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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© 2003-23,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 350,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 45,000 posts since 2003 (25,700+ on WordPress as of 12/31/22)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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)
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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
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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"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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Category Archives: Computer and cloud searches
N.D.Cal.: Passwords are protected by the Stored Communications Act
In civil case for evidence production brought in San Francisco to aid litigation in Ontario, Canada. the court holds that account passwords are protected by the Stored Communications Act and there was no consent to disclosure. In re Path Network, … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Scrolling through electronic devices at the border is reasonable in CA11
Merely scrolling through an electronic device at the border is a reasonable border search. United States v. Vrdoljak, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208332 (S.D. Fla. Nov. 20, 2023). The officer was incidentally following defendant, and he observed her driving within … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: No REP in a computer possessed in a halfway house
Plaintiff had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a computer given him by Goodwill for whom he worked while he was living in a halfway house. He was still an inmate of the BOP. “There is no reasonable or legitimate … Continue reading
techdirt: Court Rejects Extremely Broad Google Search Warrant, Citing Both Carpenter And Riley
techdirt: Court Rejects Extremely Broad Google Search Warrant, Citing Both Carpenter And Riley by Tim Cushing. The case is State v. Grace from Ohio, posted here.
CA11: SW for iCloud account from before crime even occurred sustained on good faith
Defendant’s cell phone was used to arrange a robbery. A search warrant was also obtained for defendant’s backup iCloud account before the robbery even occurred, and there was no probable cause for that. Yet, the Eleventh Circuit [some would say … Continue reading
OH5: No showing of PC and no GFE for SW for Google search history
The search warrant for defendant’s Google search history lacked any justification of why it would produce evidence, that it was even used in planning or executing the alleged crime. It was bare bones, and the good faith exception does not … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: SCA allows state courts to issue out-of-state SWs for ESI
The Stored Communications Act permits state courts to issue search warrants for out-of-state electronically stored information. [In addition, but not discussed, Virginia v. Moore allows federal courts to overlook state law violations as long as everything reasonableness was satisfied. Because … Continue reading
Radley Balko today
From Radley Balko today: • The New York Civil Liberties Union released data to the Gothamist that shows staggering racial disparities among interactions by the New York Police Department under the leadership of former cop turned mayor Eric Adams. Just … Continue reading
OH4: Franks challenge seven years after motion to suppress denied by res judicata
There was a motion to suppress denied at trial. “Now, seven years later appellant seeks to file a motion to suppress and a motion for a Franks hearing. We believe, however, that the trial court correctly concluded that res judicata … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: No REP in shared folder on computer open on eMule program
The government’s “pre-search” of a shared folder on defendant’s computer available through eMule was not subject to a reasonable expectation of privacy and was reasonable. United States v. Johnson, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146664 (D. Ariz. Aug. 21, 2023), adopting … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Admin search power doesn’t give govt power to search for ulterior motive
Plaintiff operates 20 pawnshops in NYC. The NYPD conducted records searches without subpoena or warrant, and, after a two-week trial, plaintiff prevailed with a $1m verdict. The fact a business has to maintain records doesn’t mean there is no reasonable … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Request of internet provider to preserve evidence under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f) is not a seizure
“Here, the Court finds that Omegle and TextNow’s preservation of evidence in response to the Government’s request under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f)—a provision of the Stored Communications Act—did not violate the Fourth Amendment for two reasons. First, because the preservation … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Civilly committed have no REP in common computer files
The plaintiff is confined in the Texas Civil Commitment Center. He has no privacy interest in the files he’s saved on TCCC common computers for his cases. Rogers v. McLane, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125554 n. 11 (N.D. Tex. June … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: SW for entire iCloud account limited by crime under investigation was particular
The fact the CI related information that was publicly known doesn’t support the story. “Although the Court concludes that the Apple/iCloud warrant was not supported by probable cause, the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule applies.” The case was a … Continue reading
ID: Statutory admission of evidence in administrative proceeding is not a separation of powers issue
Admission or exclusion of evidence in an administrative proceeding over a driver’s license is not governed by the rules of evidence, but it does recognize constitutional limitations. That is not a separation of powers issue because it is within the … Continue reading
CA8: Exit border search of electronic devices was based on reasonable suspicion
There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s intensive exit border search of his electronic devices. “The officers and agents had background information, much of it corroborated, that provided a basis for assessing Xiang’s actions in May and June 2017. Their experience … Continue reading
PA: No standing to challenge Google SW for who searched rape victim’s name before crime
In a home invasion rape case, the state sought from Google search information involving the victim’s name in the 48 hours before the rape, and there were searches for that from defendant’s IP address. Defendant had no reasonable expectation of … Continue reading
