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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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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)
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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: Drones
Govt. Technology: NYPD Using Drones to Respond on ‘Select Priority’ Calls
Govt. Technology: NYPD Using Drones to Respond on ‘Select Priority’ Calls (“The Drone as First Responder program, piloted earlier this year, is now operational in five command areas of the New York City Police Department. The devices are intended to … Continue reading
Legal Aid Society: Backyard Privacy in the Age of Drones
EFF: Backyard Privacy in the Age of Drones by Hannah Zhao (“This article was originally published by The Legal Aid Society’s Decrypting a Defense Newsletter on August 5, 2024 and is reprinted here with permission.”):
Axios: A police drone might respond to your next 911
Axios: A police drone might respond to your next 911 by Joann Muller & Jessica Boehm(“A new generation of crime-fighting drones is about to take flight, starting in Arizona. Why it matters: Drones are the ultimate first responder. They can … Continue reading
wired: The Age of the Drone Police Is Here
wired: The Age of the Drone Police Is Here (“In Chula Vista, drone flight paths trace a map of the city’s inequality, with poorer residents experiencing far more exposure to the drones’ cameras and rotors than their wealthier counterparts, a … Continue reading
MSN: Emergence of Police Drones: Surveillance, Safety, and the Specter of Privacy Concerns
MSN: Emergence of Police Drones: Surveillance, Safety, and the Specter of Privacy Concerns by Ethan Brown (“A groundbreaking investigation, based on more than 22 million of flight coordinates, has revealed the expansive scope of the United States’ first full-fledged police … Continue reading
MI: Exclusionary rule doesn’t apply in civil cases; constitutionality of use of drone for zoning enforcement not decided
In the Michigan zoning drone use case, the court finds that the exclusionary rule would not be applied in civil cases, so the constitutionality of use of the drone didn’t need to be decided. Long Lake Twp. v. Maxon, 2024 … Continue reading
VA: Automobile exception doesn’t require “ready mobility” and this car was totaled in a wreck
Defendant’s car was totaled in a wreck, and it couldn’t be driven. Nevertheless, the automobile exception applied to it. After Carney, “ready mobility” is no longer required because of the lesser expectation of privacy in a car compared to a … Continue reading
MI: Long Lake Twp. v. Maxon drone case argued today
The Traverse City MI drone flyover case goes before the Michigan Supreme Court today at 10 am ET. The oral argument link: 164948 Long Lake Township v Todd Maxon. See, e.g., Law360: Mich. Top Court To Decide If Drone Searches … Continue reading
NBC New York: NYPD using drones to monitor NYC backyard Labor Day parties, spurring privacy concerns
NBC New York: NYPD using drones to monitor NYC backyard Labor Day parties, spurring privacy concerns by Jake Offenhartz (“The New York City police department plans to pilot the unmanned aircrafts over large gatherings in an effort to enhance security … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: Drone use that didn’t go over curtilage was reasonable
The use of a drone to surveil plaintiffs’ home from a distance in a child welfare case was not unreasonable. The drone didn’t fly over the house or curtilage, and the police were concerned plaintiffs had a “small arsenal” and … Continue reading
Insider: Police use of high tech drones is on the rise, and regulations aren’t keeping up with them
Insider: Police use of high tech drones is on the rise, and regulations aren’t keeping up with them by Sebastian Cahill: • Police departments cross-country are using drones in their daily operations.• New drones have the capability to break through … Continue reading
MI grants review in zoning drone case: Long Lake Twp. v. Maxon
Michigan SCt to set argument on whether it violates the Fourth Amendment to use a drone for aerial photography in zoning disputes. Long Lake Twp. v. Maxon, 2023 Mich. LEXIS 768 (May 24, 2023).* The issues: “(1) whether the appellee … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: SW needed for drone surveillance over a home
A request for a court order for drone surveillance over a home requires a warrant under the Fourth Amendment. A request under the All Writs Act isn’t the way to do it. In re Application of the United States For … Continue reading
MI: Even if using a drone to take pictures in zoning dispute violated 4A, exclusionary rule does not apply, and the action below was remedial not punitive
The use of a drone to take pictures by a city contractor in case over a zoning ordinance violation probably did not violate any Fourth Amendment right. But even if it did, the exclusionary rule should not apply in this … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: FAA drone registration requirement violates no REP
The FAA rule requiring all drones when flying to transmit information about themselves violates no reasonable expectation of privacy. They operate in public airspace, which the federal government controls, and the rule requires a digital license plate but only electronically … Continue reading
MI drone over curtilage case update
In the Michigan drone over the curtilage case (posted here), Long Lake Twp. v. Maxon, the parties are directed to brief application of the exclusionary rule to zoning disputes:
MI: City’s use of drone photos in zoning dispute violated homeowner’s REP
The township’s use of a drone to fly over defendant’s property to take pictures for a zoning dispute violated their reasonable expectation of privacy. The state legislature said that they have one from drone usage. Long Lake Twp. v. Maxon, … Continue reading
Forbes: Drones With ‘Most Advanced AI Ever’ Coming Soon To Your Local Police Department
Forbes: Drones With ‘Most Advanced AI Ever’ Coming Soon To Your Local Police Department by Thomas Brewster (“Founded by Google veterans and backed by $340 million from major VCs, Skydio is creating drones that seem straight out of science fiction—and … Continue reading
NYTimes: Police Drones Are Starting to Think for Themselves
NYTimes: Police Drones Are Starting to Think for Themselves by Cade Metz (“In one Southern California city, flying drones with artificial intelligence are aiding investigations while presenting new civil rights questions.”)