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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:
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $Research Links:
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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
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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“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!”
"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: Inventory
E.D.Mo.: Inventory of car totaled in flight from police was reasonable on totality
The inventory of defendant’s car after he totaled it fleeing from the police in a wreck was reasonable on the totality. Defendant argued that inventory was improper just from curiosity. United States v. Twiggs, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 204654 (E.D. … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: City policy of towing and impounding vehicles for fees owed violated 4A of lessor
Plaintiff leased a vehicle to a motorist who got behind in payments. By the time it was ready to repossess, VW Credit found out that the city had the car towed and held by a towing company which refused to … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Non-authorized driver of rental car four hours late to return had no standing
Defendant was stopped driving a rental car four hours after the rental expired and he was not an authorized driver. He doesn’t show standing. United States v. Maiden, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 192555 (D. Minn. Sep. 5, 2023), adopted 2023 … Continue reading
NY: Inventory policies don’t have to be in writing to be reasonable
“There is no requirement that an inventory search protocol be written …, and courts will not ‘micromanage the procedures used to search properly impounded cars’ … ‘[R]easonable police regulations relating to inventory procedures administered in good faith satisfy the Fourth … Continue reading
IL: In this forfeiture seizure, the car could not be inventoried; contents were to be returned to the owner
Officers attempted a stop of a vehicle potentially involved in an earlier occurrence. Instead of stopping, the driver fled from the stop in the car. Instead of pursuing, officers had the LPN and went to where it was registered, and … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Arrested target of cell phone SW has common law right of access to affidavit and SW
The target’s motion to unseal the search warrant affidavit for his cell phone is granted. There is a common law right of access, and the First Amendment right of access does not even have to be decided. The government’s only … Continue reading
NC: Search incident doesn’t apply to hit-and-run; automobile exception didn’t apply to car partly submerged in ditch
Defendant was the passenger in a car owned by her parents involved in a hit-and-run that fled the scene and ended up in a ditch. The driver ran off because he said he had warrants. She gave the driver’s name. … Continue reading
OH: Written inventory not always required to justify it
The failure of officers to make a written inventory doesn’t necessarily constitutionally nullify the inventory. Officer’s testimony about the standardized procedures was sufficient without actually putting the policy into evidence. State v. Toran, 2023-Ohio-3564, 2023 Ohio LEXIS 1957 (Oct. 4, … Continue reading
ID: Inventory as pretext for investigatory searches unreasonble
An inventory search that is a pretext for an investigatory search is unreasonable. Remanded for reconsideration of this issue. State v. Ramos, 2023 Ida. LEXIS 123 (Sep. 29, 2023). techdirt: The Casual Cruelty Of Cops: Inventory Search Edition by Tim … Continue reading
MD: IAC Brady claim fails over search claim
Defense counsel’s failure to seek the IAD file on the officers at a suppression hearing wasn’t ineffective assistance of counsel. The searching officer had an alleged propensity to exaggerate and excessively strip search. Here, however, another officer was there to … Continue reading
Army: Affidavit for SW didn’t show why text messages would still be on def’s cell phone; but harmless error
The government did not show in the affidavit for search authorization that text messages would logically be found on his cell phone corroborating a sex crime victim. Nevertheless, he wasn’t prejudiced by it. United States v. Geranen, 2023 CCA LEXIS … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: ‘“Let me see your waistband’–amounted to a show of authority.”
“Here, Officer Tejada initially approached Gamble and asked him a question: ‘Ain’t got no gun on you, man?’” ‘“Let me see your waistband’–amounted to a show of authority.” United States v. Gamble, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 19695 (D.C.Cir. Aug. 1, … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Escapee from BOP halfway house had no REP in apt. where he was found
Defendant was an escapee from a BOP halfway house, and he had no reasonable expectation of privacy where he was found. Also, he was subject to a search condition at the halfway house, and that’s not avoided by escape. United … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Suppression not remedy for violation of equal protection
Suppression of evidence is not the remedy for an equal protection violation, even if it were valid, which it’s not. United States v. Christie, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129172 (E.D. Tenn. July 26, 2023). A fictitious license plate is reasonable … Continue reading
NY Cortlandt Co.: Requirement of business records searches to take low income housing vouchers violates 4A
Acceptance of section 8 low income housing vouchers violates the Fourth Amendment because the landlord has to permit searches of business records to participate. Rental property is not a closely regulated industry, and 1981’s Sokolov v. Freeport controls. “Thus, by … Continue reading
CA8: Discretion to have another retrieve vehicle doesn’t void inventory
“Even if we assume that Deputy Johnson had an investigatory motive, we still hold that the inventory search was reasonable. Indeed, after Deputy Johnson arrested Nielsen on an active felony-drug warrant, SCSD policy required Deputy Johnson to have Nielsen’s vehicle … Continue reading
TX1: 911 call about a suspected kidnapping led to a stop found valid under Naverette
A 911 call about a suspected kidnapping led to a stop found valid under Naverette. Small v. State, 2023 Tex. App. LEXIS 4610 (Tex. App. – Houston (1st Dist.) June 29, 2023)* (unpublished) “These events establish probable cause, especially when … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Officers don’t have to corroborate CIs by doing controlled buys or traffic stops of the target
Law enforcement officers don’t have to corroborate CIs by doing controlled buys or traffic stops of the target. “However, in reviewing a search warrant for probable cause, a court is ‘to look holistically at what the affidavit does show, instead … Continue reading
ID: Statutory admission of evidence in administrative proceeding is not a separation of powers issue
Admission or exclusion of evidence in an administrative proceeding over a driver’s license is not governed by the rules of evidence, but it does recognize constitutional limitations. That is not a separation of powers issue because it is within the … Continue reading
