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Recent Posts
- W.D.Wash.: DNA warrant isssued with PC not quashed before execution
- S.D.Ohio: Defense of denial of possession in drug case meant no assertion of standing to challenge the search, so no IAC
- N.D.Okla.: Anticipatory tracking warrant for money counter is without authority and nexus is speculative even if not
- CA9: Supervised release condition of financial disclosure permitted under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) and didn’t violate 4A
- N.D.Ohio: Refusing discovery on 4A grounds in forfeiture case results in no standing
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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)
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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: December 2020
OH5: “Request” to “come here” was not a seizure
Based on prior cases, the court finds this encounter was a consensual encounter. “We find that the Trooper’s request that appellant ‘come here’ did not turn the encounter into a seizure.” State v. Nichols, 2020-Ohio-6960, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 4782 … Continue reading
FL1: ‘conduct does not need to be illegal (or acted upon if so) to be suspicious’ on the totality
“In fact, ‘conduct does not need to be illegal (or acted upon if so) to be suspicious.’ Weakley v. State, 273 So. 3d 283, 286 (Fla. 1st DCA 2019) (observing that in District of Columbia v. Wesby, 138 S. Ct. … Continue reading
NYTimes: Another Arrest, and Jail Time, Due to a Bad Facial Recognition Match
NYTimes: Another Arrest, and Jail Time, Due to a Bad Facial Recognition Match by Kashmir Hill (“Nijeer Parks is the third person known to be arrested for a crime he did not commit based on a bad face recognition match.”)
CA3: No REP in cell phone subscriber records
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in cell phone subscriber information such that a warrant is required to obtain it v. a subpoena duces tecum. United States v. Brooks, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 40561 (3d Cir. Dec. 29, 2020). … Continue reading
OH3: When state appeals dismissal for pretrial delay, def can’t appeal denial of suppression motion
Denial of a motion to suppress is not immediately appealable in Ohio. Here, there was an appealable pretrial issue of a grant of dismissal for pretrial delay, and the court finds the suppression issue was still viable and could be … Continue reading
CA8: “where one draws the line between” independent source and inevitable discovery doctrines “is unimportant”
“Although the distinction between the independent-source and inevitable-discovery doctrines is not sharp …, where exactly one draws the line between the two doctrines is unimportant.” United States v. Baez, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 40551 (8th Cir. Dec. 29, 2020):
CA9: The fact CBP had RS doesn’t mean it’s required for a border dog sniff
“The fact that Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers had reasonable suspicion cannot serve to heighten the standard attached to the border search.” The use of a drug dog at the border doesn’t require reasonable suspicion. United States v. Meraz-Campos, … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Failure to produce SW at scene of search doesn’t violate Rule 41 or 4A
Failure to produce a search warrant at the time of the search doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment or Rule 41. Also, the search was particular. “In our case, a San Francisco Superior Court issued the search warrant, which federal ATF … Continue reading
IL: Conversation with passenger while waiting for transport for arrested driver didn’t extend the stop
Defendant was a passenger in a car stopped for a seat belt violation. The driver had no DL and he was handcuffed. While waiting for transport of the driver, the arresting officer engaged him in conversation. This was reasonable and … Continue reading
Vox: The real cost of smart speakers
Vox: The real cost of smart speakers by Sam Ellis (“But essentially, smart speakers are microphones that connect to the internet. And they come with a hidden cost: some of our privacy. After listening to our questions and demands, these … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Merely being in a friend’s house in one’s underwear during an early morning search isn’t standing
A nonresident defendant found in his underwear at the scene of house search didn’t show guest standing. That alone wasn’t enough. Probably if he brought a toothbrush. United States v. Davenport, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 242449 (W.D. Tenn. Dec. 28, … Continue reading
OH12: RS for stop after drugs found in 70 other traffic stops leaving suspected drug house
Suppose just for the sake of argument a law enforcement officer conducts 70 potentially legal stops of cars leaving a drug house but then finds drugs in the car. Assume further there was no reasonable suspicion for a detention or … Continue reading
UT: PC can dissipate over time; just because they had it once doesn’t mean they always will
The trial court refused to bind over defendant for trial on arson charges. The state investigated (but not completely apparently) and never sought a search warrant for evidence at the scene while they found it suspicious. The fact there might … Continue reading
D.Utah: Govt had burden on proving RS to continue stop and failed to put on justification; suppressed
The government carried the burden on the basis for the stop but not why it was continued, and the record tells the court nothing about the first 65 minutes of delay. “[T]he court concludes that the dog’s entry into the … Continue reading
CA11: Obscured LPN justified stop, even if statute was unconstitutionally vague
Defendant’s obscured LPN gave probable cause for the stop, even if the statute were to later prove to be unconstitutionally vague. The latter question is not decided. United States v. Sanchez, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 40243 (11th Cir. Dec. 23, … Continue reading
IL: A stop and a frisk require independent factual bases
Stop and frisk are separate questions in their justification and scope, citing Terry. People v. Baker, 2020 IL App (2d) 180300, 2020 Ill. App. LEXIS 880 (Dec. 22, 2020). Police came for a wellness check on defendant’s mother. The search … Continue reading
CA8: Pulling a gun on officers in pursuit justified deadly force
Plaintiff’s decedent’s vehicle was stopped as part of a pseudoephedrine buying investigation. A shotgun was admitted to being in the truck, and decedent repeatedly reached to his waist. Officers got him out, but, as soon as he hit the ground, … Continue reading
OH6: CI was identified and admitted his culpability and that bolstered PC
“The fact that Chad was an identified informant and that his statements acted as an admission of his own criminal activity bolstered his credibility. This when viewed collectively with the other three instances of drug activity set forth in the … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Corroboration of CI’s unique details supported CI’s reliability
“Here, the corroboration of unique details about where and how Daniels conducted drug transactions buttresses CS #2’s tip. The investigative measures taken by Detective Troutman make it probable that the informant was being truthful and gained his knowledge through access … Continue reading
N.Y.Co.: Warrant to seize DNA includes state’s ability to test
When a warrant is obtained to get evidence, here DNA, a separate warrant isn’t required to test it. People v. Belliard, 2020 NY Slip Op 20346, 2020 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 10747 (N.Y. Co. Dec. 22, 2020). “The totality of the … Continue reading