Archives
-
Recent Posts
- IL: Circumstances made SW affidavit admissible at trial
- Professional Responsibility in Criminal Defense Practice (4th ed. 2023) now on Westlaw
- IN: Fundamental (plain) error of S&S claims requires the evidence be fabricated, not just unconstitutionally obtained
- USA Today: A camera mounted on a light pole took video of police beating Tyre Nichols. What to know about ‘SkyCop.’
- Galveston Co. Daily News: Galveston SWAT team wrecks wrong house in search for wrong suspect
-
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:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
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"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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock
Category Archives: Ineffective assistance
W.D.Tex.: Tasering a suspect before search of the person didn’t taint the search
Tasering a suspect before a search of the person doesn’t taint the search. They were unconnected. United States v. Turner, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12453 (W.D. Tex. Jan. 25, 2023).* Defendant in his 2255 doesn’t show ineffective assistance of counsel … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Civilly committed for NGBRI verdicts have no 4A rights in their cells
The civilly committed for NGBRI verdicts have no Fourth Amendment against cell searches. Lopez v. CEO of Ancora Psychiatric Hosp., 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12248 (D.N.J. Jan. 24, 2023), citing Glazewski v. Barnett, 2022 WL 2046921, at *3-4 (D.N.J. June … Continue reading
KY: 21-month delay for SW for cell phone not unreasonable where def in custody
Officers had probable cause and nexus and showed particularity to defendant’s cell phone. He’d previously been accused of recording undressed women and was involved in an upskirting. Here he’d been accused of sex with drugged women and recording some of … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Car transporter has common authority to consent
A car being hauled west was searched on the car hauler’s truck by consent of the hauler. He had common authority to do that. Moreover, defendant’s standing as to the vehicle was tenuous at best. Registration had expired before the … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Border search exception doesn’t permit cell phone search for proof of a prior domestic crime
The border search exception does not apply to searching defendant’s cell phone at Customs for proof of a domestic crime, here mail theft. United States v. Carpenter, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11014 (N.D. Ill. Jan. 23, 2023). The drug dog … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Failure to specify in 2255 how 4A was violated is waiver
In a 2255 ineffective assistance claim, “Defendant fails to specify either how his Fourth Amendment rights were violated or what evidence counsel should have sought to suppress.” That alone is enough to deny. It’s denied on the merits, too. United … Continue reading
CA4: Failure to turn on bodycam before frisk not shown to be in bad faith
Officer’s failure to turn on his bodycam before frisk here doesn’t require an adverse inference of destruction of evidence. Bad faith isn’t shown. United States v. Aguirre-Cuenca, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 1105 (4th Cir. Jan. 18, 2023). Defendant’s appeal is … Continue reading
CA6: New information about a search doesn’t qualify for successor habeas
Alleged new information about the search of defendant’s property doesn’t allege actual innocence and thus is not grounds for a successor habeas. In re Fisher, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 677 (6th Cir. Jan. 11, 2023). 2255 petitioner’s ineffectiveness claim on … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: City’s destruction of street cam video was not shown to be in bad faith
Defendant’s motion to dismiss for a discovery violation in not timely processing a subpoena for a street corner camera that allegedly would show that defendant’s turn signal was on and the stop was wrong is denied. The city didn’t timely … Continue reading
CA6: Affidavit circumstantially supported nexus
There was nexus to defendant’s home as a base of operations for drug sales based on circumstantial evidence in the affidavit for warrant. United States v. Pointer, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 35506 (6th Cir. Dec. 20, 2022).* The search warrant … Continue reading
Cal.2: MJ smell associated with minors still RS for an offense
Officers ran an LPN and saw that the vehicle had expired tags. Driving next to the car, officers smelled burnt marijuana and knew that the users were minors which is still an offense under California law. That was cause for … Continue reading
OH4: Once dog alerts, automobile exception arises, and vehicle can be moved for search
Once a drug dog alerted on defendant’s car, the automobile exception arose, and the search did not have to occur right away. The vehicle could be removed to another location for the search. State v. Harper, 2022-Ohio-4357, 2022 Ohio App. … Continue reading
NY2: SW papers provided to GJ aren’t discoverable because of GJ secrecy
Defendant sought search warrant materials presented to the grand jury. Denied because of grand jury secrecy. Sculti v. Finley, 2022 NY Slip Op 06950, 2022 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6820 (2d Dept. Dec. 7, 2022). Defendant had no standing in … Continue reading
CA8: No standing to challenge GPS already installed in CS’s car he borrowed
Defendant had no standing to contest installation of a GPS by the CS in the vehicle he loaned to defendant. Jones specifically recognized this. United States v. Dewilfond, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 33273 (8th Cir. Dec. 2, 2022). Defendant was … Continue reading
FL1: No REP in words blurted out in ER
Defendant’s blurting out that he’d murdered someone caught on bodycam in the ER wasn’t subject to suppression under the state communications privacy law because there was no reasonable expectation of privacy in the utterance. Reed v. State, 2022 Fla. App. … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Not IAC to not pursue unsettled 4A question
2255 petitioner doesn’t show ineffective assistance of counsel on counsel’s not pursuing a Fourth Amendment claim on an unsettled question of law. That’s professional judgment. He has to show that the issue was clearly meritorious. Brito-Arroyo v. United States, 2022 … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Cross-examining officer about mistakes in SW affidavit was mentioned in not finding IAC
All defense lawyers have likely done this: Cross-examining an officer over factual mistakes in the search warrant affidavit. This was mentioned in rejecting other parts of defense counsel’s representation at trial as not deficient under Strickland. Neiheisel v. United States, … Continue reading
D.Me.: DEA could subpoena records investigating robbery of a marijuana dispensary
The DEA’s administrative subpoenas over records of the suspect over the alleged robbery of a marijuana dispensary were lawful exercises of power. Carpenter does not apply to mere phone records. United States v. Candelario, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199195 (D. … Continue reading