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- S.D.W.Va.: Issuance of a criminal citation is not a seizure
- E.D.Mo.: Evidence of the search comes in because it “completes the story”
- E.D.Wis.: Ptf’s claim judge’s signature on SW was forged fails for not even alleging there was a search
- W.D.Mich.: Search and seizure Brady, even if there was one, wouldn’t change the outcome
- W.D.Mich.: State law violation in search irrelevant in federal prosecution
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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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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: Abandonment
ID: City ordinance on trash collection did not create a REP in trash from police taking it
City ordinance on trash collection did not create a reasonable expectation of privacy in trash from police taking it for investigative purposes. State v. Pulizzi, 2024 Ida. LEXIS 132 (Nov. 29, 2024). The probation officer had a wealth of reasonable … Continue reading
FL6: Def confesses error that his motion to suppress abandoned property shouldn’t have been granted
Defendant moved to suppress something he threw away in flight from the police, and the trial court granted it. On appeal, he confesses error that it was abandoned. Reversed. State v. Howard, 2024 Fla. App. LEXIS 9246 (Fla. 6th DCA … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Protective sweep of house was reasonable despite def’s arrest outside
The officers had knowledge defendant had confederates in his drug operation. While he was arrested outside his house, a protective sweep inside was still shown to be reasonable. United States v. Pope, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209740 (W.D. Pa. Nov. … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Police officer can answer a dropped cell phone without violating 4A; that’s not a search
“Similarly, where an officer is legitimately in possession of a cell phone dropped at the scene of a crime and observes, in plain view, an incoming call arriving on the cell phone, the officer may lawfully answer the incoming call … Continue reading
NC: Defendant abandoned this real property
Defendant abandoned this real property. State v. Moore, 2024 N.C. App. LEXIS 806 (Oct. 15, 2024). Failure to renew a motion to suppress when the evidence is offered is waiver in this state. State v. Rowdy, 2024 N.C. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
D.Minn.: State law permits POs to conduct “unannounced visits” and that includes unannounced warrantless searches
State law gives parole officers the power to conduct “unannounced visits.” They also don’t have to announce warrantless searches. United States v. McClendon, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186498 (D. Minn. Aug. 15, 2024).* Defendant’s trembling hands were enough to pass … Continue reading
MO: Def fled state and abandoned murder weapon at his grandmother’s house
When defendant fled the state to avoid arrest, he left a bag with the murder weapon at his grandmother’s house. That was abandonment. The ping of his cell phone to locate him to arrest him was with exigent circumstances. State … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: GFE applies, but PC, too
The affidavit for the warrant here is more than “bare bones” so the good faith exception applies. “Even if the good-faith exception did not apply, the warrant is still valid because it is supported by probable cause.” United States v. … Continue reading
TX2: Overnight guest staying with a registered hotel guest has standing over the room
“[A]n overnight guest of a registered hotel guest shares the registered guest’s reasonable expectation of privacy in the hotel room and thus has standing to contest the search.” Fitzgerald v. State, 2024 Tex. App. LEXIS 6161 n.11 (Tex. App. — … Continue reading
OR: First cell phone SW found unexpected SD card, second SW was tainted by overbreadth of first
Defendant’s cell phone was seized in 2011 and an SD card was unexpectedly found with sexual images of children. When defendant questioned that, a separate search warrant was sought for the SD card. The state does not show inevitable discovery … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Def didn’t show he was driving overdue rented car with anyone’s permission
Defendant had no standing in the rented car he was driving. It was rented by another person, and it had not been timely returned. He didn’t show that he was driving with anyone’s permission. United States v. Manning, 2024 U.S. … Continue reading
FL2: Walking away from car at scene of a drive-by shooting left it and was an abandonment
Defendant remained at the scene of a drive by and police in an unmarked car but with POLICE on their vests almost immediately showed up. He left the car and walked away, not to reasonably return. This was an abandonment. … Continue reading
CA10: No REP in fire scene premises totally destroyed
Taking of photographs of a fire scene of a mobile home that burned to the ground was not a Fourth Amendment violation. There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in the remains. United States v. Hernandez, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA11: Excessive force claim against USMS Fugitive Task Force barred by Egbert and Bivens
USMS Fugitive Task Force shot and killed a person they were arresting. Under Egbert, there’s no Bivens claim here. Robinson v. Sauls, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 13432 (11th Cir. June 4, 2024) (another death knell for Bivens). Defendant abandoned his … Continue reading
CA8: SW including “electronic files” meant computer could be searched
A search warrant that included “electronic files” meant that a computer could be searched. United States v. Lukassen, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 13392 (8th Cir. June 4, 2024). Defendant didn’t show standing in the car he was driving, and it … Continue reading
NM: New crime after alleged illegal seizure not suppressed
Defendant’s new crimes after his alleged illegal seizure are not suppressed. State v. Morgan, 2024 N.M. App. LEXIS 23 (May 13, 2024). Tossing a backpack in flight from the police is abandonment. United States v. Anderson, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
MN: No difference between the privacy interest in DNA abandoned at the scene of a crime and the specific genetic information within it
There’s no difference between the privacy interest in DNA abandoned at the scene of a crime and the specific genetic information within it. State v. Carbo, 2024 Minn. LEXIS 236 (May 8, 2024). [A creative argument, but one always doomed … Continue reading
100 years ago today, abandonment, open fields, and maybe even standing in another’s land was decided
Hester v. United States, 265 U.S. 57, 58-59, 44 S. Ct. 445, 68 L. Ed. 2d 898 (1924): The officers had no warrant for search or arrest, and it is contended that this made their evidence inadmissible, it being assumed, on the … Continue reading