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- E.D.Va.: Must plead prejudice when delay of a cell phone SW is alleged
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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: Pretext
OH8: Traffic offense overcomes pretext claim
An actual traffic offense overcomes defense claims the stop was actually a motive for searching for drugs. Defendant didn’t produce current proof of insurance, and that led to extension of the stop. The officer wasn’t just obliged to have noted … Continue reading
The Appeal: They Took Umbrellas To A Black Lives Matter Protest. The D.A. Hit Them With Gang Charges
The Appeal: They Took Umbrellas To A Black Lives Matter Protest. The D.A. Hit Them With Gang Charges, by Med O’Connor (“Police and prosecutors routinely treat white domestic terrorists with kid gloves, but use the full force of the law … Continue reading
D.N.H.: Separate PC was shown even though stop was made to aid DEA investigation
Officers wanted defendant’s car stopped and probable cause for a searched developed because they didn’t want to reveal a DEA investigation. The traffic officer waited for a traffic violation and then developed probable cause during the stop. United States v. … Continue reading
WY: Stop was factually justified even if pretextual
“Despite the stop of the Tacoma being pretextual due to information provided by Agent Ford, Trooper Hobbs based the initial traffic stop upon a personally witnessed violation of the law. Thus, [Mr. Simmons’] rights under both the Wyoming Constitution and … Continue reading
NYT: Black New Yorkers Are Twice as Likely to Be Stopped by the Police, Data Shows
NYT: Black New Yorkers Are Twice as Likely to Be Stopped by the Police, Data Shows by Alan Fewer (“A report shows Black neighborhoods have been more heavily patrolled, but police officials have said that enforcement is mostly driven by … Continue reading
NY3: Stop justified by traffic offense, despite racial pretext claim
Defendant’s stop was justified by a traffic offense, despite claims it might have been racially motivated. People v. Price, 2020 NY Slip Op 04430, 2020 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4532 (3d Dept. Aug. 6, 2020). See the concurring opinion:
CA9: Dist.Ct.’s findings of pretextual inventory supported by evidence and affirmed
The district court’s conclusion the impoundment of the car and inventory search was pretextual is supported by the evidence and is affirmed. United States v. Turnbow, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 22341 (9th Cir. July 17, 2020). Defendant’s argument over the … Continue reading
Slate.com: Black Judge Has to Explain to White Colleague Why Racial Profiling Is Bad
Slate.com: Black Judge Has to Explain to White Colleague Why Racial Profiling Is Bad by Mark Joseph Stern:
CA11: Ptfs failed to prove pretext for arrest even if the officer was shown otherwise to maybe be racist
Plaintiffs tried to show that the defendant officer was racist, and their arrest was pretextual, relying in part on pretext. However, they fail on that score for lack of proof. After plaintiffs’ arrest the case was dismissed, and “Owens later … Continue reading
ME: No REP in paperwork kept in prison
Plaintiff had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his prison paperwork under Hudson v. Palmer or state law. If legal mail were involved, plaintiff would have to show actual injury [n.5]. Anctil v. Cassese, 2020 ME 59, 2020 Me. LEXIS … Continue reading
Nature Human Behaviour: A large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States
Nature Human Behaviour: A large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States by Emma Pierson et al.:
TX5: SW for blood didn’t have to say it could be tested, too; why else was it drawn?
A search warrant for a blood sample doesn’t have to say that it could be tested, too. Otherwise, why draw it at all. Common sense dictates it would be. Suppression order reversed. State v. Staton, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 2610 … Continue reading
WaPo: Mike Bloomberg ignored early evidence that ‘stop-and-frisk’ could be racially biased
WaPo: Mike Bloomberg ignored early evidence that ‘stop-and-frisk’ could be racially biased by Victor Ray:
WHYY: The Pa. State Police was warned about possible racial bias in car searches. The agency’s answer? End the research.
WHYY: The Pa. State Police was warned about possible racial bias in car searches. The agency’s answer? End the research. By Daniel Simmons-Ritchie and Angela Couloumbis, Spotlight PA (“Last fall, under scrutiny for its decision years earlier to stop tracking … Continue reading
LA4: Lack of apt no. in SW wasn’t inspecific where officers were directed to his door
The search warrant for defendant’s apartment didn’t have the apartment number, but the warrant was specific and directed the officers to his door. That was constitutionally adequate. State v. Gilmartin, 2020 La. App. LEXIS 118 (La. App. 4 Cir. Jan. … Continue reading
LA Times: Black drivers face more police stops in California, state analysis shows
LA Times: Black drivers face more police stops in California, state analysis shows by Anita Chabria (“Black drivers in some of California’s largest cities are stopped and searched by police at higher rates than white and Latino motorists, according to … Continue reading
SC: Automobile exception search doesn’t have to happen right away
Defendant’s car was well enough connected to him and the crime that the police had probable cause for a search under the automobile exception. Moreover, there is no constitutional requirement that the vehicle be searched immediately under the automobile exception. … Continue reading
IL: High crime area plus quick furtive movements to floor was RS and suggested a weapon to officer
High drug crime area plus quick furtive movements to floor that suggested to the officer that defendant was concealing a weapon was reasonable suspicion. People v. Hood, 2019 IL App (1st) 162194, 2019 Ill. App. LEXIS 1012 (Dec. 31, 2019). … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: How one USDJ views R&Rs in a 4A case; also, using social worker entry as pretext wasn’t unreasonable
“It may be worth commenting that the deputies may have subjectively used the social worker visit to pursue their interest in the reported firearm and drug violations — to the extent possible — just as traffic violations are often used … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Bodycam video showed pretext, but there still was a factual and legal basis for stop
Officers on bodycam are talking about pretext, but there was, in fact, a factual and legal basis for the stop that makes pretext irrelevant. United States v. Jones, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 219072 (W.D. Ky. Dec. 20, 2019):