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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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--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: Immigration checkpoints
D.N.M.: RS not needed for questions at a fixed immigration checkpoint
Defendant’s questioning about his work at a fixed immigration checkpoint did not require reasonable suspicion. United States v. Briscoe, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 181188 (D.N.M. Oct. 6, 2023). There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop at gunpoint for his being … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Cell phone passcode given by consent, but Cellebrite can open phone anyway
Defendant consented to giving up the passcode to his phone. The court notes in n.2 that Cellebrite can crack the passcodes. United States v. Frey, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 141180 n.2 (E.D. Pa. Aug. 14, 2023). Defendant was reasonably denied … Continue reading
LATimes: Greyhound settles lawsuit over immigration sweeps on buses
LATimes: Greyhound settles lawsuit over immigration sweeps on buses (“Greyhound Lines Inc. will pay $2.2 million to settle a lawsuit over the bus line’s practice of allowing U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to board its buses in Washington state … Continue reading
VT: Roving CBP patrol stop one mile from Canadian border violated state const. even though probably not 4A
A roving border patrol stop a mile from the Canadian border led to state charges against defendant. The court holds the state constitution was violated even if the Fourth Amendment was not, and the evidence should be suppressed. State v. … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Inevitable discovery applied to warrantless search of cell phone at immigration checkpoint
The fact the officers would have obtained a search warrant for defendant’s cell phone if one was sought here made the question of consent to search it moot. Inevitable discovery applies. This was at an immigration checkpoint. United States v. … Continue reading
CA10: A drug dog “alert, as opposed to a final indication, is sufficient to establish probable cause.”
The district court credited the dog handler that the dog alerted. “To the extent that Goldberg brings a legal challenge, this court has held that an alert, as opposed to a final indication, is sufficient to establish probable cause.” United … Continue reading
CA5: Traffic safety checkpoint was scantly justified, but still reasonable
A Mississippi traffic safety checkpoint was reasonable on the totality because every car was stopped, even though the programmatic purpose of the checkpoint was scant. Reasonable suspicion developed that the occupants of the vehicle were being trafficked. United States v. … Continue reading
CA5: 4 questions in 35 seconds at immigration checkpoint were reasonable
Four questions in 35 seconds at an immigration checkpoint were reasonable and for immigration purposes, not general crime control. United States v. Avery, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 15034 (5th Cir. May 11, 2020). A random LPN check showed the owner’s … Continue reading
NYTimes: Greyhound to Stop Allowing Border Patrol Agents on Its Buses Without Warrants
NYTimes: Greyhound to Stop Allowing Border Patrol Agents on Its Buses Without Warrants by Johnny Diaz (“The bus company announced the policy change only days after a leaked memo revealed that agents could not board without consent.”)
KS: Def’s stop when she was unconscious in a car was valid as a public safety stop
Defendant was unconscious in a car slumped over at the wheel at 2 am, unresponsive to a spotlight on her. This was valid as a public safety stop. State v. McKenna, 2020 Kan. App. LEXIS 7 (Jan. 31, 2020). “A … Continue reading
CA5: Immigration stop was short and then justified being extended by RS
“The less-than-three-minute immigration stop was sufficiently brief under the Fourth Amendment …, and Escobar’s nervous and evasive behavior, unusual responses to lawful questions, and provision of a suspicious bill of lading gave agents sufficient reasonable suspicion to extend the stop. … Continue reading
Slate: Greyhound Says It’s Keeping Drivers Safe by Allowing CBP Searches. The Drivers Disagree.
Slate: Greyhound Says It’s Keeping Drivers Safe by Allowing CBP Searches. The Drivers Disagree. by Jeremy Stahl: They’re calling out the company for claiming the policy is about drivers’ “safety.”
CA5: Courts don’t scutinize the words CBP officers use at immigration checkpoints for Rodriguez purposes
At an immigration checkpoint stop, courts will not scrutinize the specific words the officers use to question people about their status, as in “can I see your face” to match it to a picture? Rodriguez doesn’t quite control, and that … Continue reading
NYT: An American Citizen Is Released From Immigration Custody After Nearly a Month
NYT: An American Citizen Is Released From Immigration Custody After Nearly a Month by Manny Fernandez
The Atlantic: The Stuff of Dystopian Nightmare
The Atlantic: The Stuff of Dystopian Nightmare by Garrett Epps: ACLU lawyers have stopped border agents from demanding ID after domestic flights.
USA Today: Customs officers barred from randomly checking papers on domestic flights
USA Today: Customs officers barred from randomly checking papers on domestic flights by Alan Gomez:
NBC: Border Patrol searches have increased on Greyhound, other buses far from border
NBC: Border Patrol searches have increased on Greyhound, other buses far from border by Adiel Kaplan and Vanessa Swales:
NPR: Federal Agents Board Buses 100 Miles From Border To Ask, Are You A US Citizen?
NPR: Federal Agents Board Buses 100 Miles From Border To Ask, Are You A US Citizen? by Samantha Raphelson: