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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com© 2003-21,
online since Feb. 24, 2003
WebPage Visits: real non-robot hits since 2010; approx. about 35,000 posts since 2003~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and linksLatest Slip Opinions:
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $Research Links:
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (2012)
ACLU on privacy
Privacy Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
Section 1983 Blog"If it was easy, everybody would be doing it. It isn't, and they don't."
—Me“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"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"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]“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
"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."
---Pepé Le Pew
—Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 13-14 (1948)
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Author Archives: Hall
E.D.Mich.: Listing inventory on police report and not inventory sheet not unreasonable
“Therefore, the officers’ decision to list the items recovered during the inventory search in the Incident Report and not on the Impound Report does not invalidate the inventory search.” United States v. Morris, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 182946 (E.D.Mich. Sept. … Continue reading
VT: Roving CBP patrol stop one mile from Canadian border violated state const. even though probably not 4A
A roving border patrol stop a mile from the Canadian border led to state charges against defendant. The court holds the state constitution was violated even if the Fourth Amendment was not, and the evidence should be suppressed. State v. … Continue reading
IL: Mere visitor present at time of SW execution could not be searched without reason
Defendant was merely on the premises raided, and he was clearly not the person sought. There were no furtive gestures or other justification. The search of his person was unreasonable. People v. Duffie, 2021 IL App (1st) 171620, 2021 Ill. … Continue reading
WaPo: When the FBI seizes your messages from Big Tech, you may not know it for years
WaPo: When the FBI seizes your messages from Big Tech, you may not know it for years by Jay Greene & Drew Harwell (“Microsoft, Google, Facebook and other tech firms are pressing lawmakers to stop prosecutors from secretly snooping on … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Sex offense victim’s uncorroborated statements supported issuance of SW for defendant’s email account
Sex offense victim’s uncorroborated statements supported issuance of a warrant for defendant’s email account. A victim is not treated the same as an informant for probable cause purposes. United States v. Deleon, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 182049 (E.D.Ky. Sept. 23, … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Exigency permitted warrantless CSLI pings
Only the owner of a cell phone has standing to challenge tracking the phone with a Stingray. Warrantless pings to locate the phone were shown by the government to be based on exigent circumstances. United States v. Baker, 2021 U.S. … Continue reading
OR: Dog sniff during traffic stop lacked any RS
“Here, officers deployed a drug-detection dog during a traffic stop for failing to signal continuously for at least 100 feet before turning-without articulating any independent constitutional justification. Moreover, the state has not identified any theory or pointed us to any … Continue reading
ID: RS as to driver and officer safety extends to passenger, too
When a traffic stop turns into reasonable suspicion for other crime, the reasonable suspicion extends to being able to control the passenger, too, for officer safety. There is no reasoned basis for differentiating between drivers and passengers for officer safety. … Continue reading
OH7: Visitor to hotel room with no key or shown association to room had no standing
Defendant was a visitor to a hotel room and he had no standing to challenge its search. He had no key to the room and no luggage or other belongings, and he couldn’t show he was a guest of either … Continue reading
TX12: An uncorroborated first time informant provided no RS for stop
An uncorroborated first time informant provided no reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop. State v. Donnell, 2021 Tex. App. LEXIS 7813 (Tex. App. – Tyler Sept. 22, 2021):
E.D.Wis.: Def had no REP in sister’s bedroom
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy to contest the search of his sister’s bedroom. United States v. Slater, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 180673 (E.D.Wis. Sept. 22, 2021). There was probable cause for search of defendant’s car, and the opportunity … Continue reading
AR: Arrest outside officer’s jurisdiction not constitutionally unreasonable
The jurisdiction of an officer to make an arrest does not make an arrest outside of the officer’s jurisdiction unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment or the state constitution. Durden v. City of Van Buren, 2021 Ark. App. 357, 2021 Ark. … Continue reading
CA9: Police exceeded Google’s private search of email
Google viewed defendant’s email attachments and reported child pornography, but when police got their hands on it, they exceeded the private search. United States v. Wilson, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 28569 (9th Cir. Sept. 21, 2021):
CA8: Unnecessary prolonged handcuffing of ptf overcame QI; if there was a reason for it, it had long passed
Plaintiff overcame qualified immunity here because he was unnecessarily left handcuffed without any objective reason for it. There was no reasonable suspicion. Haynes v. Minnehan, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 28550 (8th Cir. Sept. 21, 2021). In this prison search case, … Continue reading
NC: Calling for drug dog right away here didn’t extend time, but the sniff became reasonable by RS otherwise developing
The officer here preemptively called for a drug dog before running the DL information on the occupants. That did not measurably extend the time. After calling for the dog, the officer found out there were warrants on one, and then … Continue reading
GA: 911 call about a possible dead body at a mobile home didn’t need to be corroborated
A call about a possible dead body at a location where police had responded before was sufficiently specific to justify an emergency response. On this record, their belief was objectively reasonable, and the story didn’t need to be corroborated. Tidwell … Continue reading
D.Conn.: No REP in parolee’s GPS monitor that placed him at scene of murder
The search warrant for defendant’s phone to attempt to link him to a murder of a witness was based on probable cause that he was seen in a car likely involved and his parole GPS monitor that put him there. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: No REP in Instagram postings, private or public
There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in defendant’s Instragram account postings and communications whether it was set private or not. United States v. Dixson, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178371 (E.D.Mich. Sept. 20, 2021):
E.D.Pa.: This judge wouldn’t have signed this SW, but that’s not the standard of review
While this judge wouldn’t have issued the search warrant on the information provided, that’s not the standard of review. There was, in fact, a substantial basis for finding probable cause. United States v. Moore, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178263 (E.D.Pa. … Continue reading
