Archives
-
Recent Posts
- Natl. L. Rev.: The Reasonableness of Retaining Personal Property Post-Seizure and the Ascendancy of Text, History, and Tradition in Fourth Amendment Jurisprudence
- Five on habeas
- FL6: Handicapped parking violation justified stop
- CA6: Electronic devices were “property under his control” subject to search while on supervised release
- N.D.Tex.: PC and GFE questions were close, and that’s good enough
-
-
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 -
© 2003-24,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 425,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 45,000 posts since 2003 (27,400+ on WordPress as of 7/23/24) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
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
Electronic Privacy Information Center
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 -
"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 -
"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!”
---Pepé Le Pew "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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Category Archives: Hot pursuit
CA8: Hot pursuit justified entry into bank robbery suspect’s home
Hot pursuit was shown for entry into defendant’s home after a trail of evidence led officers there. At the door they could see young children inside and someone on the stairs even though the woman answering the door insisted no … Continue reading
RI: Exigency of hot pursuit in a homicide case made pinging cell phone reasonable
Despite Carpenter saying it is limited to historical CSLI, this court concludes there is no meaningful difference between real-time and historical CSLI under Carpenter. Exigency, however, was real. The police were in hot pursuit seeking to question defendant for a … Continue reading
NV: A-C privilege reason for return of documents
Attorney-client privilege is reason for return of documents under F.R.Crim.P. 41(g), and Nevada recognizes that, too, regardless of whether there is an open investigation. In re Search Warrants Regarding Seizure of Documents, 2023 Nev. App. Unpub. LEXIS 131 (Apr. 7, … Continue reading
WI: Warrantless entry into curtilage was not hot pursuit
The officers here were not in continuous hot pursuit when they entered defendant’s fenced-in backyard, his curtilage. They went there on a call, and they weren’t following. Entry suppressed. State v. Wilson, 2022 WI 77, 2022 Wisc. LEXIS 99 (Nov. … Continue reading
OH8: No PC for hot pursuit into house on less than RS
The state showed no probable cause to justify a warrantless entry into the home of a fleeing misdemeanant. Police got a citizen’s report of a possible impaired driver. When they found the car, it had just pulled into the driveway … Continue reading
IL: Smell of burnt MJ in a car in a recreational use state not PC
“We hold that the smell of the burnt cannabis, without any corroborating factors, is not enough to establish probable cause to search the vehicle, and the court did not err in granting the motion to suppress. This finding comports with … Continue reading
MI: Inventory was reasonable and not pretextual
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not challenging the inventory search of defendant’s car because the inventory was reasonable. After the arrest of the occupants, the vehicle had to be towed, and the inventory was within policy and not a pretext … Continue reading
HI: “[T]he gravity of the crime standing alone cannot establish exigent circumstances” for warrantless entry
Defendant’s unprovoked attack in stabbing a woman on a beach and then fleeing to his home wasn’t exigent by the time the police got there. “[T]he gravity of the crime standing alone cannot establish exigent circumstances.” State v. Willis, 2021 … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Hot pursuit of man with gun into apt was reasonable; and it wasn’t his apt
Defendant didn’t have standing to contest a warrantless entry into his close friend’s apartment when he was hiding there from the police after having fled an apparent arrest. They were also in hot pursuit of a man with a gun. … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Def’s failing to stop for a Terry stop doesn’t justify hot pursuit into home
Officers cannot enter a defendant’s home in hot pursuit from his failing to stop for a Terry stop on mere reasonable suspicion. United States v. Cannon, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112705 (D.N.M. June 16, 2021). The officer’s initial observations of … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Hot pursuit justified entry into def’s house
Highly specific and accurate information from a 911 call about a man with heroin and a gun in a blue drawstring bag in an area known for on-the-street drug deals and violent crimes brought police. Defendant matched the description. There … Continue reading
Reason: Gorsuch Pushes Stronger Fourth Amendment Protections
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?”):
N.D.Ga.: Cell tower dumps to attempt to solve 12 robberies did not require SW
There were 12 robberies and officers got cell tower dumps to attempt to figure out the phone involved. Cell tower dumps did not require a search warrant. United States v. Rhodes, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75184 (N.D. Ga. Apr. 20, … Continue reading
ID: Hot pursuit to execute an arrest warrant with entry is reasonable
Hot or “fresh pursuit” to execute an arrest warrant with entry is reasonable. State v. Clark, 2021 Ida. LEXIS 55 (Mar. 30, 2021):
WY: No hot pursuit into home for traffic violation that wasn’t “hot”
Hot pursuit for a traffic violation did not permit an entry into the home. Here, the pursuit just wasn’t “hot” or exigent because the officer called for backup. Fuller v. State, 2021 WY 36, 2021 Wyo. LEXIS 41 (Feb. 24, … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: Justices to consider whether “hot pursuit” justifies entering a home without a warrant
ScotusBlog: Justices to consider whether “hot pursuit” justifies entering the home without a warrant (“At issue in Lange v. California is whether, when police are pursuing someone for a misdemeanor, that is always an ‘exigent circumstance’ that will allow the … Continue reading
Reason: A Fourth Amendment Mistake the Supreme Court Should Fix
Reason: A Fourth Amendment Mistake the Supreme Court Should Fix by Damon Root (“Don’t expand the “hot pursuit” exception to the Fourth Amendment.”)
GA: Entry into def’s house for pulling a gun on somebody elsewhere wasn’t in hot pursuit and suppressed
Officers entered defendant’s home for allegedly pulling a gun on his girlfriend at another house. They weren’t in hot pursuit, and the entry was unreasonable and is suppressed. The state’s inevitable discovery argument that a search warrant would have been … Continue reading
SCOTUS cert. grant: Does hot pursuit apply to misdemeanant’s flight into own home?
Lange v. California, 20-18 (granted Oct. 19, 2020): Issue: Whether the pursuit of a person whom a police officer has probable cause to believe has committed a misdemeanor categorically qualifies as an exigent circumstance sufficient to allow the officer to … Continue reading