Archives
-
Recent Posts
- E.D.Ky.: When court can’t tell the dog alerted, motion to suppress granted
- OH1: A malnourished child isn’t exigency for an infant
- E.D.Pa.: Mandamus doesn’t lie to unseal SW papers
- D.Me.: Looking around house when allegedly “freezing” it was an illegal search
- OR: Police listening to attorney-client jail calls because attorney calls not properly segregated leads to dismissal of some counts and setting aside guilty plea
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
-
Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (2012)
ACLU on privacy
Privacy Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
Section 1983 Blog -
"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)
Website design by Wally Waller, Little Rock 
Monthly Archives: May 2019
C.D.Ill.: Providing the inventory of the SW execution wasn’t designed to elicit an incriminating response
Providing defendant with the inventory of what was taken in the search, a normal practice usually required by law, was not designed to elicit an incriminating response. Therefore, the statement was voluntary and not subject to Miranda. United States v. … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: PC was shown in the affidavit; the possibility of another innocent explanation doesn’t undermine PC
There was probable cause for issuance of the search warrant for defendant’s house. The possibility of another explanation doesn’t mean there isn’t probable cause. “The defendant argues that the facts are equally consistent with the possibility that the narcotics were … Continue reading
OH3: Def’s failure to show actual innocence defeats his claim he never saw SW to challenge it
Defendant claimed he never knew about any search warrants in his case, but he was served with one when he was arrested and his place searched. Even so, there is no indication that he would have prevailed on any search … Continue reading
The New American: New York Public School District First to Use Facial-recognition System
The New American: New York Public School District First to Use Facial-recognition System by Joe Wolverton, II:
D.Colo.: To just say a SW is “stale” in a motion to suppress says nothing; def has to show how or why it is stale
Defendant “cannot simply state general legal principles and expect the Court or the Government to figure out what he means to argue. Burciaga bears the burden here, and this ‘argument’ does not satisfy it. Accordingly, the Court will not inquire … Continue reading
DC: To get the benefit of Heien mistake of law, there has to be something that shows the law mistakenly applied actually applied, and here it didn’t
A D.C. police car stopped, backed up, and four officers got out of the car, walked over to defendant, and told him to “get up.” A reasonable person would not have believed he was free to leave, and this stop … Continue reading
C.D.Ill.: Issue preclusion doesn’t fairly apply to officers in § 1983 case after suppression in state court
Issue preclusion would not be applied to preclude defendant officers from litigating the legality of a search that defendant prevailed upon in state court. Applying state law on issue preclusion, it would be unfair to apply it to officers who … Continue reading
IN: SW for house includes the curtilage
A search warrant for a house gives police the ability to search the curtilage, too. Hardin v. State, 2019 Ind. App. LEXIS 234 (May 29, 2019). Navajo Nation police officers had implied license to approach the front door of a … Continue reading
AL: Children missing after mother’s murder was exigency for entry of house
Defendant was believed to have dismembered the mother of his children and the children couldn’t be found. Police got an address and went there but didn’t get an answer. They went to her parents’ house who sent them back to … Continue reading
WaPo: Perspective: It’s the middle of the night. Do you know who your iPhone is talking to?
WaPo: Perspective: It’s the middle of the night. Do you know who your iPhone is talking to? by Geoffrey A. Fowler: Apple says, ‘What happens on your iPhone stays on your iPhone.’ Our privacy experiment showed 5,400 hidden app trackers … Continue reading
MO: SW for a house includes the garden in the curtilage
The search warrant for defendant’s home authorized a search of defendant’s garden because, under Jardines, the curtilage is considered part of the house itself. State v. Daggett, 2019 Mo. App. LEXIS 843 (May 28, 2019). A state court’s 2017 cell … Continue reading
The Hill: Bipartisan thumbs-down to facial recognition technology
The Hill: Bipartisan thumbs-down to facial recognition technology by Dean DeChiaro:
Cert. granted: Hernández v. Mesa: Whether the cross-border murder of a Mexican citizen states a Bivens claim
Cert. granted: Hernández v. Mesa, No. 17-1678 (ScotusBlog) Issue: Whether, when the plaintiffs plausibly allege that a rogue federal law-enforcement officer violated clearly established Fourth and Fifth amendment rights for which there is no alternative legal remedy, the federal courts … Continue reading
SCOTUS: Nieves v. Bartlett: Probable cause to arrest defeats a First Amendment retaliation claim except where there otherwise would not have been an arrest
Nieves v. Bartlett, 17–1174 (May 28, 2019): Probable cause to arrest defeats a First Amendment retaliation claim except where there otherwise would not have been an arrest (maybe a really hard standard to meet). SCOTUSBlog: Opinion analysis: The First Amendment, … Continue reading
MA: Bag of dope protuding from butt crack was seized in a strip search, not a body cavity search
“During a lawful strip search of the defendant following his arrest, police officers observed a plastic bag protruding from the cleft between his buttocks and caused him to remove it; it was revealed to contain individually wrapped plastic bags of … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: There’s no REP in the cell or room of the state’s mental hospital
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in the cell or room of person under civil commitment. It’s not a jail and there are limited constitutional protections inside. Leonard v. Coalinga State Hosp., 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88170 (E.D. Cal. … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: “Motions to suppress evidence are appropriate in civil forfeiture proceedings …”
“Motions to suppress evidence are appropriate in civil forfeiture proceedings because the seizure and subsequent civil forfeiture of assets implicates the Fourth Amendment. Plymouth Sedan v. Pennsylvania, 380 U.S. 693, 702 (1965) (holding that the Fourth Amendment is applicable to … Continue reading
D.Mass.: SW for house permitted search of a hiding place in the outside wall
The defendant had a “hide,” a hiding place outside his house in the wall. The court finds the hide was withing the scope of the search warrant not and did not require a separate search warrant. “I find that the … Continue reading
NPR: Political Fallout Escalates After SF Police Raid Journalist’s Office
NPR: Political Fallout Escalates After SF Police Raid Journalist’s Office by Sonja Hutson: The San Francisco Police Officers’ Association is calling on the chief of police to resign for his handling of a raid on a reporter’s home. The reporter … Continue reading
OK: Without a specific challenge to overbreadth, trial court errs in deciding it
Defendant moved to suppress his cell phone search for lack of probable cause. He did not challenge the scope of the warrant. Therefore, the district court erred in deciding that the search warrant was overbroad. “The District Court erred when … Continue reading