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- DE: Instagram SW was narrowly limited by time
- CA5: Where place to be searched appeared to be one residence, not two, SW valid
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- NY Albany Co.: Unrestrained administrative searches of cannabis stores violates 4A
- D.Minn.: Overdose call justified frisk
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
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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 -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
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--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
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"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)
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Category Archives: Hot pursuit
CA10: Def’s flight into house to avoid arrest justified police entry because of exigency and hot pursuit
Police initiated arresting defendant outside his home, and he fled into his house to avoid it. The warrantless entry into his home was justified by probable cause for the arrest and exigent circumstances of both destruction of evidence and hot … Continue reading
CA3: Police in pursuit of a shooting suspect crossed into def’s backyard; plain view of drugs sustained
Police were in pursuit of a shooting suspect and went into defendant’s back yard. Drugs in plain view could be seized. Levys v. Shamlin, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 13267 (3d Cir. Apr. 24, 2020). An open container stop permits a … Continue reading
WA: Affidavit and SW didn’t need to specify statutes of crimes under investigation when it was apparent it was murder
The search warrant of defendant’s place for trace evidence of a dead body rather than the body itself was reasonable because the police had information that the body had been burned in a fire pit. In addition, the affidavit and … Continue reading
WI: Use of a tracking dog in a burglary that led to def’s house was reasonable and in hot pursuit
Police received a 4 am burglary call, and an officer with a dog tracking smell and the officer tracking footprints in the dew on the ground led to defendant’s property. The officer knocked and defendant’s mother let the police in. … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Entry into the curtilage for knock-and-talk ended up a hot pursuit and abandonment
Officers came to defendant’s home for a knock-and-talk, and he saw them and fled, and the USMJ credited that the officers could see him discard a drug container. The court finds this was hot pursuit. “Of course, the Versailles police … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Res judicata doesn’t bar relitigating motion to suppress within same proceeding
A ruling on a motion to suppress during the proceedings is subject to change. It is not governed by res judicata because it isn’t final. United States v. Baez, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184017 (D. Minn. Aug. 30, 2018), adopted, … Continue reading
CA11: Hot pursuit of a misdemeanant into a dwelling is permitted by the 4A
Hot pursuit of a misdemeanant into a dwelling is permitted by the Fourth Amendment, and observation of drugs was valid. United States v. Concepcion, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 25001 (11th Cir. Sep. 4, 2018). Defendant’s claim that his confession was … Continue reading
NJ: “Hot pursuit” into a home to seek an iPhone via the find phone application was unreasonable
“Hot pursuit” into a home to seek an iPhone via the find phone application was unreasonable. Here, however, there was a private search by defendant’s brother, and the exclusionary rule doesn’t apply. State ex rel. J.A., 2018 N.J. LEXIS 713 … Continue reading
ND: Hot pursuit into a garage to make an arrest was reasonable
Hot pursuit into a garage to make an arrest was reasonable. City of Bismarck v. Brekhus, 2018 ND 84, 2018 N.D. LEXIS 88 (Mar. 22, 2018). Defendant’s second post-conviction petition was essentially an attempt to relitigate his first one on … Continue reading
IN: Hot pursuit into Kentucky did not violate state constitution
Defendant was more than reasonably suspected of committing a homicide in Indiana, and police got a line on him heading to Kentucky. A vehicle matching the description of his was seen on the nearest bridge to Kentucky shortly thereafter and … Continue reading
GA: Hot pursuit of a traffic stop over jurisdictional lines not unlawful
Officer’s hot pursuit of a traffic offender into a different state jurisdiction didn’t void the stop. In addition, it was reasonable for the officer to time the stop for more level ground. State v. Charles, 2018 Ga. App. LEXIS 51 … Continue reading
CA7: Hot pursuit of a purported drug dealer into ptf’s house was valid under Santana
The police approached a young man on the street in an area known for drug trade to talk to him. He “turned on his heels” and fled, with the police in pursuit, right to plaintiffs’ house, past one plaintiff out … Continue reading
MA: Hot pursuit not justified for civil infraction of possession of MJ; not serious enough offense
“In this case, we consider whether the warrantless entry by police into a residence was justified where the entry was made while chasing the defendant, who fled from police during a stop for a civil infraction of marijuana possession. Concluding … Continue reading
CA11: Recent murder-robbery made entry into defendant’s house “sufficiently exigent”
The police knew that defendant had “recently” committed an armed robbery and murder, and that he was in his house and armed. They determined to enter and arrest him, and they did. The protective sweep and consent after that was … Continue reading
AZ: Hot pursuit justified for minor offenses
Police attempted to stop defendant for a vehicle registration violation, but he didn’t stop and gave probable cause to believe he was fleeing the stop. He drove into his private driveway with a police car right behind him and went … Continue reading
FL: Hot pursuit for misd possession of MJ and nonviolent fleeing does not permit warrantless entry into the home
Hot pursuit for misdemeanor possession of marijuana and nonviolent fleeing does not permit a warrantless entry into the home. State v. Markus, 2017 Fla. LEXIS 233 (Jan. 31, 2017), aff’g Markus v. State, 160 So. 3d 488 (Fla. 1st DCA … Continue reading