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- AR: RS def rented a hotel room was sufficient for search waiver; PC not required
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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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--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
N.D.Ga.: Alleged pretext doesn’t matter where the stop is objectively reasonable and based on PC
Alleged pretext doesn’t matter where the stop is objectively reasonable. “As the Court has determined there was probable cause to support the traffic stop, the Court does not reach the issue of whether Lt. Henry had reasonable suspicion that the … Continue reading
CA2: BIA erred in not suppressing; a prima facie case of an egregious violation of the 4A was shown because it was apparently race based stop and there was virtually no PC
BIA erred by denying petitioner’s motion to suppress evidence of his alleged alienage. He made out a prima facie case of an egregious violation of his constitutional rights where the evidence tended to show a racial animus in the planning … Continue reading
WaPo: ‘I got my rights to do anything I want to do’: Officer immediately fired after viral video shows him stopping black shoppers for ‘acting suspicious’ [Spending money while black]
WaPo: ‘I got my rights to do anything I want to do’: Officer immediately fired after viral video shows him stopping black shoppers for ‘acting suspicious’ by Allyson Chiu
Philadelphia Inquirer: Philadelphia police are searching more cars for marijuana — but finding less of it, critics say
Philadelphia Inquirer: Philadelphia police are searching more cars for marijuana — but finding less of it, critics say (“Though Philadelphia has effectively decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana — and close to 200,000 Pennsylvania residents now have medical marijuana … Continue reading
OK: Officer’s excuse for extending the stop was pretext and violated Rodriguez
The officer’s claim that defendant’s log book wasn’t up to date was a mere pretext and subterfuge to unreasonably continue the stop in violation of Rodriguez. State v. Morgan, 2019 OK CR 26, 2019 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 26 (Oct. … Continue reading
IL: Merely radioing for a drug dog did not materially extend a stop that was only 3 minutes long
This case is on post-conviction, and defendant attached a police report to his petition. Based on the police report, the mere act of radioing for a drug dog did not appreciably extend the stop which took three minutes. People v. … Continue reading
WA: Community caretaking function was a pretext to search for evidence, and search is suppressed
The warrantless search of defendant’s home was pretextual under the community caretaking function when there was no justification for it. The court also declines to adopt a “dead body rule.” State v. Boisselle, 2019 Wash. LEXIS 579 (Sept. 12, 2019):
NM applies Strieff in a near replica case; outstanding arrest warrant overcomes allegedly illegal stop
“Accordingly, based upon our application of the Brown factors in a circumstance markedly similar to Strieff, we conclude that Defendant’s arrest warrant was an intervening cause that broke the causal chain between Officer Townsend’s unlawful detention of Defendant and the … Continue reading
CA3: Petrs stated enough to get an immigration hearing on application of exclusionary rule to race-based stop as egregious violation of 4A
The petitioners in an immigration proceeding alleged a race based stop and detention by state officers stated enough to get a hearing on whether this was an egregious violation of the Fourth Amendment. Yoc-Us v. AG United States, 2019 U.S. … Continue reading
LA4: Constructive possession to convict isn’t the test for PC; suppression order reversed
The trial court erred in granting the motion to suppress a gun, essentially conflating the probable cause inquiry and sufficiency of evidence to convict the defendant at trial of possession. State v. LangState v. LangState v. Lang, 2019 La. App. … Continue reading
D.N.D.: The fact the state judge issuing the SW represented a potential witness named in the affidavit didn’t make him not “neutral and detached”
The search warrant issuing state judge was not a neutral and detached magistrate just because he previously represented a potential witness in the case whose name was in the affidavit. There certainly was probable cause. Besides, the good faith exception … Continue reading
Kansas City Star: Missouri House committee to hold hearings on racial profiling in police traffic stops
Kansas City Star: Missouri House committee to hold hearings on racial profiling in police traffic stops by Robert A. Cronkleton: After a recent state report showed that, more than ever, black drivers in Missouri are more likely than whites to … Continue reading
WaPo: Court orders D.C. officers to start collecting mandated racial data in police stops
WaPo: Court orders D.C. officers to start collecting mandated racial data in police stops by Peter Hermann and Rachel Weiner: D.C. police must begin tracking the race of every person officers stop in a vehicle or as a pedestrian within … Continue reading
KS: Trial court’s finding of probable racial bias in stop was supported by record
The district court’s finding that the Kansas statute on racial bias in stops was violated is supported by the record. State v. Gill, 2019 Kan. App. LEXIS 40 (June 21, 2019):
Kansas City Star: Black drivers in Missouri 91% more likely to be stopped than whites. Where’s the outrage?
Kansas City Star (editorial): Black drivers in Missouri 91% more likely to be stopped than whites. Where’s the outrage?
NY3: Officer’s subjective intent to search doesn’t matter where there was PC under automobile exception
The officer’s alleged subjective intent to search didn’t matter because there was justification under the automobile exception anyway. People v. HinesPeople v. HinesPeople v. Hines, 2019 NY Slip Op 03853, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3884 (3d Dept. May 16, … Continue reading
Cato blog: A Pretextual Traffic Stop Should Require Sufficient Pretext
Cato blog: A Pretextual Traffic Stop Should Require Sufficient Pretext by Jonathan Blanks:
Daily Kos: 100 million traffic stops show massive racial bias in policing
Daily Kos: 100 million traffic stops show massive racial bias in policing by Laura Clawson:
N.D.Ind.: Mixed motive for traffic stop isn’t 4A violation as long as there is objective basis for RS
Defendant’s argument that the police must show only that they had a motive to investigate a traffic offense and not any criminal offenses that they already know about is foreclosed by Whren. A mixed motive is not unconstitutional. United States … Continue reading
WaPo: Opinion: Black men–not white guys–face false allegations and a presumption of guilt
WaPo: Opinion: Black men–not white guys–face false allegations and a presumption of guilt by Petula Dvorak: From stop-and-frisk to driving while black to wrongful murder convictions, African American men have always endured the suspicion that President Trump now fears on … Continue reading