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- 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?
- M.D.Pa.: Def was neither shipper nor recipient of USPS parcel, so he had no standing in it
- WI: Obtaining def’s DNA by ruse wasn’t an illegal search
- WaPo: Apple, Google and Venmo fight new U.S. plan to monitor payment apps
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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.Ariz.: Def on a shuttle bus stopped at I-19 immigration checkpoint consented to search
Defendant was on a shuttle bus referred for secondary inspection at the I-19 immigration checkpoint in Arizona. About 50 come through there a day, and all are stopped and the occupants ordered off. Defendant slipped away and wouldn’t make eye … Continue reading
NYTimes: Drug Arrests at Immigration Checkpoint Violated Constitution, New Hampshire Court Finds
NYTimes: Drug Arrests at Immigration Checkpoint Violated Constitution, New Hampshire Court Finds by Ron Nixon:
Cato: Introducing “Checkpoint: America”
Cato: Introducing “Checkpoint: America” by Patrick G. Eddington
Courthouse News Service: ACLU Asks Greyhound to Stop Letting Customs Officers Harass Passengers
Courthouse News Service: ACLU Asks Greyhound to Stop Letting Customs Officers Harass Passengers by David Lee:
M.D.Ala.: Ordering man to crawl out of hotel room before entry was reasonable where officer had arrest warrants for occupant
Defendant was ordered out of a hotel room for officer safety by crawling out. Viewed as a Terry stop, it lacked reasonable suspicion [so why decide it?] but the officers were there with arrest warrants, and that was reasonable under … Continue reading
LATimes: Border Patrol agents spark anger after boarding bus in Florida to ask passengers for proof of citizenship
LATimes: Border Patrol agents spark anger after boarding bus in Florida to ask passengers for proof of citizenship by Jenny Jarvie:
IL: A motion to suppress and a motion for directed finding of NG are fundamentally two different things
Defendant sought a motion to suppress which was actually a motion for directed finding of not guilty. They are different things. People v. Lomeli, 2017 IL App (3d) 150815, 2017 Ill. App. LEXIS 782 (Dec. 15, 2017). This immigration checkpoint … Continue reading
NY1: Suppression of firearm in criminal case wasn’t collateral estoppel in civil case where ptf didn’t offer any evidence
Suppression of a firearm in the criminal court was not collateral estoppel to a civil case for false arrest, particularly where plaintiff offered no evidence at all. Davidson v. City of New York, 2017 NY Slip Op 08313, 2017 N.Y. … Continue reading
LA5: CI’s story provided PC for defendant’s stop for a hand-to-hand transaction police then observed
The CI provided probable cause for defendant’s stop for a hand-to-hand transaction. The CI’s story was that was what was going down, and defendant came up to the car and leaned in. While the officers didn’t see what happened in … Continue reading
WBUR: Broad Jurisdiction Of U.S. Border Patrol Raises Concerns About Racial Profiling
WBUR: Broad Jurisdiction Of U.S. Border Patrol Raises Concerns About Racial Profiling by Kathleen Masterson: Within 100 miles of the border and the coastline, Border Patrol agents have broad authority to stop cars and people for immigration questions. For example, … Continue reading
The Hill: ACLU sues Homeland Security, Customs over ID check on domestic flight
The Hill: ACLU sues Homeland Security, Customs over ID check on domestic flight by Lydia Wheeler:
CA5: Thumping a spare tire on PC wasn’t an unreasonable search
“Here, the agent articulated several observations which, based on his eight years of experience at this [immigration] checkpoint, indicated that the truck’s spare tire contained contraband. Viewing this testimony in the light most favorable to the Government, and giving due … Continue reading
D.Minn.: The gov’t cites a three-way circuit split on standing in a rental car; the circuit authority controls
Defendant was driving a rental car with permission of the renter, and that gives him standing in this circuit. There is a three way circuit split, and this court can’t resolve that. United States v. Bettis, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Border Patrol had RS two vehicles were traveling in tandem during midnight border crossing
The Border Patrol officer had reasonable suspicion to stop defendant’s vehicle for transporting persons across the border in the trunk. Defendant got past the checkpoint, but another officer’s suspicions of a following car were heightened. After two were found in … Continue reading
MI: Unreasonable mistake of law voids search
Defendant’s arrest was without probable cause for violating a no trespassing ordinance. It was a public place, open for business, defendant briefly entered and did nothing wrong. The search incident to the arrest thus fails too. Mistake of law as … Continue reading
To what degree is RS near the border delegated to the Border Patrol?
On the totality of circumstances, there was reasonable suspicion. “Keeping in mind that border patrol agents, not courts, are trained to detect smugglers, and ‘[t]he facts are to be interpreted in light of a trained officer’s experience,’ United States v. … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Immigration checkpoint stop can be enlarged because of smell of marijuana
During an immigration checkpoint on a state highway in Arizona, the smell of marijuana coming from the car allowed the stop to go longer under Rodriguez. “Ruiz-Hernandez has not pointed to any authority, in any context, where law enforcement is … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: RS developed during immigration checkpoint stop of U.S. citizens
Defendants were U.S. citizens and had already crossed the border. The car had Louisiana plates. They were stopped at the Falfurrias Border Patrol checkpoint and citizenship was quickly resolved, but reasonable suspicion developed for the car to be referred to … Continue reading
TN: Off-duty police officer was citizen informant on DUI call
An off-duty police officer saw defendant appeared drunk in her car in a Sonic parking lot and called it in. He was a citizen informant. State v. Irwin, 2016 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 841 (Nov. 8, 2016). The search of … Continue reading