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- CA: Avoiding the police in a high crime area isn’t RS
- CA7: Jail officials holding plaintiff under a valid court order aren’t liable for not releasing him sooner after a sentencing error
- Volokh: Do Fourth Amendment Protections Change When Property Is Moved?
- M.D.Pa.: Def was neither shipper nor recipient of USPS parcel, so he had no standing in it
- WI: Obtaining def’s DNA by ruse wasn’t an illegal search
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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: Stop and frisk
TX2: Unlawful stop-and-frisk leads to suppression of patdown and search and abandonment during flight
Defendant’s stop was without reasonable suspicion. His alleged consent was not voluntary and his flight and abandonment were not attenuated but were caused by the illegal stop and frisk. Massey v. State, 2021 Tex. App. LEXIS 9820 (Tex. App. – … Continue reading
IL: Def’s stop and obtaining DL was permitted by Terry so alleged illegal arrest is moot point
Officers had sufficient information for a Terry stop. They arrested defendant and got his DL and identifiers. Even if the arrest was illegal, the Terry stop would not have been and the same information would have been available. Therefore, there … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Arrestee left out in cold in t-shirt stated 4A claim
Plaintiff states a Fourth Amendment claim that he was arrested and left outside in the snow in jeans and a t-shirt for more than 30 minutes. Bolin v. Prater, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 225777 (N.D.Ind. Nov. 23, 2021). Leaving drugs … Continue reading
OH11: No standing in father’s cell phones even when communicating with defense experts
Defendant is charged with killing his wife. He didn’t have standing to challenge a search warrant for his father’s cell phones where attorney-client privilege in their contents was asserted because the father was communicating with expert witnesses in his case. … Continue reading
Cal.2: Either RS or PC required for order to put hands on hood of police car
There was neither probable cause nor reasonable suspicion to order defendant to put his hands on the hood of the police car, and it was a seizure without justification. “We conclude that there was neither probable cause to arrest appellant … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Frisk just for “officer safety” during traffic stop was unreasonable
Defendant was stopped for having no rearview mirror inside. A frisk for weapons for “officer safety” was unwarranted. Motion to suppress granted. United States v. Jarvis, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199592 (N.D.Ohio Oct. 18, 2021). The officer’s alleged violation of … Continue reading
NJ: After a patdown, new facts at the scene can support a second one
After a patdown, new facts at the scene can support a second one. State v. Carrillo, 2021 N.J. Super. LEXIS 123 (Sept. 17, 2021). “Here, the totality of the circumstances—Traylor’s regular use of a vehicle that was observed recently at … Continue reading
OH12: Second patdown in crotch area by male officer wasn’t unreasonable
A female officer patted this male defendant down, but she did not go around the crotch area. For officer safety, a male officer followed up and did. This was reasonable, and the contraband was found by plain feel. State v. … Continue reading
EFF: Chicago Inspector General: Police Use ShotSpotter to Justify Illegal Stop-and-Frisks
EFF: Chicago Inspector General: Police Use ShotSpotter to Justify Illegal Stop-and-Frisks by Matthew Guariglia and Adam Schwartz (“[T]he OIG report finds a pattern of CPD officers detaining and frisking civilians—a dangerous and humiliating intrusion on bodily autonomy and freedom of … Continue reading
MA: SW for firearm permitted frisk of people inside for weapons
A search warrant for defendant’s premises permitted a frisk of his person for firearms when the object of the search warrant was firearms. Commonwealth v. Suggs, 2021 Mass. App. LEXIS 91 (Aug. 4, 2021). The jury verdict for choking the … Continue reading
OH4: Automatic frisk of anyone officer got out of a car violates Terry
The officer’s policy to frisk anybody he gets out a vehicle, without regard to reasonable suspicioin they are armed, is unreasonable under Terry. However, “the totality of the circumstances present in the case sub judice supports the application of the … Continue reading
CT: Using a library parking lot and picnic table after hours doesn’t justify stop-and-frisk
Defendant’s mere use of the library’s parking lot and picnic table at 9 p.m. on a Sunday evening was not reasonable suspicion of some other criminal activity and did not support a stop and frisk. State v. Haughwout, 2021 Conn. … Continue reading
OH12: Search of wallet in patdown unreasonable
Defendant’s patdown produced a wallet, and search of the ID inside exceeded its proper scope. State v. Maffey, 2021-Ohio-2460, 2021 Ohio App. LEXIS 2423 (12th Dist. July 19, 2021) This excessive force case for use of force during an arrest … Continue reading
CA7: Confrontation clause doesn’t apply in suppression hearings
The confrontation clause does not apply in suppression hearings. United States v. Bebris, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 20974 (7th Cir. July 15, 2021). The apartment’s search warrant was for evidence of drug sales from it. Those found there at the … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Search incident of unconscious man unreasonable without arrest or justification
A search incident of the unconscious defendant was unreasonable because it lacked any justification. He wasn’t arrested to be searched incident to it. United States v. Johnson, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125188 (N.D. Ind. July 6, 2021). Defendant abandoned his … Continue reading
CA3: GFE saved CP search district court found lacked PC
Officers obtained a search warrant for defendant possessing child pornography based on his interest in unclothed children and taking pictures. The district court suppressed, but the good faith exception applies to save the search. The government appealed on both probable … Continue reading
PA: Reasonable inference for stop that owner with suspended DL was driving vehicle
The officer had reasonable suspicion to stop defendant’s vehicle on the inference that the driver was the owner who had an outstanding warrant. The court declines to adopt a higher standard for reasonable suspicion under the state constitution. Commonwealth v. … Continue reading