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- NYT: Judge Temporarily Blocks Border Patrol’s Stop-and-Arrest Tactics in California
- techpolicy: Reverse Keyword Search Warrants and the Threat to Online Privacy
- MA: Extraterritorial citizen’s arrest power doesn’t permit seizures of cell phone and removal back home
- CA4: SW affidavit not required to name an offender
- Reason: Justice Department Memo Claims Alien Enemies Act Allows Warrantless Home Searches and No Judicial Review
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (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 -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
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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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (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, Let it Bleed (album, 1969) -
"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: Informational privacy
WaPo: U.S. autism data project sparks uproar over ethics, privacy and intent
WaPo: U.S. autism data project sparks uproar over ethics, privacy and intent by Ariana Eunjung Cha, Caitlin Gilbert and Fenit Nirappil (“Administration health officials walked back a plan to register people with autism after criticism from scientists, privacy experts and … Continue reading
NPR: A little-known law is in the spotlight: What to know about the Privacy Act of 1974
NPR: A little-known law is in the spotlight: What to know about the Privacy Act of 1974 by Kathryn Fink, Ailsa Chang & Jeanette Woods (“The Privacy Act of 1974 protects personal information collected across federal agencies. Privacy groups and … Continue reading
W.D.Mich.: Corporate Transparency Act reporting requirements are an unreasonable search
The Corporate Transparency Act reporting requirements amount to an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment. Small Bus. Ass’n of Mich. v. Yellen, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40975 (W.D. Mich. Mar. 3, 2025):
CA9: “[T]he Fourth Amendment does not require a warrant to arrest a parole violator.”
“[T]he Fourth Amendment does not require a warrant to arrest a parole violator.” United States v. Carpenter, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 13596 (9th Cir. June 5, 2024). The CI for the warrant is not disclosable under Roviaro. United States v. … Continue reading
CA6: Misdescription of alleged robber was close enough for RS for stop
There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop. “But the touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is reasonableness, not perfection. See Heien v. North Carolina, 574 U.S. 54, 60-61, 135 S. Ct. 530, 190 L. Ed. 2d 475 (2014). The facts reported … Continue reading
VA: Automatic license plate reader information does not form an “information system”; injunction dissolved
Injunction against local police use of license plate readers vacated. “We agree with the Police Department that the ALPR system does not constitute an ‘information system’ within the intendment of the Data Act and we, therefore, reverse the decision below.” … Continue reading
CNET: Google is giving data to police based on search keywords, court docs show
CNET: Google is giving data to police based on search keywords, court docs show by Alfred Ng (“Court records in an arson case show that Google gave away data on people who searched for a specific address.”)
techdirt.com: Secret Service Latest To Use Data Brokers To Dodge Warrant Requirements For Cell Site Location Data
techdirt.com: Secret Service Latest To Use Data Brokers To Dodge Warrant Requirements For Cell Site Location Data by Tim Cushing (“Another federal law enforcement agency has figured out a way to dodge warrant requirements for historical cell site location data. … Continue reading
NY Times: Why a Data Breach at a Genealogy Site Has Privacy Experts Worried
NY Times: Why a Data Breach at a Genealogy Site Has Privacy Experts Worried by Heather Murphy (“Nearly two-thirds of GEDmatch’s users opt out of helping law enforcement. For a brief window this month, that didn’t matter.”):
WaPo: California begins enforcing digital privacy law, despite calls for delay
WaPo: California begins enforcing digital privacy law, despite calls for delay by Rachel Lerman (“California’s privacy law, often called the broadest law for digital privacy in the United States, can finally be enforced starting Wednesday. And despite industry calls for … Continue reading
CA8: Due process right to informational privacy not clearly established
Surveying SCOTUS cases, the court concludes that a due process right to informational privacy is not clearly established. Therefore, the motion to dismiss is granted. “Under Reichle, therefore, the uncertain status of the right to informational privacy means that Defendants … Continue reading
Chattanooga Times Free Press: State health department gives names, addresses of Tennesseans with COVID-19 to law enforcement
Chattanooga Times Free Press: State health department gives names, addresses of Tennesseans with COVID-19 to law enforcement by Anita Wadhwani (“The Tennessee Department of Health is providing the names and addresses of residents who test positive for COVID-19 to sheriffs … Continue reading
WaPo: Our privacy regime is broken. Congress needs to create new norms for a digital age.
WaPo: Our privacy regime is broken. Congress needs to create new norms for a digital age.
Paul Ohm, The Many Revolutions of Carpenter
Paul Ohm, The Many Revolutions of Carpenter, 32 Harv. J.L. & Tech. ___ (2O019) (forthcoming). Abstract:
EFF: New York City Home-Sharing Ordinance Could Create Privacy Nightmare
EFF: New York City Home-Sharing Ordinance Could Create Privacy Nightmare by Rebecca Jeschke: Many cities across the country are struggling with issues surrounding short-term vacation rentals and how they affect the availability and price of housing for local residents. However, … Continue reading
NC: While watching a house just before SW execution in a drug case, transfer of boxes between cars was RS for visitor’s car
Reasonable suspicion here came from the fact that defendant transferred boxes from the vehicle of a target of a search warrant to his own while officers were watching, warrant in hand. His driving wasn’t evasive, and he likely didn’t even … Continue reading
BLT & NYT: Feds Reveal New Details About Secret Database of Phone Records
BLT: Feds Reveal New Details About Secret Database of Phone Records by Zoe Tillman: The U.S. Department of Justice, forced by a judge to reveal information about a secret law enforcement database of phone records, on Thursday disclosed new details … Continue reading
City AM: Uber has five out of six bases in New York City suspended after failing to hand over trip records
City AM: Uber has five out of six bases in New York City suspended after failing to hand over trip records by Guy Bentley: New York City has suspended the majority of Uber bases after the taxi app company refused … Continue reading
TechDirt: Court Asked Why There’s No Expectation Of Privacy In Cell Location Data, But An Expectation Of Privacy In The Cellphone Itself
TechDirt: Court Asked Why There’s No Expectation Of Privacy In Cell Location Data, But An Expectation Of Privacy In The Cellphone Itself by Tim Cushing: from the warrants-warranted dept