Defendant’s juvenile son was selling from his dad’s stash. After the son’s arrest, he gave up his source. Defendant can’t raise violations of his son’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment or statutory rights as a juvenile to challenge the probable cause for the search of the house. State v. DeGroot, 2017 Iowa App. LEXIS 1140 (Nov. 8, 2017).
Whether defendant’s arrest required an arrest warrant because it was not for an indictable offense was not presented to the trial court, so it’s not preserved for review. There was probable cause for simple assault, but potentially also for a more serious assault, and that would have been lawful anyway. State v. Halverson, 2017 Iowa App. LEXIS 1117 (Nov. 8, 2017).*
Police had a “hot sheet,” a list of stolen cars from a car dealership, and were on the look out. “In this case, Officer Palmer believed that the red Dodge Challenger had been stolen from the dealership in Excelsior Springs, Missouri. This belief was based on his review of hot sheets that morning which listed stolen automobiles in the Kansas City area. Although this belief was supported by a misreading of the hot sheets, I find this mistake to be objectively reasonable.” The mistake was one letter difference in reading the sheets. United States v. Williams, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186059 (W.D. Mo. Aug. 7, 2017).*
The search of the car here was supported by consent. If not consent, inevitable discovery applies because inventory was next. United States v. Marin, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184005 (D. Md. Nov. 7, 2017).*
Posted inInevitable discovery, Reasonableness|Comments Off on W.D.Mo.: Misreading a “hot sheet” for stop of a car was objectively reasonable mistake
Defendant’s wife called 911 to report a possible burglary, and police were invited in. In the house they did a protective sweep, and they saw likely evidence of dogfighting: a caged injured dog, a treadmill modified for dogs “and apparent dogfighting paraphernalia.” They called a superior officer and an SPCA person who confirmed it. She rearranged some dog vitamins and other things to photograph them. The photograph was used for a search warrant to come back to seize the dogfighting evidence. That didn’t justify suppressing the evidence as fruit of the poisonous tree. People v. Richardson, 2017 NY Slip Op 07857, 2017 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7913 (4th Dept. Nov. 9, 2017): Continue reading →
Posted inConsent, Plain view, feel, smell|Comments Off on NY4: Officers rearranged things to photograph them during a consent entry and plain view didn’t vitiate the PC
There was sufficient probable cause defendants were involved in a robbery and could be linked to evidence in the case for DNA samples to be taken from them by search warrants. “Although the Search Warrant lacks direct evidence that the United States will find testable DNA on the items, it contains circumstantial evidence to that effect.” United States v. Sedillo, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184274 (D. N.M. Nov. 7, 2017).
“In the present case, Plaintiff raises various constitutional claims related to the prosecution and trial arising out of his 2009 arrest, including ineffective assistance of counsel and denial of due process, a fair trial, and the Confrontation Clause. A ruling by the Court that Defendants Fulton County Judicial System, Commonwealth’s Attorney Stacy, or any other Defendant violated his constitutional rights during the prosecution leading to his criminal conviction would necessarily render that conviction invalid.” It is thus barred by Heck v. Humphrey. Russell v. First Baptist Church, Fulton, Ky., 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183930 (W.D. Ky. Nov. 7, 2017).*
Posted in§ 1983 / Bivens, DNA, Probable cause|Comments Off on D.N.M.: There was at least circumstantial evidence defs’ DNA would be found in evidence to justify SW for it
“Here, Defendant Notyce was neither the sender nor the addressee of the package. The parcel was not addressed to him or a physical location associated with him. Defendant Notyce did not retrieve the parcel from the post office box or display any other conduct that would demonstrate a privacy interest in the parcel’s contents. At minimum, Defendant Notyce used three separate people—Defendant Yanagihara, Defendant Matsuda, and an intermediary who was not charged in the indictment—to deliver the parcel to him. Accordingly, the Court finds that Defendant Notyce did not have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the parcel and therefore does not have standing to challenge its search and detention.” United States v. Notyce, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183423 (D. Haw. Nov. 6, 2017).
Posted inMail and packages, Standing|Comments Off on D.Haw.: Using three people to mask defendant’s alleged ownership of a package was a lack of standing in the package
The FBI is blaming the tech industry’s encryption standard on its inability to unlock the cellphone of the Texas shooter. But some experts say if the FBI acted more quickly, it would have access.
