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- E.D.Okla.: Housing authority’s warning of a pest inspection permitted under lease agreement amounts to no REP
- IN: Warrantless pulling on a loose car door panel was with PC and reasonable
- E.D.N.Y.: RS required for non-routine customs cell phone search
- Law360: Open Questions In Unsettled Geofence Warrant Landscape
- S.D.W.Va.: Reasonable during a traffic stop to ask about firearms in the car
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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,
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Congressional Research Service:
--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: Nexus
N.D.Ind.: Cell phones are “tools of the trade” of drug dealing, so nexus is minimal [actually, practically non-existent]
While cell phones are “tools of the trade” of drug dealing, they usually can be swept up in a search warrant for the premises. While that works in drug cases, there should be caution in other types of cases. United … Continue reading
TN: Cell phone recently calling deceased and it being at scene of murder was nexus
The state showed nexus to defendant’s iPhone and the crime by known recent calls between the co-conspirators and the victim and the phone being at the scene of the crime. State v. Young, 2024 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 397 (Sep. … Continue reading
DE: Changing cell phones doesn’t defeat nexus
The state showed nexus and no staleness in warrant for defendant’s cell phone for pornography despite the fact he had a different phone at the time of the search. State v. Clark, 2024 Del. Super. LEXIS 619 (Aug. 29, 2024). … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Cell phone next to seized drugs was nexus for SW
“In sum, the search warrant affidavit contained considerably more than the mere fact that Bell was arrested with the cell phone on his person. Rather, law enforcement found the cell phone on Bell’s person near ‘the very drugs’ he has … Continue reading
TX: Court of Appeals required state to show more than necessary to show cell phone nexus; remanded
“To the extent that the court of appeals read our opinion in Baldwin necessarily to require, as a prerequisite of probable cause, that an affidavit must establish (1) use of the cell phone either during, or immediately before or after, … Continue reading
OR: Lack of nexus from disconnected controlled buys
“We conclude that the facts in the affidavit did not create a sufficient nexus between the apartment and the suspected drug activity. The affidavit provided that during each of the controlled buys, one officer observed Phillips exiting the apartment, and … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Showing nexus to a cell phone
Showing nexus in a search warrant affidavit between defendant’s cell phone and the crime. How much of the officer’s opinion matters? United States v. Santos, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 133564 (E.D.N.Y. July 29, 2024):
D.C.Cir.: SW for multiple cell phones was valid because all were shown to be involved
This search warrant for multiple cell phones showed enough that multiple cell phones were involved in the offense under investigation, and, thus, the warrant was not overbroad, distinguishing United States v. Griffith, 867 F.3d 1265 (D.C. Cir. 2017) where there … Continue reading
D.Md.: Review of PC isn’t as skeptical as def requests
“Here, the affidavit easily meets the standard of probable cause. Defendants would require a level of skepticism that is not appropriate to the oversight at this juncture. The scheme to defraud was amply established by the affiant and so was … Continue reading
CA5: The fact the officer was in an interstate highway drug interdiction team was unavailing because there was a lawful basis for the stop
“Rocha Nevarez’s argument that the stop was unlawful from the start because the trooper was part of a roving drug interdiction team is unavailing. The state trooper witnessed Rocha Nevarez drift over the fog line on eastbound Interstate 20 on … Continue reading
CA6: Minimally sufficient nexus was GF for relying on SW
Relying on Sanders, decided June 28, the court concludes that a drug dealer’s home along with the slightest facts provides a good faith basis for searching with a warrant. United States v. Neal, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 15997 (6th Cir. … Continue reading
CA3 en banc: Driving to controlled buys from house gave PC for house
Controlled buys that defendant drove to still gave probable cause for search of his house. The probable cause bar isn’t that high. United States v. Sanders, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 15832 (6th Cir. June 28, 2024) (en banc) (an unnecessarily … Continue reading
GA: SW for a physical nonperishable item wasn’t stale
In a child sex abuse case, the trial court erred in finding the warrant stale that a massaging tool used on the victim wouldn’t likely be there. It was a physical object and nonperishable. It was not stale. State v. … Continue reading
D.Nev.: A website’s cookies linked def’s personal email address for nexus
In a criminal copyright case, cookies on website led to defendant’s business and personal email accounts, and that gave nexus to them for the warrant. “Under the totality of the circumstances, the Court finds that the search warrant reveals a … Continue reading
CA10 dissent: Bivens on its last legs
CA10, Tymkovich, Circuit Judge, dissenting: Bivens is a relic of the 20th Century and it’s just a matter of time until it’s gone. Mohamed v. Jones, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 11089 (10th Cir. May 7, 2024). The affidavit for the … Continue reading
CA7: No standing in a stolen car; PC anyway for automobile exception
Defendant was driving a stolen car. He had no standing in it. Besides, the search was good under the automobile exception with probable cause. United States v. Ostrum, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 10076 (7th Cir. Apr. 25, 2024). The Labor … Continue reading
NY Queens: PC shown for SW blood drawn at hospital after car wreck
Probable cause was shown for the search warrant for defendant’s blood drawn at a hospital after a car wreck. To the extent there is also a Franks challenge, it fails. People v. Moreno, 2024 NY Slip Op 24116, 2024 NYLJ … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Overseas seizure of Russian oligarch’s megayacht not governed by 4A
This megayacht was seized overseas for Russia sanctions. (Eduard Yurievich Khudainatov is the owner, and he’s a Russian oligarch who is a Putin proxy (per Forbes)) The claim that the initial seizure may have violated the Fourth Amendment fails because … Continue reading