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Recent Posts
- thedrive.com: Police Are Tagging Fleeing Cars With GPS Darts to Avoid Dangerous Pursuits
- CO: School search of serial offender under firearms “safety plan” was reasonable
- NYU L. Rev.: If Wheels Could Talk: Fourth Amendment Protections Against Police Access to Automobile Data
- Reason: Stop Your Car From Spying on You
- VA Lawyers Weekly: Officials denied immunity for strip searching jail nurse
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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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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)
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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: June 2020
CA5: Expert opinion on reasonableness in 1983 case improper
“We first find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding portions of testimony from two of Albert’s expert witnesses—Richard Lichten, a police-procedure expert, and Dr. Kris Sperry, the former Chief Medical Examiner for the State of … Continue reading
HI: Knock-and-announce for 25 seconds at 6:15 am before forced entry unreasonable
Under the state constitution, police knocks on the door for 25 seconds in the early morning before forcibly entering after even hearing the homeowner call out was not a reasonable amount of time to respond, and this warranted suppression of … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Is changing cell phone settings before SW issued a search? SW moots that issue
The court does not have to decide whether changing the settings on defendant’s cell phone prior to obtaining a search warrant for it was a search. The later issuance of a search warrant for the phone moots that point because … Continue reading
NPR: WBUR: Boston Bans Use Of Facial Recognition Technology.
NPR: WBUR: Boston Bans Use Of Facial Recognition Technology. It’s The 2nd-Largest City To Do So (“Boston has banned the use of facial surveillance technology in the city, becoming the second-largest community in the world to do so.”)
OH10: When def subjected to two SWs, only arguing first waives second
Where defendant was subjected to two search warrants and he only argued the first to the trial court, the second was waived for appeal. State v. Wilkins, 2020-Ohio-3428, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 2359 (10th Dist. June 23, 2020). “A finding … Continue reading
CA8: Def didn’t show standing in rental car with blank rental agreement
Defendant’s possession of a blank rental agreement fell short of showing his standing to challenge the search of the car he was driving. Defendant has to go forward on standing somehow, and Byrd doesn’t say how. United States v. White, … Continue reading
NY2: Arrest for burglary justifies SI of backpack
Defendant’s arrest for burglary, a violent crime, and his uncooperativeness justified a search incident of his backpack for possible weapons. People v. Mabry, 2020 NY Slip Op 03540, 2020 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3583 (2d Dept. June 24, 2020). There … Continue reading
CA11 (en banc): Abandonment is a 4A standing issue, not an Art. III standing issue
“Sometimes courts make simple mistakes. And simple mistakes call for simple fixes. Just so here. In United States v. Sparks, we held that a suspect who ‘abandons’ his privacy or possessory interest in the object of a search or seizure … Continue reading
WaPo: I was wrongfully arrested because of facial recognition. Why are police allowed to use it?
WaPo: I was wrongfully arrested because of facial recognition. Why are police allowed to use it? by Robert Williams:
OH9: Def’s observed association with wanted fugitive permitted his seizure at time of fugitive’s arrest, too.
Defendant was in a car wash and the USM fugitive task force was tailing a person in another car at the car wash. That person came over to defendant’s car and spoke to him. When the person being surveilled started … Continue reading
Lawfare: Hold Police Accountable by Changing Public Tort Law, Not Just Qualified Immunity
Lawfare: Hold Police Accountable by Changing Public Tort Law, Not Just Qualified Immunity by Paul Stern:
NPR: Tech Companies Are Limiting Police Use of Facial Recognition. Here’s Why
NPR: Tech Companies Are Limiting Police Use of Facial Recognition. Here’s Why (“Earlier this month, IBM said it was getting out of the facial recognition business. Then Amazon and Microsoft announced prohibitions on law enforcement using their facial recognition tech. … Continue reading
CA10: Flight from a stop permitted officer to chase def onto his property without a SW
“Officer Estrada’s reasonable suspicion ripened into probable cause when Shelton attempted to flee, thus giving rise to the exigent circumstances necessary for Officer Estrada to pursue Shelton onto the property without a warrant.” United States v. Shelton, 2020 U.S. App. … Continue reading
IN: Search of def’s car when he shows up at home while SW being executed there was reasonable even though SW didn’t mention car
“Do law-enforcement officers violate either constitution by searching a person’s vehicle when the person drives that vehicle up to his or her house while officers are there executing a search warrant for the house that does not address vehicles? Based … Continue reading
IN: Def couldn’t be held in contempt for refusing to unlock cell phone pleading 5A
“When Katelin Seo was placed under arrest, law enforcement took her iPhone believing it contained incriminating evidence. A detective got a warrant to search the smartphone, but he couldn’t get into the locked device without Seo’s assistance. So the detective … Continue reading
AZ: Ex parte order in 2013 for CSLI showed PC and was constitutionally sufficient and it would be served in NJ
An ex parte court order for CSLI five years before Carpenter, and probable cause was shown. It was the functional equivalent of a search warrant. It also could be served on T-Mobile in New Jersey. State v. Conner, 2020 Ariz. … Continue reading
D.Colo.: Resisting a stop without RS is PC
Even if the stop was without reasonable suspicion, defendant’s resisting the officer was a separate crime that justifies with probable cause. United States v. Kazadi, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109060 (D. Colo. June 22, 2020). Defendant’s stop on a country … Continue reading
CA7: Failure to record supplemental testimony for issuance of SW in state court not 4A violation
An Illinois state judge issued a search warrant on a CI’s allegations of being in defendant’s home. The affidavit was essentially bare bones, but the judge took testimony about the CI and his or her basis of knowledge and maybe … Continue reading
Nat’l L. Rev.: The Constitution Protects Faces in the Crowd
Nat’l L. Rev.: The Constitution Protects Faces in the Crowd by Theodore F. Claypoole (“Unlimited law enforcement application of facial recognition software to surveillance footage is an unreasonable search and a violation of Constitutional rights for people in a peaceful … Continue reading