Archives
-
Recent Posts
- FL3: Cell phone dump in civil case denied; no showing of need
- E.D.Va.: Must plead prejudice when delay of a cell phone SW is alleged
- CA: Avoiding the police in a high crime area isn’t RS
- CA7: Jail officials holding plaintiff under a valid court order aren’t liable for not releasing him sooner after a sentencing error
- Volokh: Do Fourth Amendment Protections Change When Property Is Moved?
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
-
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)
ACLU on privacy
Privacy Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
Section 1983 Blog -
"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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Category Archives: Particularity
D.Minn.: “‘The Fourth Amendment’s particularity requirement is a standard of practical accuracy rather than a hypertechnical one.'”
“’The Fourth Amendment’s particularity requirement is a standard of practical accuracy rather than a hypertechnical one.’” Defendant’s particularity argument fails. It was particular enough, and good faith exception applies. United States v. Jones, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 185980 (D. Minn. … Continue reading
D.Mass.: 6 mo. old info in a drug SW application was stale, and no GFE
The information in a drug search warrant was six months old. No reasonable officer would believe it showed probable cause, despite a magistrate signing off on it. It is “so lacking” in its showing that the good faith exception does … Continue reading
PR: SW may be for more than one place on a proper showing, except this one clearly lacked PC
The search warrant here was for three separate locations which is not per se unreasonable. However, the probable cause showing was lacking because it was based on mere suspicion that a firearm was in one of three possible places. The … Continue reading
IL: Smell of burnt MJ in a car in a recreational use state not PC
“We hold that the smell of the burnt cannabis, without any corroborating factors, is not enough to establish probable cause to search the vehicle, and the court did not err in granting the motion to suppress. This finding comports with … Continue reading
CA9: Oral amendment to SW to add a place to be searched never incorporated violates 4A, but GFE here because no controlling authority
Officers had a search warrant for plaintiff’s hotel room searching for evidence of a drug operation. They called the issuing judge for permission to search plaintiff’s home under the same affidavit, which was orally granted, but the warrant was not … Continue reading
MD: Full searches of cell phones can be a general search; there must be particularity or time limitation
Blanket full searches of cell phones without a particularity or time limitation can violate the Fourth Amendment and become a general search. It is suggested there be a search protocol if possible to limit the officers’ discretion. Despite all those … Continue reading
CA5: Multiple cell phones found with a quantity of drugs creates inference phones are for drug trafficking
When multiple cell phones and drugs are found together in a car, it’s a reasonable conclusion the cell phones are related to drug trafficking. The search of the phones reasonably led to child porn. United States v. Morton, 2022 U.S. … Continue reading
D.S.D.: SW for shallow grave didn’t describe location well enough to easily find it, but GFE applies
The warrant’s direction to search for a shallow grave was not particularly described, and it was found a mile away from where the warrant directed. The attachment wasn’t incorporated. Still, however, the good faith exception applies. This was negligent at … Continue reading
D.N.M.: SW for computer files created in a one week period was particular
The warrant here was for computer files created in a one week period. That was particular. United States v. Riego, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130233 (D.N.M. July 22, 2022). The district court’s findings of fact support the finding of exigent … Continue reading
CT: John Doe DNA arrest warrant based on touch DNA is too general to satisfy the particularity requirement
A John Doe DNA arrest warrant based on touch DNA is too general to satisfy the particularity requirement. State v. Terrance Police, 2022 Conn. LEXIS 123 (May 10, 2022):
D.Idaho: To claim GFE, govt at least should have shown the officers read the inadequate affidavit to show reasonable reliance
The affidavit for the search warrant here was for evidence of rioting issued months after the riot, and it led to finding a weapon and some drugs and a cell phone seizure and search. To invoke the good faith exception, … Continue reading
MO: Def’s actions when coming upon a ruse checkpoint on I-44 was RS
“[T]he procedures of the ruse drug checkpoint, coupled with Defendant’s conduct of abruptly changing lanes and taking Exit 33 at the last second, meets the standard for individualized suspicion required by Edmond and Mack.” State v. Barnum, 2022 Mo. App. … Continue reading
NY3: SW address for 1013 Pleasant second floor permitted search when it was actually 1015 Pleasant
The address of the place to be searched in the warrant was 1013 Pleasant Street, second floor. The second floor, however, was 1015 Pleasant Street, and it was searched. The warrant is not to be view hypertechnically, and it adequately … Continue reading
TX: Affidavit incorporated in SW had specific description and saves SW from overbreadth argument
“The issue before us is whether the particularity requirement of the Fourth Amendment is satisfied if a warrant describes the place to be searched as a fraternity house as a whole without specifying a suspect’s actual room in the house, … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: Admin. law: 4A claims must be brought at agency level first
In an action before the Board for Correction of Naval Records, the service member had to raise his Fourth Amendment claim before the agency or it is waived, which is what happened here. McPherson v. Del Toro, Sec’y of the … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Coming out of car with hands up adds to RS
“Next, Grant’s behavior once the traffic stop occurred gave police additional reasons to suspect that he was involved in criminal activity. King’s testimony and the video evidence presented during the hearing support the conclusion that Defendant Grant was attempting to … Continue reading
CA8: SW not needed for parked car just driven there
A dog alert on a parked Yukon did not require a search warrant before the search. It was parked on the property of a storage facility, and it was just driven to that spot while officers were getting a warrant … Continue reading
VA Cir.: Proposed geofence warrant lacks PC and particularity
This proposed geofence warrant fails both probable cause for what it seeks to capture and particularity. In re Info. Stored at the Premises Controlled by Google, 2022 Va. Cir. LEXIS 12 (Fairfax Co. Feb. 24, 2022):
W.D.Pa.: SW for what turned out to be multiunit apts is suppressed, and no GFE
The multi-unit character of the property being searched under a warrant wasn’t immediately apparent to the officers, or so they said. The court doesn’t credit that because they knew defendant was in “apartment 3” on the third floor. Post-search follow-up … Continue reading