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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16)
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 30,000 posts since 2003~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and linksLatest Slip Opinions:
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FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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State courts (and some USDC opinions)
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $Research Links:
Supreme Court:
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Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
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General (many free):
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Lexis.com $
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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“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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Category Archives: Waiver
N.D.Tex.: Motion to suppress 2½ months of pole camera recording untimely
The reasonableness of 2½ months of pole camera observation of defendant’s house was waived by not filing a motion to suppress until after the First Circuit granted en banc review on that issue and then a month later. United States … Continue reading
CA2: Failure to promptly return property lawfully seized isn’t separate 4A claim
Where firearms were lawfully seized, there isn’t a separate Fourth Amendment claim for failure to promptly return them. Bello v. Rockland Cty., 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 13281 (2d Cir. May 5, 2021). Probable cause is required for administrative subpoenas under … Continue reading
W.D.La.: When cash and heroin found in car search, a notebook could be seized
When heroin and cash were found in the search of a car based on the smell of marijuana, seizure of a notebook was reasonable. The notebook was limited information compared to a cell phone. United States v. Pierre, 2021 U.S. … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Def’s clothes in ER as a shooting victim were in plain view for police seizure
Defendant was in an emergency room having been shot. Having presented himself for medical treatment, his bloody clothes were cut off him, and they were reasonably seized by law enforcement officers when they were seen in plain view in white … Continue reading
OR: State didn’t develop its argument about RS at the hearing, and it’s found waived
The state’s justification for inquiries about travel plans isn’t reached on appeal because it wasn’t briefed or even developed below. Instead, the questions about it related only to initial reasonable suspicion. “We conclude that the record could have developed differently … Continue reading
OH12: Stop of bicyclist for no light produced arrest warrant; valid under Strieff
Defendant was stopped on his bicycle for no headlight, and that led to finding an arrest warrant for him. Under Strieff, the legality of the stop becomes almost irrelevant to the search incident for the arrest warrant as attenuated. State … Continue reading
CA3: Mid-trial suppression argument wasn’t timely
Defendant’s mid-trial suppression motion was untimely despite the defense claim that this was a second search he wasn’t aware of until it came up at trial. United States v. Elcock, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 9503 (3d Cir. Apr. 1, 2021). … Continue reading
CA9: CP SW affidavit didn’t have to exclude possibility of IP spoofing to show PC
Affiant didn’t have to exclude the possibility of IP spoofing in a child pornography case search warrant request to show probable cause . Moreover, it wouldn’t be apparent until the forensic analysis if there was. United States v. Saterstad, 2021 … Continue reading
D.V.I.: CI’s information of def was commonly known and in paper; yet, GFE applies
The search warrant here was based on the CI’s relating largely publicly-known information, some of which was in the newspaper online. It wasn’t predictive, but all historical of criminal record, the kind of car, etc. This is close but no … Continue reading
MI: Inventory policy doesn’t have to be written if it’s standardized
A written search inventory policy isn’t constitutionally required. “We hold that, in order to establish that an inventory search is reasonable, the prosecution must establish that an inventory-search policy existed, all police officers were required to follow the policy, the … Continue reading
GA: 4A claim had to be raised at agency hearing level to preserve for appeal
Failure to object on Fourth Amendment grounds at the agency level before the zoning board in a zoning administrative case was waiver for appeal. Forsyth County v. Mommies Props. LLC, 2021 Ga. App. LEXIS 145 (Mar. 11, 2021). “The first … Continue reading
CA1: Breaking the excessive force claim into parts for analysis results in a denial of QI
The officers do not get qualified immunity in this 1983 case. “Certainly, this was not an ‘obvious case’ where the officers so blatantly violated the Fourth Amendment that recourse to factually analogous case law is unnecessary. Wesby, 138 S. Ct. … Continue reading
OH12: State’s “reasonable mistake of fact” justification for stop has to be raised in trial court first
The state didn’t rely on a “reasonable mistake of fact” justification for the stop in the trial court, so it can’t for appeal. State v. Turner, 2021-Ohio-541, 2021 Ohio App. LEXIS 564 (12th Dist. Mar. 1, 2021). Defendant had some … Continue reading
NE requires suppression issue be renewed when evidence admitted at trial
Failure to renew a suppression issue decided against you pretrial when the evidence is admitted is waiver in Nebraska. Besides, the issue on appeal would lose on the merits because the officer had reasonable suspicion for the stop and then … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Voluntarily providing iPhone passcode during proffer not immune act
Defendant’s providing his iPhone passcode during his proffer session did not immunize the contents of the phone from the government’s use at trial. Kastigar hearing (a misnomer) denied. United States v. Otunyo, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30000 (D.D.C. Feb. 18, … Continue reading
CA10: De novo review overcomes a “skewed” finding of district court
Applying the Ornelas de novo review standard, the court reassesses the evidence and finds reasonable suspicion for the detention. The district court’s view of the evidence of reasonable suspicion was heavily skewed toward the government’s proof. Still, there is reasonable … Continue reading
CA11: Furtive gesture of hiding a cigarette pack was RS
The furtive gesture of hiding a cigarette pack during a traffic stop was reasonable suspicion (along with a few other reasons, but this is more important). United States v. Williams, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 3123 (11th Cir. Feb. 4, 2021). … Continue reading