The dead have no reasonable expectation of privacy. Why don’t they hire the hackers of the iPhone from the San Bernadino massacre?
Posted inCell phones|Comments Off on NPR: Texas Gunman’s Locked Cellphone Renews Debate Over Encryption
Many researchers fear the consequences of training computers to identify a person’s sexual orientation and criminality based solely on physical appearance.
Posted inSurveillance technology|Comments Off on The Atlantic: Are Face Scans Resurrecting the False Science of Physiognomy?
Public access to police body camera footage would be limited under a bill approved Thursday by the Wisconsin Assembly. The legislation is designed to give law enforcement clear guidelines for using the technology and to protect the privacy of victims and witnesses, said bill author Rep. Jesse Kremer, R-Kewaskum. But open records advocates say it shifts the balance in favor of secrecy rather than disclosure.
Posted inBody cameras|Comments Off on The Cap Times: Wisconsin Assembly approves bill to limit release of police body camera footage
The House Judiciary Committee has advanced a bill that would provide Americans modest protections from unwarranted surveillance, but falls far short of what civil liberties and privacy groups (and several legislators) demand.
It’s no surprise the USA Liberty Act passed out of the committee, 27-8, yesterday, having been hammered out by committee members and lawyers. But the committee resisted amendments that would make the privacy protections for Americans stronger.
Posted inFISA|Comments Off on Reason: Showdown Looming over Reform of Federal Surveillance Laws
The court that was supposed to be neutral and fair in all of this got a cut of the proceeds. Had the family won, the court would have received nothing. Does that sound rigged? It ought to.
Posted inForfeiture|Comments Off on WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Alabama task force performs drug raid, man dies. Officials take his home, split the proceeds.
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Post and Courier: Thousands of arrest warrants for low-level offenders recalled under directive from South Carolina’s chief justice
A broad probation electronics search condition for domestic battery was constitutionally overbroad because it doesn’t sufficiently serve the state’s interests compared to the crime of conviction. A cell phone has far too much information on it to make it so broadly searchable. People v. Valdivia, 2017 Cal. App. LEXIS 986 (3d Dist. Nov. 8, 2017): Continue reading →
Posted inCell phones, Probation / Parole search|Comments Off on Cal.3d: Domestic battery conviction didn’t support cell phone probation search condition
Defendant’s stop exceeded the time necessary for its completion and became unreasonable. The product of the search can’t be used to justify it. [All the serious counts are reversed. Note: Defendant was convicted Sept. 26, 2013, 49½ months before this appeal was decided and he’s parole eligible in 2026.] People v. Newson, 2017 NY Slip Op 07752, 2017 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7800 (2d Dept. Nov. 8, 2017): Continue reading →
Posted inReasonable suspicion|Comments Off on NY2: Def’s stop exceeded reasonableness; search reversed
MADISON – Police body camera footage would be kept from the public in many cases,under a bill the state Assembly is to take up Thursday.
Rep. Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum) says his bill is meant to establish clear rules at a time when police departments around the state are increasingly equipping their officers with body cameras. He says Assembly Bill 351 will protect the rights of victims and witnesses after they live through traumatic experiences.
Posted inBody cameras|Comments Off on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Public would be kept from getting police body camera footage under Wisconsin bill
The federal government is suing a bundle of cash seized in a drug raid last year near Key West that turned up a smaller amount of cocaine and marijuana than agents anticipated they’d find when they served their warrant.
Posted inForfeiture|Comments Off on Miami Herald: Feds want cash seized in a raid last year, so they’re suing the cash
The U.S. Marshal’s fugitive task force, with arrest warrant in hand, was looking for defendant. They were watching his motel room and saw him outside and gave chase. They lost sight of him and circled back to his hotel room and entered it on the arrest warrant, which was valid under Payton. The officers reasonably believed he got back there before them. There was sufficient exigency for a protective sweep. United States v. Ross, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184239 (N.D. Fla. Nov. 7, 2017).
Defendant was subjected to a New York State parole search, and it was otherwise valid. After four weeks, officers got a search warrant and came back and seized a cell phone, among other things. The government relies on inevitable discovery that the phone would still be in the same place after four weeks, and the court requires a hearing for the government to establish that and for the defense to explore whether the deterrence rationale of the exclusionary rule applies. United States v. Robinson, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 182889 (E.D. N.Y. Nov. 1, 2017).*
"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.
