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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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Congressional Research Service:
--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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Monthly Archives: October 2020
TX: Is abandonment of a car also abandonment of the information in a cell phone left in it?
Dissent on denial of a petition for discretionary review: The court should decide whether fleeing a car and leaving one’s cell phone behind is abandonment. The court of appeals below held it was. Wiltz v. State, 595 S.W.3d 930, 936 … Continue reading
W.D.Okla.: A longstanding personal relationship between owner of premises and def didn’t confer standing without guest status
Defendant’s longstanding personal relationship with the owner of the premises searched was insufficient to show standing. He wasn’t a guest. United States v. Brooks, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 195402 (W.D. Okla. Oct. 21, 2020):
M.D.Fla.: Borrower of a rental car with a suspended DL has no standing
“Because the Eleventh Circuit has not yet addressed this issue, the Court has carefully considered the reasoning of the Lyle and Bettis cases and concludes, in line with the Second Circuit, that the unlicensed driver of a rental car should … Continue reading
PA: Mere presence of cell phones near drugs in a home isn’t PC for their search
The search warrant for defendant’s cell phones, issued months after the seizure of heroin and firearms from his home, completely lacked probable cause. The mere fact cell phones were on defendant in proximity to drugs isn’t enough, and “officer’s experience” … Continue reading
MS: Failure to discuss 4A claims with def isn’t IAC
Defense counsel is not shown to be ineffective merely because defense counsel didn’t advise him that a motion to suppress maybe could have been pursued. Cuevas v. State, 2020 Miss. App. LEXIS 587 (Oct. 20, 2020). Defendant’s guilty plea waived … Continue reading
MT: Plain view justifies automobile exception search
Seeing contraband in plain view justifies an entry into a car under the automobile exception. State v. Tenold, 2020 MT 263, 2020 Mont. LEXIS 2461 (Oct. 20, 2020). Three controlled buys were probable cause despite defendant’s argument that the officer … Continue reading
NYTimes: The Police Can Probably Break Into Your Phone
NYTimes: The Police Can Probably Break Into Your Phone (“At least 2,000 law enforcement agencies have tools to get into encrypted smartphones, according to new research, and they are using them far more than previously known.”)
D.Minn.: SW for ion scan of door for presence of drugs was at least subject to GFE
The search warrant here for swabbing defendant’s door for an ion scan to determine presence of drugs didn’t describe what the ion scan would show. The existence of case law from at least 1999 supporting ion scan warrants satisfies good … Continue reading
GA: Defendant’s refusal to submit to a urine test wasn’t a 5A violation
Defendant’s refusal to submit to a urine test wasn’t a Fifth Amendment violation. Motion to suppress improperly granted. State v. Awad, 2020 Ga. App. LEXIS 589 (Oct. 20, 2020):
NJ: Protective sweep of house for gun inside was unreasonable where defendant was arrested outside
Protective sweep of house for gun inside was unreasonable where defendant was arrested outside. State v. Radel, 2020 N.J. Super. LEXIS 222 (Oct. 20, 2020):
NJ.com: Murphy vetoes bills requiring cops to use body cameras, citing cost and privacy concerns
NJ.com: Murphy vetoes bills requiring cops to use body cameras, citing cost and privacy concerns by Blake Nelson (“Gov. Phil Murphy says he won’t sign two bills expanding the use of police body cameras unless lawmakers made several changes.”)
N.D.Ohio: Giving a drug courier a duffel bag doesn’t allow one to retain standing under a bailment or joint possession theory
Defendant did not have standing under either a bailment theory or joint possession where a drug courier allegedly hauling his meth on a Greyhound bus had the bag unreasonably seized and searched. Defendant wasn’t there observing the courier holding his … Continue reading
CA7: Ptf was a trespasser who had no REP
Plaintiff as a trespasser had no reasonable expectation of privacy to make a Fourth Amendment complaint. “Just as a trespasser has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the property, a trespasser also lacks a possessory interest in the property. The … Continue reading
CA1: Gunshot from within while waiting for SW justified entry and sweep
Police froze and surrounded defendant’s home while they sought a search warrant. While they were waiting, a gunshot came from within, so they entered in response. The government satisfied inevitable discovery even though this protective sweep ended up in the … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Search of def’s fanny pack wasn’t valid as search incident, but it was valid because he disclaimed it
Defendant’s front license plate being on the dashboard and not affixed to the car was a traffic offense that justified his stop. “Perhaps Giles recognizes that there was probable cause to arrest him after he refused to pull over and … Continue reading
SCOTUS cert. grant: Does hot pursuit apply to misdemeanant’s flight into own home?
Lange v. California, 20-18 (granted Oct. 19, 2020): Issue: Whether the pursuit of a person whom a police officer has probable cause to believe has committed a misdemeanor categorically qualifies as an exigent circumstance sufficient to allow the officer to … Continue reading
SCOTUS: three dissent from denial of cert.: Jardines requires reversal
Bovat v. Vermont, 2020 U.S. LEXIS 5057 (Oct. 19, 2020) (Gorsuch dissenting from denial of certiorari with Sotomayor and Kagan):
GA: Where state constitution or statute are recognized to be susceptible to a broader interpretation than the 4A, appellant has to show why or how; otherwise, it’s waived
Defendant also relies on the state constitution as well as statute in addition to the Fourth Amendment. “However, Hinkson makes no argument that state law provides a rule substantively different as applied to this case from that of the Fourth … Continue reading
CT: Pretrial GPS monitoring didn’t violate right to counsel and is 4A reasonable
Pretrial GPS monitoring that can tell when the accused is at his attorney’s office doesn’t violate the right to counsel, and it’s reasonable when merely monitoring whether defendant is abiding by her pretrial travel restrictions. State v. Troconis, 2020 Conn. … Continue reading
AP: Baltimore prosecutor: Do not authorize “no knock” warrants
AP: Baltimore prosecutor: Do not authorize “no knock” warrants (“Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby has directed prosecutors in her office to not authorize ‘no knock’ arrest warrants that are approved by judges, citing the police shooting death of Breonna Taylor … Continue reading