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- thedrive.com: Police Are Tagging Fleeing Cars With GPS Darts to Avoid Dangerous Pursuits
- CO: School search of serial offender under firearms “safety plan” was reasonable
- NYU L. Rev.: If Wheels Could Talk: Fourth Amendment Protections Against Police Access to Automobile Data
- Reason: Stop Your Car From Spying on You
- VA Lawyers Weekly: Officials denied immunity for strip searching jail nurse
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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 (26,730+ on WordPress as of 12/31/23) -
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--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
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"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: FISA
techdirt: Second Circuit Says Warrantless Backdoor Searches Of NSA Collections Might Violate The Fourth Amendment
techdirt: Second Circuit Says Warrantless Backdoor Searches Of NSA Collections Might Violate The Fourth Amendment by Tim Cushing:
Lawfare: Appeals Court Considers Fourth Amendment Violations in FISA Section 702 Surveillance Case
Lawfare: Appeals Court Considers Fourth Amendment Violations in FISA Section 702 Surveillance Case by Gordon Ahl (“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the case of Agron Hasbajrami should be returned to the district court level … Continue reading
WaPo: Surveillance court demands answers from FBI for errors, omissions in Trump campaign probe
WaPo: Surveillance court demands answers from FBI for errors, omissions in Trump campaign probe by Devlin Barrett (“The court said the FBI’s conduct was “antithetical” to how the foreign intelligence surveillance program is supposed to work.”)
Fox News: GOP push to reform FISA gains momentum in wake of Horowitz report
Fox News: GOP push to reform FISA gains momentum in wake of Horowitz report by Hollie McKay
NBC News: The FBI’s warrant system for spying on Americans is a mess, the IG report shows
NBC News: The FBI’s warrant system for spying on Americans is a mess, the IG report shows by Ken Dilanian (“Analysis: The report found an FBI process so rife with errors that the bureau’s director immediately issued a statement saying … Continue reading
Reason: The FBI Will Be Audited to See How Frequently They Screw Up Other FISA Warrants
Reason: The FBI Will Be Audited to See How Frequently They Screw Up Other FISA Warrants by Scott Shackford (“Was what happened with Carter Page an anomaly or does the agency regularly leave out important information?”)
Creators.com: What’s Wrong with FISA?
Creators.com: What’s Wrong with FISA? by Andrew P. Napolitano:
Just Security: The FISA Court’s Section 702 Opinions, Part II: Improper Queries and Echoes of “Bulk Collection”
Just Security: The FISA Court’s Section 702 Opinions, Part II: Improper Queries and Echoes of “Bulk Collection” by Elizabeth Goitein:
Just Security: The FISA Court’s 702 Opinions, Part I: A History of Non-Compliance Repeats Itself
Just Security: The FISA Court’s 702 Opinions, Part I: A History of Non-Compliance Repeats Itself by Elizabeth Goitein:
ACLU blog: William Barr Helped Build America’s Surveillance State
ACLU blog: William Barr Helped Build America’s Surveillance State by Neema Singh Guliani & Brian Tashman:
S.D.N.Y.: FISA application may be reviewed ex parte and in camera and still comply with due process; probable cause shown
A FISA application that led to a prosecution may be reviewed ex parte and in camera and remain under seal, and this complies with due process. “Here, having reviewed the FISC’s probable cause determinations while affording these findings the requisite … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: FISA warrant that caught defs’ phone calls was valid
Defendants’ calls were caught up in a FISA warrant and they were indicted for providing material support to terrorists. The collection under the FISA warrant was valid because the government showed “the purpose” of the surveillance was bona fide national … Continue reading
Just Security: Americans’ Privacy at Stake as Second Circuit Hears Hasbajrami FISA Case
Just Security: Americans’ Privacy at Stake as Second Circuit Hears Hasbajrami FISA Case by Elizabeth Goitein:
The Atlantic: The FISA Fiasco’s Silver Lining
The Atlantic: The FISA Fiasco’s Silver Lining by April Doss: Recently released documents should put to rest fear that the process of surveilling Americans could be as simple as filling out a form for a perfunctory review.
Lawfare: Carpenter and the End of Bulk Surveillance of Americans
Lawfare: Carpenter and the End of Bulk Surveillance of Americans by Sharon Bradford Franklin:
CNN: FBI releases Carter Page surveillance warrant documents
CNN: FBI releases Carter Page surveillance warrant documents by Jeremy Herb and David Shortell. The 412 page application, warrant, and other papers is here. The applications included Page’s denials made to the FBI before it was sought. NYT: Without Evidence, … Continue reading
NYTimes: N.S.A. Triples Collection of Data From U.S. Phone Companies
NYTimes: N.S.A. Triples Collection of Data From U.S. Phone Companies by Charlie Savage:
Law.com: Judge to Consider This Week Whether to Unseal Vast Surveillance Records
Law.com: Judge to Consider This Week Whether to Unseal Vast Surveillance Records by Ben Hancock: U.S. Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore of the Northern District of California may reveal whether the curtain of secrecy around past electronic surveillance in criminal investigations … Continue reading
The Hill: FBI supervisor warned Comey in 2014 that warrantless surveillance program was ineffective
The Hill: FBI supervisor warned Comey in 2014 that warrantless surveillance program was ineffective by John Solomon & Alison Spann: An official who supervised the FBI’s Section 215 warrantless phone surveillance program revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013 says he … Continue reading
Lawfare: A Way Forward on Section 702 Queries
Lawfare: A Way Forward on Section 702 Queries by Elizabeth Goitein & Robert Litt: