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- FL1: Violation of state knock-and-announce statute requires suppression; Hudson not followed
- N.D.Ala.: All parts of a SW are read in context, and that narrows it so it’s not overbroad
- WA: No immediate bail for DV arrest violates neither 4A nor due process
- S.D.N.Y.: Overseas seizure of Russian oligarch’s megayacht not governed by 4A
- CA7: No IAC in failure to more aggressively pursue Franks challenge
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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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"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: Knock and announce
WaPo: 5 takeaways from The Post’s investigation into no-knock warrants
WaPo: 5 takeaways from The Post’s investigation into no-knock warrants by Courtney Kan, Jenn Abelson, and Nicole Dungca (“After police killed Breonna Taylor in her home in 2020 during a botched raid, The Washington Post spent more than a year … Continue reading
WaPo: No-knock raids have led to fatal encounters and small drug seizures
WaPo: No-knock raids have led to fatal encounters and small drug seizures by Nicole Dungca and Jenn Abelson WaPo: What to know about no-knock warrants by Courtney Kan (“Amir Locke and Breonna Taylor were killed while police executed no-knock warrants. … Continue reading
Rawstory: ‘Outrageous’: Judges slam FBI for not breaking down rich suspect’s front door to preserve ‘aesthetics’
Rawstory: ‘Outrageous’: Judges slam FBI for not breaking down rich suspect’s front door to preserve ‘aesthetics’ by Matthew Chapman (argument video, too):
WaPo: What to know about no-knock warrants
WaPo: What to know about no-knock warrants by Courtney Kan, Nicole Dungca, and Jenn Abelson (“No-knock raids, considered one of the most dangerous and intrusive policing tactics, have been at the center of a debate in recent years over police … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: A dog sniff on federal property was reasonable; MMJ not an issue
“Defendant argues that given the evolving laws regarding marijuana (and other cannabinoid products or derivatives), dog sniffs are increasingly becoming unreliable and therefore violative of the Fourth Amendment because dog sniffs cannot discriminate between contraband and marijuana that is legally … Continue reading
NY: No-knock warrant execution creates “special duty” for NY negligence law
For purposes of NY negligence law, execution of a no-knock warrant creates a “special duty” between the police and the public. Ferreira v. City of Binghamton, 2022 NY Slip Op 01953, 2022 N.Y. LEXIS 392 (Mar. 22, 2022):
N.D.Okla.: Misdemeanor arrest warrant permits forcible entry in this circuit
Plaintiff’s claim that a forcible entry for a misdemeanor warrant fails because this circuit has held for 25 years that Payton applies to misdemeanor warrants. Plaintiff does state a claim, however, for failure to knock-and-announce before entry. First v. Hokett, … Continue reading
WaPo: Minneapolis suspends use of no-knock warrants as scrutiny of contentious police tactic mounts
WaPo: Minneapolis suspends use of no-knock warrants as scrutiny of contentious police tactic mounts by Kim Bellware:
E.D.Mich.: No standing to claim knock-and-announce violation of another’s house
Plaintiff has no standing to complain of a knock-and-announce violation of another person. “Here, Plaintiff does not even claim that he had a legitimate expectation of privacy in McMullen’s house. But even if he did make such a claim, the … Continue reading
The Crime Report: ‘Search Warrants Rot Law Enforcement’: Paper
The Crime Report: ‘Search Warrants Rot Law Enforcement’: Paper by Andrea Cipriano:
NPR: Kentucky task force recommends search warrant changes after Breonna Taylor’s death
NPR: Kentucky task force recommends search warrant changes after Breonna Taylor’s death by Vanessa Romo (“Kentucky is another step closer to implementing search warrant reforms in the wake of the death of Breonna Taylor, who was killed by Louisville police … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: Case on taking key from a child for police to enter house will go to a jury; no exigency, no QI
Using key obtained from a teenage daughter’s bra, in handcuffs a block away, the mom and two other daughters get to present their case to a jury that police used the key to unreasonably enter the house without announcement. E.R. … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: IAC claim over how to argue GFE fails
This 2255 petitioner argued his defense lawyer didn’t properly argue application of the good faith exception in the direct appeal, but doesn’t say how the case could have come out different. Also, the briefs and opinion on appeal show that … Continue reading
VI: A commercial vehicle can’t be stopped and searched merely because of its status
Defendant’s commercial truck was subjected to an inspection stop by a motor carrier officer and a police officer. The prosecution failed to prove that the administrative search of the truck was justified: “The established law does not support the People’s … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Paying $10 for a ride doesn’t increase the passenger’s REP in a vehicle
A passenger who paid a friend $10 to ride in the car has no increased reasonable expectation of privacy for standing. “Defendant’s arguments miss the mark. The key, guiding principle to a finding of standing in both Byrd and Jones … Continue reading
NJ: Flagrant knock-and-announce violation requires suppression under state constitution
A flagrant violation of the knock-and-announce rule violates the state constitution and the result is excluded. Violating the knock-and-announce requirement makes the search warrantless. The court recognizes the Fourth Amendment rule is contra. State v. Caronna, 2021 N.J. Super. LEXIS … Continue reading
WaPo: Opinion: Breonna Taylor’s death sparked remarkable changes to no-knock raids across America
WaPo: Opinion: Breonna Taylor’s death sparked remarkable changes to no-knock raids across America by Radley Balko:
E.D.N.Y.: 101 day delay in cell phone SW after seizure not 4A violation
The delay between the search and the seizure of defendant’s cell phones seized on his arrest was 101 days long, but, compared to the reduced privacy interest in the phone because of evidentiary value, it was not constitutionally unreasonable. United … Continue reading
N.D.Miss.: No exclusion for knock-and-announce violation
“Engram is simply incorrect that the exclusionary rule may apply when a no-knock warrant application fails to establish justification for a no-knock entry. See United States v. White, 990 F.3d 488, 493 (6th Cir. 2021) (‘Whether this affidavit sufficed to … Continue reading
N.D.Miss.: Rubberstamping no-knock SWs not a basis for suppression
Defendant’s contention is that the warrant issuing judge issues no-knock warrants without question is not shown to be a basis to suppress under Hudson v. Michigan. The remedy is a 1983 action. United States v. Bryant, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading