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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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Fourth Amendment cases,
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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: Forfeiture
WaPo: She saved thousands to open a medical clinic in Nigeria. U.S. Customs took all of it at the airport.
WaPo: She saved thousands to open a medical clinic in Nigeria. U.S. Customs took all of it at the airport. by Meagan Flynn: The questioning threw her off guard. She explained she had legally earned the money and she was … Continue reading
Montgomery Advertiser: Opinion: Policing for profit prevails at Alabama Legislature
Montgomery Advertiser: Opinion: Policing for profit prevails at Alabama Legislature by Leah Nelson and Shay Farley, Alabama Voices:
NJ: Public defender must be served with forfeiture to enable adequate defense of criminal case
While the state did not act with malice or intentionally, it violates fundamental fairness to not serve defendant’s public defender with a courtesy copy of a forfeiture complaint so the PD can advise to stay the forfeiture so defendant doesn’t … Continue reading
IN: Def’s backpack would have been searched anyway, so inevitable discovery applied
Inevitable discovery applied to the search of defendant’s backpack. He was arrested, and the search would have occurred as a result of that. The merits of defendant’s search claim is thus moot. Winborn v. State, 2018 Ind. App. LEXIS 133 … Continue reading
Reason: Alabama Prosecutor, Sheriff Threaten to Put More People in Prison in Order to Keep Seizing Massive Amounts of Property
Reason: Alabama Prosecutor, Sheriff Threaten to Put More People in Prison in Order to Keep Seizing Massive Amounts of Property by Scott Shackford: Lawmakers are considering long-overdue civil asset forfeiture reform, and law enforcement leaders aren’t happy.
WXYZ: Metro Detroit man fights four year battle to get bank account back after arrest
WXYZ: Metro Detroit man fights four year battle to get bank account back after arrest by Gino Vicci:
Detroit Free Press: Many lack resources to fight property seizures in drug cases
Detroit Free Press: Many lack resources to fight property seizures in drug cases by Bill Laitner:
Vox: “It’s been complete hell”: how police used a traffic stop to take $91,800 from an innocent man
Vox: “It’s been complete hell”: how police used a traffic stop to take $91,800 from an innocent man by German Lopez: The money was supposed to go toward buying a legendary music studio. Now his dreams are on hold.
TechDirt: Opinion: DOJ: Civil Asset Forfeiture Is A Good Thing That Only Harms All Those Criminals We Never Arrest
TechDirt: Opinion: DOJ: Civil Asset Forfeiture Is A Good Thing That Only Harms All Those Criminals We Never Arrest by Tim Cushing: In most cases, the agency performing the seizure is allowed to directly benefit from it. Whether it’s used … Continue reading
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Alabama task force performs drug raid, man dies. Officials take his home, split the proceeds.
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Alabama task force performs drug raid, man dies. Officials take his home, split the proceeds. by Radley Balko: The court that was supposed to be neutral and fair in all of this got a cut of the … Continue reading
Miami Herald: Feds want cash seized in a raid last year, so they’re suing the cash
Miami Herald: Feds want cash seized in a raid last year, so they’re suing the cash by David Goodhue: The federal government is suing a bundle of cash seized in a drug raid last year near Key West that turned … Continue reading
WaPo: Justice Department creates watchdog for asset forfeiture program
WaPo: Justice Department creates watchdog for asset forfeiture program by Sari Horowitz: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is setting up a unit in the Justice Department to oversee a policy he reinstated to help state and local police take cash and … Continue reading
Conservative Review: How the feds swipe your stuff — and how Congress could stop it
Conservative Review: How the feds swipe your stuff — and how Congress could stop it by Nate Madden:
Gothamist: City Council To Force NYPD To Account For The Millions They Seize From Innocent NYers
Gothamist: City Council To Force NYPD To Account For The Millions They Seize From Innocent NYers by Christopher Robbins:
Business Insider: Conservatives are trashing Jeff Sessions’ controversial asset-seizure program
Business Insider: Conservatives are trashing Jeff Sessions’ controversial asset-seizure program by David Choi:
Legal Insurrection: DOJ Expands Asset Forfeiture Program…Even in States That Have Banned It
Legal Insurrection: DOJ Expands Asset Forfeiture Program…Even in States That Have Banned It by Mary Chastain Local authorities can bypass asset forfeiture laws through the DOJ’s “adoption” policy.
The Hill: GOP lawmaker blasts Sessions over asset forfeiture
The Hill: GOP lawmaker blasts Sessions over asset forfeiture by John Bowden: Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Tuesday blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions for announcing that the Justice Department would be increasing asset forfeiture around the country. In a statement … Continue reading
TX9: Texas provides no exclusionary remedy for illegal search and seizure in forfeiture cases
Texas provides no exclusionary remedy for illegal search and seizure in forfeiture cases. $102,450.00 in United States Currency v. State, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 5761 (Tex. App. – Beaumont June 22, 2017):
CA9: Second coordinated traffic stop after first was prolonged in violation of Rodriguez was “fruit of the poisonous tree”; cash for forfeiture suppressed
“We hold that the search of Gorman’s vehicle following the coordinated traffic stops violated the Constitution and affirm the district court’s order granting Gorman’s motion to suppress. Gorman’s first roadside detention was unreasonably prolonged in violation of the Fourth Amendment. … Continue reading
RealClear Policy: Civil Asset Forfeiture Harms Innocent Americans
RealClear Policy: Civil Asset Forfeiture Harms Innocent Americans by Rep. Doug Collins: The mechanics of civil asset forfeiture can be hard to follow because its abuses are rooted in circular reasoning. So it’s helpful to trace out how the statutes … Continue reading