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- Reason: Will ICE Use the Alien Enemies Act To Enter Homes Without Warrants?
- Reason: The FBI Seized This Woman’s Life Savings—Without Telling Her Why
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- D.Neb.: Officer asking same question three different ways didn’t unreasonably prolong the stop
- PA: Entry of curtilage to inquire of a chop shop in operation was reasonable
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (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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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
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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
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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, 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] -
“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: Privileges
CA5: Stay of § 1983 shooting case was properly denied pending state criminal case
Plaintiff was charged in state court and sued under § 1983 in federal court over his shooting by the police. The federal court refused a stay and plaintiff ended up taking the Fifth. The denial of the stay of the … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: “4A privileges and immunities” are two claims, not one, and both denied here
Plaintiff’s case claimed Fourth Amendment privileges and immunities, but that’s two claims because privileges and immunities is under Art. IV, § 2, cl. 1 but it doesn’t state a claim under either. Gay v. Sheriff of L.A. Cty., 2025 U.S. … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: Compelling defendant to unlock his phone was a 5A testimonial act
Compelling defendant to unlock his phone was a testimonial act under Hubbell, and it had to be suppressed. (Deciding the Fifth Amendment claim moots need to decide the Fourth Amendment claim.) United States v. Brown, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 1219 … Continue reading
E.D.Okla.: Search of lawyers and their cars coming into jail did not obstruct access to counsel
Stopping and searching the car and person of defense counsel coming into a USMS jail did not violate defendant’s right to access to counsel. The limitations were all reasonable. United States v. Freeman, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6745 (E.D. Okla. … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: No standing to contest civil investigative demands to third parties over medical records
Defendant had no standing to contest civil investigative demands to third parties, even involving medical records of others. United States v. Hertel & Brown Physical & Aquatic Therapy, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6437 (W.D. Pa. Jan. 13, 2025):
CA6: Pending state court action was place to bring 4A claim under Younger
A state court action was going on involving plaintiff and his wetlands in Michigan, and he was enjoined from certain things. After state inspectors took soil and water samples, he sued in federal court. Younger abstention applies, and the state … Continue reading
LA5: Defense attorney’s email about evidence on phone not protected by attorney-client privilege
A defense attorney’s email about evidence on a cell phone was used to get authority to search and seize the phone. Defendant claimed privilege; the state claimed that defense counsel was obligated to turn over material evidence. It was not … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: No REP against police squeezing a package in transit in the mail
Squeezing a mail package in transit isn’t the same as a suitcase near at hand (Jones), and there was no reasonable expectation of privacy. Quinonez v. United States, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 204220 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 8, 2024). A blanket … Continue reading
OH4: Return of cell phone denied; it’s still potential evidence, and part of delay is refusing to give passcode
“Based on our review of the record, we find the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Smith’s motion for return of his electronic devices. At the time of Smith’s request, it appears that the property was still … Continue reading
CA5: The 4A doesn’t limit the number of officers that show up for an administrative search
This administrative search was valid. The number of officers showing up to do it isn’t a constitutional question. “Nor does the number of officers conducting the search change the inquiry. Hershner asserts no jurisprudential authority for the proposition that a … Continue reading
The Conversation: Police stop more Black drivers, while speed cameras issue unbiased tickets − new study from Chicago
The Conversation: Police stop more Black drivers, while speed cameras issue unbiased tickets − new study from Chicago by Wenfei Xu, David Levinson, Michael J Smart & Nebiyou Yonas Tilahun:
MA: Investigative equal protection claim can be enforced by DA’s discovery failure
Defendant raised an equal protection claim about discovery of ShapChat search warrants. Defense counsel stated that an informal survey of defense lawyers handling about 1/4th of the cases in Suffolk County showed that 85% of the warrants were against black … Continue reading
CA7: SW affiant doesn’t have to explore all of def’s possible defenses in affidavit
When the affiant officer establishes probable cause for a search warrant, he or she isn’t required to explore all the defenses or affirmative defenses the search target may have to put in the affidavit. Here, this arose in the context … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: SW for multiple cell phones was valid because all were shown to be involved
This search warrant for multiple cell phones showed enough that multiple cell phones were involved in the offense under investigation, and, thus, the warrant was not overbroad, distinguishing United States v. Griffith, 867 F.3d 1265 (D.C. Cir. 2017) where there … Continue reading
NY1: Evidence of failing to open door when police are there with a SW doesn’t violate 4A
“Defendant did not preserve his claim that the admission of evidence that he did not open the door when the police knocked to show his consciousness of guilt violating his Fourth Amendment rights and his right to a fair trial … Continue reading
IA: Court ordered privilege review of search was at its expense
When the court orders privilege review for the results of a search, it’s a court expense. State v. Iowa District Court for Emmet County, 2024 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 52 (May 10, 2024). “Lenhart does not assert fraud on the court, … Continue reading
CO adopts Graham for state excessive force claims
Colorado adopts the Graham v. Connor standard for excessive force under state law. Plaintiff stated enough to overcome a motion to dismiss. Woodall v. Godfrey, 2024 COA 42 (Apr. 25, 2024).* “Scafidi’s ‘seizure’ was not unreasonable, because his arrest was … Continue reading