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Recent Posts
- LA4: Merely having a concealed firearm isn’t RS for a frisk
- OR: Merely driving off the road wasn’t RS, but adding the driver’s demeanor at the time was
- OH6: Trial court’s failure to explain RS under Rodriguez required remand
- CA6: Asking def before a patdown during arrest what he had on him wasn’t barred by Miranda
- NY Queens: PC shown for SW blood drawn at hospital after car wreck
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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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Fourth Amendment cases,
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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)
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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: Strip search
CA7: Warranted strip search in a private secure setting was conducted reasonably
“Shaw raises three responses, but they are unavailing. First, he contends that the officers did not follow Wisconsin and local laws that instruct officers to obtain written authorization from a supervisor before a strip search. But a violation of state … Continue reading
CA7: Not following state and local laws on strip searches doesn’t make one unreasonable
“Shaw raises three responses, but they are unavailing. First, he contends that the officers did not follow Wisconsin and local laws that instruct officers to obtain written authorization from a supervisor before a strip search. But a violation of state … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Ptf prisoner pled enough to survive motion to dismiss because of an unnecessary and potentially abusive strip search
Prison search case: “Plaintiff alleges that his clothes were ripped off during the assault, he was left naked on the floor with his boxers barely on, and the C.E.R.T. Defendants searched him ‘without any [l]egitimate penological purpose for the strip … Continue reading
NY3: SW for person doesn’t include body cavity search unless reason for such search was shown
“Even where a search warrant has been previously obtained, it is axiomatic that such ‘warrant exists and is required not simply to permit, but to circumscribe police intrusions’ …. Here, the search warrant that had been previously obtained authorized the … Continue reading
CA8: Alleged degrading strip search of transgender inmate stated claim
An allegedly retaliatory prison strip search alleged to be degrading and too intrusive stated a claim and survived qualified immunity on the Fourth Amendment but not the First Amendment retaliation claim. The inmate was transgender transitioning to female. Beard v. … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Refusing discovery on 4A grounds in forfeiture case results in no standing
On remand from the Sixth Circuit in this forfeiture case on the question of standing, claimant asserted Fourth Amendment privilege to all discovery requests about his standing to claim the money. The court finds no facts for standing means no … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Strip search of transgender woman going into jail who might bond out was reasonable
Strip search of a transgender woman going into custody was reasonable, even though she’d likely bail out soon. “Applying Florence to this case, the Court finds that JCCF’s policy is consistent with the Fourth Amendment. Although JCCF’s institutional safety concerns … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Strip search of civilly committed patient refusing pat search was reasonable and with QI
Plaintiff was strip searched when civilly committed when she refused to permit a pat search. “Considering all the circumstances described in Plaintiff’s Complaint, the search Plaintiff underwent, though surely unpleasant, was not unreasonable. “But even if the Court concluded the … Continue reading
VA: Roadside partial strip search too intrusive and unreasonable
A roadside search ended up with officers searching in the back of defendant’s underwear looking for an object that could be felt but not retrieved because he clenched his buttocks. His shorts fell down but not his underwear. It was … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Jail strip search to document tattoos was reasonable
Plaintiff’s strip search in jail to photograph his tattoos was reasonable. Turn v. Leslie, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39329 (E.D. Mich. Feb. 5, 2024), adopted, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38391 ( E.D. Mich. Mar. 5, 2024). Plaintiff stated a Fourth … Continue reading
CA4: Ptf, a contract jail nurse, states a claim for being strip searched when mistaken for inmate [in scrubs]
Plaintiff is a nurse, and, for her first day on the job at this jail, she was accidentally strip searched when she was mistaken for a weekender. She stated a claim for relief that survives summary judgment and qualified immunity. … Continue reading
TX5: No binding authority says there’s a REP in an inmate’s jail medical records
There is no binding authority that a jail inmate has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his jail medical records, so the court finds the exclusionary rule shouldn’t apply. Quaschnick v. State, 2024 Tex. App. LEXIS 1108 (Tex. App. – … Continue reading
PA MMA doesn’t permit driving while smoking MMJ
The MMA doesn’t permit driving while smoking MMJ. The smell of burnt MJ coming from defendant’s car was reasonable suspicion to extend the stop. Commonwealth v. Sloan, 2023 PA Super 173 (Sep. 21, 2023).* Plaintiff was in court shortly after … 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
CA5: Retaliatory arrest under 1A also requires no PC under 4A
“But this court concluded that ‘Plaintiff-Appellees’ claims against Officer Currie … fall under the Fourth Amendment.’ [Mayfield, 976 F.3d at 486 n.1.] As that opinion explained, ‘in order to bring a First Amendment claim for retaliatory arrest, a plaintiff generally … Continue reading
NY3: Where no information anyone else could be inside, no justification for protective sweep after def’s arrest
The police had no information even suggesting that another person was in the premises, and a protective sweep after defendant was arrested was unjustified. People v. Hadlock, 2023 NY Slip Op 03819, 2023 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3839 (3d Dept. … Continue reading
ID: Drug dog putting feet on car door and window during stiff was a trespass on the chattel and the search should have been suppressed
A warrantless Fourth Amendment “search” occurred when the police drug-sniffing dog trespassed against defendant’s vehicle for the purpose of obtaining information about, or related to, the vehicle. When the dog approached the driver’s side on his second pass, he clearly … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: 911 response to stabbing call had report of others inside; that was exigency
The officer arrived at plaintiff’s house because of a 911 call about a stabbing. A man who had been stabbed was outside and he said it happened inside and there were others. That justified the officer’s entry into the house. … Continue reading