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- W.D.Ark.: Parole search waiver moots lack of PC argument
- AR: RS shown for boating while intoxicated stop
- W.D.Mo.: Wrong address in SW wasn’t fatal where right house was searched
- NY: Failure to show independent source for officer’s observation of def required reversal
- VA: Outline of a gun in def’s pocket was RS
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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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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)
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Monthly Archives: February 2020
D.Idaho: Faint smell of MJ and “excessive nervousness” not RS
Faint smell of marijuana and nervousness was not reasonable suspicion. The court also doesn’t find the travel plans at all suspicious. United States v. Lee, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33091 (D. Idaho Feb. 25, 2020). Plaintiff’s nolo plea barred his … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: An open container in a car is probable cause under the automobile exception to search for other open containers
An open container in a car is probable cause under the automobile exception to search for other open containers. In addition: “Here, Patrolmen Link and McClamroch had received information that a retaliatory shooting could occur near the location they stopped … Continue reading
CA10: NCMEC’s receipt of suspected CP from AOL was subject to GFE
The good faith exception applies to NCMEC’s receipt of suspected child pornography from AOL from an account holder. NCMEC objectively relied upon a statute that had never been challenged before. United States v. Ackerman, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 5806 (10th … Continue reading
CA10: Shooting a person fleeing a shooting scene without determining he was the shooter might have been unreasonable, but right not to be shot in this situation not clearly established (Really)
In a § 1983 Fourth Amendment excessive force suit, officers heard a gun shot and saw people running as a crowd left a concert. They shot and killed the decedent, and a jury could conclude that the officers unreasonably determined … Continue reading
OR: Stop of def for being either involved in accident or material witness to it lacked RS
Defendant was in a vehicle that passed by the scene of a one vehicle accident the police were working. The officer somehow decided that the occupants of the passing vehicle had knowledge of the stop, and he engaged in a … Continue reading
TX3: Cell phone in evidence room from 2009 could be searched with SW after def charged with 2018 capital murder
Defendant had a cell phone seized from him in 2009 that remained in the police evidence room. After another crime, this time a capital murder, the phone was searched with a warrant in 2018. The delay wasn’t unreasonable because defendant … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: SW wasn’t shown to be willfully without PC or overbroad, so GFE applies
Officer’s negligence [my word, not the court’s] in drafting and obtaining a search warrant that was potentially without probable cause and overbroad in scope didn’t overcome the good faith exception. United States v. Snow, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31713 (D. … Continue reading
CA5: Citizen of China on ship stopped on high seas by U.S. officers had no 4A rights
“Liang’s first argument, concerning the denial of a hearing on his motion to suppress evidence, is wholly frivolous. Because Liang is ‘a citizen and resident of [China] with no voluntary attachment to the United States’ and the challenged search occurred … Continue reading
CA9: Facebook copying an account for a coming SW was not a seizure
Facebook’s merely copying defendant’s account for a search warrant was not a seizure. United States v. Perez, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 5541 (9th Cir. Feb. 21, 2020). Probable cause existed for plaintiff’s arrest for constructive possession when she was found … Continue reading
WV: Court order generally needed to send in wired CI
West Virginia requires an intercept order for officers to send in a wired CI to record a drug transaction, but exigency is an exception, which the court finds. It is determined on the totality of the circumstances. State v. Howells, … Continue reading
OH3: Handcuffing detainee for safety when officers outnumbered 4-2 was reasonable
Defendant’s vehicle stop was by an officer outside his jurisdiction, but others with jurisdiction immediately showed up. Handcuffing defendant when the officers were outnumbered 4-2 was reasonable during the stop. State v. Davis, 2020-Ohio-619, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 570 (3d … Continue reading
CA9: Ptf stated claim for SSA CID’s unlawful entry into home
Plaintiff’s civil claim against Social Security Administration’s CID and local investigators stated a claim for unlawful entry into her home in a criminal investigation. Anh Tuyet Thai v. Saul, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 5425 (9th Cir. Feb. 19, 2020).* Plaintiff … Continue reading
CA4: Wrestling a passive misdemeanant to ground and Tasing him was excessive force and unreasonable
It was clearly established at the time of the incident that wrestling a passive misdemeanant to the grown and beating him up and tapering him was unreasonable and excessive force. Livingston v. Kehagias, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 5681 (4th Cir. … Continue reading
TX14: Client had standing to object to seizure of her files from her attorney’s office for his misapplication of her fee into trust account
A search warrant was executed on a divorce lawyer’s office for some client files after a $75,000 retainer was paid into the IOLTA account which had a -$49,000 balance. The district court erred in holding the client had no standing … Continue reading
Vox: Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T could be facing big fines for selling your location data
Vox: Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and AT&T could be facing big fines for selling your location data by Sara Morrison (“Your mobile phone company might be on the hook for fines from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for selling your real-time … Continue reading
Forbes: An Innocent Man Beaten By Law Enforcement Asks The Supreme Court To Give Him His Day In Court
Forbes: An Innocent Man Beaten By Law Enforcement Asks The Supreme Court To Give Him His Day In Court by Andrew Wimer, Institute for Justice (“James was completely innocent in this encounter. It was a clear case of mistaken identity. … Continue reading
WaPo: ICE has run facial-recognition searches on millions of Maryland drivers
WaPo: ICE has run facial-recognition searches on millions of Maryland drivers by Drew Harwell & Erin Cox (“The agency’s unlimited access to drivers’ photos has alarmed immigration and privacy activists, who fear it is being used to target immigrants who … Continue reading
NY Times: A Police Officer’s Word Convicted Them. Now He’s Charged With Murder.
NY Times: A Police Officer’s Word Convicted Them. Now He’s Charged With Murder. By Richard A. Oppel Jr. (“Houston’s top prosecutor says at least 69 people, and perhaps many more, could see their convictions overturned in the wake of a … Continue reading