Archives
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Recent Posts
- S.D.W.Va.: Issuance of a criminal citation is not a seizure
- E.D.Mo.: Evidence of the search comes in because it “completes the story”
- E.D.Wis.: Ptf’s claim judge’s signature on SW was forged fails for not even alleging there was a search
- W.D.Mich.: Search and seizure Brady, even if there was one, wouldn’t change the outcome
- W.D.Mich.: State law violation in search irrelevant in federal prosecution
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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 -
© 2003-24,
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) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
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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 -
"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: GPS / Tracking Data
TX1: GPS installed by dealer in a used car was owned by dealer and was not comparable to CSLI
Defendant bought a used car that the dealer had GPS installed in if necessary to recover it. The police accessed that information without a warrant to connect him to a murder. The contract for the vehicle told defendant about the … Continue reading
D.Me.: State mandated GPS tracking of lobster boats reasonable under closely regulated business exception
Under the closely regulated business exception, the State of Maine can require lobsterman to have GPS tracking on their boats. (It’s an important question and the plaintiffs are urged to appeal to the First Circuit.) Thompson v. Keliher, 2024 U.S. … Continue reading
LA Times: L.A. man wearing GPS ankle monitor is accused of a robbery spree. Officials can’t track him
LA Times: L.A. man wearing GPS ankle monitor is accused of a robbery spree. Officials can’t track him by Matthew Ormseth (“A 19-year-old Los Angeles man was arrested five times in five months, including for robberies that he is suspected … Continue reading
mashable: Police may track you to an abortion clinic with this tool, report shows
mashable: Police may track you to an abortion clinic with this tool, report shows by Matt Binder (“An inside look at the tool, Locate X, found just how closely it could track users.”)
CA6: Realtime ping information didn’t require a warrant
“Perry first challenges the validity of the search warrants for call and location data from his two cellphones. Law-enforcement officers generally need a warrant to conduct a ‘search’ that intrudes upon a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy. … But a … Continue reading
GA: Car GPS reported to dealer, and officer got SW for the GPS data
Defendant’s car GPS snitched him off to the dealer where the officers got the ping information. “The Cobb detective also discovered that the Camry had a GPS system that pinged its location to the dealership, and she obtained a search … Continue reading
NC: Warrant not needed to access data from GPS for post-conviction supervision
The data generated from the GPS attached to defendant as part of his post-conviction supervision can be accessed by law enforcement without a warrant. State v. Thomas, 2024 N.C. App. LEXIS 687 (Sep. 3, 2024). The Tenth Circuit has made … Continue reading
CA4: GPS monitoring for first six months of supervised release was not abuse of discretion [subtext: seems reasonable]
Six months of GPS monitoring of defendant on supervised release was tailored to him and not an abuse of discretion. It was a burden, but those on supervised release have far diminished expectations of privacy. United States v. Ellis, 2024 … Continue reading
CA4: No REP in one’s Google location data
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in one’s Google location data. It’s willingly shared with Google. United States v. Chatrie, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 16692 (4th Cir. July 9, 2024) (2-1):
NY3: Warrantless arrest body cavity search was unreasonable
Defendant’s arrest body cavity search pulling out heroin was unreasonable. People v. Chase, 2024 NY Slip Op 01837, 2024 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1877 (3d Dist. Apr. 4, 2024). [Sentencing was five years ago, and that should be an embarrassment … Continue reading
thedrive.com: Police Are Tagging Fleeing Cars With GPS Darts to Avoid Dangerous Pursuits
thedrive.com: Police Are Tagging Fleeing Cars With GPS Darts to Avoid Dangerous Pursuits by Nico DeMattia (“The launchers are typically mounted to the front of cop cars and can fire darts at up to 30 mph.”). [Exigency, like an emergency … Continue reading
NYU L. Rev.: If Wheels Could Talk: Fourth Amendment Protections Against Police Access to Automobile Data
Nicole Mo, If Wheels Could Talk: Fourth Amendment Protections Against Police Access to Automobile Data, 98 NYU L. Rev. 2232 (Dec. 2023):
Reason: Stop Your Car From Spying on You
Reason: Stop Your Car From Spying on You by J.D. Tuccille (“Modern cars are smartphones on wheels, but with less protection for your data.”):
CA11: Even if Carpenter applied to license plate readers, it happened before Carpenter was decided so good faith applies
Even if Carpenter applied to automated license plate readers, it was decided the day after this happened, so the good faith exception would apply in any event. In addition, the officer’s testimony about it was lay testimony under F.R.E. 702. … Continue reading
PA: PO could send parolee’s GPS tracking to CID
Defendant was on parole for armed robbery, wearing a GPS tracker. It was reasonable for parole to send his tracking information to a detective investigating him for another robbery. Commonwealth v. Rosendary, 2024 PA Super 51, 2024 Pa. Super. LEXIS … Continue reading
N.D.Fla.: No standing against tracking a stolen cell phone
Defendant claimed a Brady violation for failure to disclose a Stingray device was used to track the victim’s cell phone in his possession. It’s not. Moreover, defendant doesn’t even have standing in a stolen cell phone. Bass v. Dixon, 2023 … Continue reading
NYTimes: Your Car Is Tracking You. Abusive Partners May Be, Too.
NYTimes: Your Car Is Tracking You. Abusive Partners May Be, Too. by Kashmir Hill (”Apps that remotely track and control cars are being weaponized by abusive partners. Car manufacturers have been slow to respond, according to victims and experts.” If … Continue reading
DC parolee’s GPS monitor can only be placed by court order
Defendant’s GPS monitoring while on D.C. parole was unauthorized without an order from the sentencing court. It also doesn’t fit under Knights and Samson and special needs. Therefore, its use here to connect defendant to a crime is suppressed. Davis … Continue reading
GA: A court order for medical records by statute requires PC
There is a statutory privacy interest in one’s medical records, and an “appropriate court order” is required for the government to access them in a criminal case. An ex parte order not shown to be based on probable cause is … Continue reading
DC: Search of probationer’s GPS monitor didn’t require a SW
Defendant was on GPS electronic monitoring while on probation. The search of his EM device to prove he was involved in a robbery was not unreasonable. Moreover, even if the probation department’s regulations were somehow violated, the exclusionary rule should … Continue reading