, 2018).*
Posted inApparent authority|Comments Off on TN: Apparent authority to consent also determines standing
Defendant was in his car on another person’s curtilage when he was there to visit. The officer’s walking up to the car on the curtilage of the owner to look in defendant’s car window violated the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Darden, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207956 (M.D. Tenn. Dec. 10, 2018): Continue reading →
Posted inCurtilage|Comments Off on M.D.Tenn.: Def was sitting in car on friend’s curtilage visiting the friend, and officer violated curtilage to look in car window
The fact something was extracted from defendant’s iPod in April but not turned over to the defense until August isn’t a ground to dismiss. United States v. Taylor, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206364 (W.D. Wash. Dec. 7, 2018).
There was probable cause: “Based on my review of the evidence, I find that the Application for the 4181 Leidy Avenue Search Warrant was supported by probable cause because it included information from confidential informants, summaries of seven controlled buys, summaries of intercepted conversations that related to Toney’s drug transactions, and surveillance of Toney’s participation in drug trafficking activities.” United States v. Toney, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206534 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 4, 2018).*
Posted inProbable cause, Warrant execution|Comments Off on W.D.Wash.: 4 month delay in producing evidence from iPod doesn’t warrant dismissal
“Maurice Carter pled guilty to a variety of sex crimes and received a twenty-year prison sentence. He now petitions for habeas relief. Carter alleges his attorneys were constitutionally ineffective for failing to make the best arguments for suppression of key evidence. Yet even if Carter’s counsel had made different arguments, the end result in his case would have remained the same—the evidence against Carter would have come in. Therefore, we affirm the district court and deny Carter’s habeas petition.” Carter v. Parris, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 34622 (6th Cir. Dec. 10, 2018).
“Overall, initially there was a basis for the Terry search which developed into probable cause to search the vehicle based on the marijuana observed in plain view and the cash with the smell of marijuana. There was no violation of the Fourth Amendment and no basis to suppress the evidence. Shkambi’s complaints about the search lack merit.” Shkambi v. United States, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208765 (E.D. Tex. Nov. 12, 2018), adopted, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208065 (E.D. Tex. Dec. 10, 2018).*
Posted inIneffective assistance|Comments Off on CA6: 2255 argument that def counsel didn’t make “best arguments for suppression” fails; he’d still lose
“Maurice Carter pled guilty to a variety of sex crimes and received a twenty-year prison sentence. He now petitions for habeas relief. Carter alleges his attorneys were constitutionally ineffective for failing to make the best arguments for suppression of key evidence. Yet even if Carter’s counsel had made different arguments, the end result in his case would have remained the same—the evidence against Carter would have come in. Therefore, we affirm the district court and deny Carter’s habeas petition.” Carter v. Parris, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 34622 (6th Cir. Dec. 10, 2018).
Alleged inconsistency about who was using a cell phone in a wiretap application, and the wiretap led to a search warrant, doesn’t undermine the search warrant. It wasn’t material nor was it shown to be with reckless disregard for the truth. United States v. Toney, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206534 (E.D. Pa. Dec. 7, 2018).*
Posted inFranks doctrine, Ineffective assistance|Comments Off on CA6: Def’s IAC argument that suppression argument could have been better made fails because it wouldn’t prevail in any event
Defendant lacked standing to contest a search of the apartment he knew was rented by another for him via identity theft. United States v. Kafuku, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207331 (D. Utah Dec. 8, 2018): Continue reading →
Posted inStanding|Comments Off on D.Utah: Def lacked standing in an apt rented for him he knew was by identity theft
Defendant had standing as an overnight guest, but he was subject to the consent of the owner. Here, the owner did. Doleman v. State, 2018 Ga. LEXIS 791 (Dec. 10, 2018).
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for embracing the fact that drugs were found in the premises where he was because the search was valid. Instead, the reasonable strategy was to argue the drugs belonged to others inside. Carter v. United States, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207778 (E.D. Mo. Dec. 10, 2018).*
Posted inConsent, Ineffective assistance|Comments Off on GA: Guest had standing but he was subject to owner’s consenting
When defendant was arrested for kidnapping and murder, exigent circumstances justified seizing and then searching defendant’s clothes for trace evidence of the crime. Commonwealth v. Parker, 2018 Mass. LEXIS 807 (Dec. 7, 2018).
A dead body near defendant’s apartment with nexus to defendant was probable cause for a search warrant for defendant’s apartment. Mizell v. State, 2018 Ga. LEXIS 795 (Dec. 10, 2018).*
The officer used a smartphone translation application which has been disapproved of by other courts. Here, however, defendant also got a form in correct Spanish, and that overcame the use of the app. United States v. Salemi-Nicoloso, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206701 (N.D. Miss. Dec. 7, 2018).
The affidavit showed probable cause. Even if it didn’t, the good faith exception applied. United States v. Hawkinson, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206681 (D. Minn. Dec. 7, 2018).*
Google caught a child pornography image by its hash value and then reviewed it manually. Then it was turned over to NCMEC. This was a private search. United States v. Gregory, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206644 (D. Neb. Dec. 7, 2018),* adopting, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207885 (D. Neb. Oct. 29, 2018).*
Posted inConsent, Private search|Comments Off on N.D.Miss.: Use of a smartphone app to translate request for consent was mooted by valid Spanish consent form
The body camera video showed neither exigency nor consent for the entry into defendant’s apartment. Silently going along with the officer’s several directives, not requests, didn’t show that defendant consented. Even if defendant had consented, the attempt to close the door was revocation of consent. As to exigency as an exception, there was no suggestion of a threat of harm or a weapon. State v. Reed, 2018 WI 109, 2018 Wisc. LEXIS 639 (Dec. 7, 2018).
The trial court erred in not ordering defendant to give a DNA sample. State v. Johnson, 2018 La. App. LEXIS 2429 (La. App. 1 Cir. Dec. 8, 2018).*
Posted inConsent, Emergency / exigency|Comments Off on WI: Body camera video showed def just went along with directions and didn’t consent; if there was consent, it was revoked
"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.