Archives
-
Recent Posts
- 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
- CA4: Tracking order using cell site simulator with PC was reasonable
-
-
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: December 2020
D.N.H.: Separate PC was shown even though stop was made to aid DEA investigation
Officers wanted defendant’s car stopped and probable cause for a searched developed because they didn’t want to reveal a DEA investigation. The traffic officer waited for a traffic violation and then developed probable cause during the stop. United States v. … Continue reading
The Crime Report: Chicago Mayor Fires Top Lawyer Over Botched Raid Video
The Crime Report: Chicago Mayor Fires Top Lawyer Over Botched Raid Video (“Chicago city lawyers made the rare move of apologetically withdrawing a request for federal court sanctions against a lawyer after the public release of video of a botched … Continue reading
GA: LPN at nursing home had no REP in patient’s room from video recording
A rehabilitation center resident’s son put a video camera in his father’s room because of the father’s concern that “strange things” were happening there at night. The resident wanted his son to stay there but he couldn’t because of his … Continue reading
CA8: DV order of protection and def’s seeking his firearms was PC for SW
Defendant was under a DV order of protection and repeatedly attempted to recover firearms from the police department, and that was probable cause for a warrant for his house. United States v. Bachler, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 39772 (8th Cir. … Continue reading
ND: While cracked windshield isn’t violation of state law, it wasn’t unreasonable for officer to conclude it was
A cracked windshield on the passenger side is not a violation of state law, but it was not unreasonable for the officer to conclude that it was. Therefore, the stop was not unreasonable. State v. Bolme, 2020 ND 255, 2020 … Continue reading
OR: The fact some people lie is not RS
The officer had no subjective or objective reasonable suspicion that the vehicle defendant was driving, his mother’s, was without her permission, just become some people lie. State v. Smith, 308 Ore. App. 84 (Dec. 16, 2020). Defendant was claimed to … Continue reading
OH5: 911 hang-up call is treated as presumptively an emergency until shown otherwise
In Ohio, a 911 hang-up call is treated as presumptively an emergency until shown otherwise. State v. Walter, 2020-Ohio-6772, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 4622 (5th Dist. Dec. 17, 2020). A police officer’s property was searched under a warrant. The warrant … Continue reading
IN: Odor of MJ alone may not be enough for PC without showing training
On the facts of this case, the mere odor of marijuana wasn’t enough to show probable cause. The officers never explained why they believed that or what their training was. Bunnell v. State, 2020 Ind. App. LEXIS 538 (Dec. 18, … Continue reading
CA10: There was no violation of curtilage for def’s home on grounds of 24/7 storage company
Defendant lived on the grounds of a 24/7 storage building company. At 2:30 am, officers investigating saw cars coming and going from the residence. They approached his building, and the approach way wasn’t curtilage under Dunn. United States v. Powell, … Continue reading
ID: Def ordered from home in DV case had no standing in the home when violating order
Defendant ordered to stay away from his own marital home as a result of domestic violence no contact order had no standing in the house when he retreated inside to avoid the officer there to check on his violation of … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: A vehicle search doesn’t have to happen as soon as PC develops; prudent to wait for backup
“Defendant retorts that, if in fact Sgt. Concepcion discovered the marijuana odor early in the traffic stop, he should have begun the search immediately rather than waiting for the arrival of Investigator Gould, citing no caselaw in support. The Court … Continue reading
MI: Ordering def out of his house for a misdemeanor arrest without showing of exigency unreasonable
Defendant’s arrest violated the Fourth Amendment because it was the product of an illegal constructive entry without any exigency that occurred when armed police officers surrounded his trailer and ordered the occupants out. They could not have arrested defendant for … Continue reading
N.-M.: Broad cellphone search authorization was narrowed to emails and text messages and was particular
The command authorization for a search of defendant’s iPhone was reasonable and limited to files of emails, text messages, and search history as to his extramarital affairs before and after his wife’s death. A video found in an email was … Continue reading
Reason: A Fourth Amendment Mistake the Supreme Court Should Fix
Reason: A Fourth Amendment Mistake the Supreme Court Should Fix by Damon Root (“Don’t expand the “hot pursuit” exception to the Fourth Amendment.”)
CA8: Being a passenger in a stolen vehicle justifies a patdown for weapons
Defendant’s riding in a stolen car permits a patdown. “Further, to the extent Brooks argues questioning occurred before the frisk and exceeded the permissible scope of a Terry stop, we conclude that the officers were not required to give Miranda … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Roadside questioning in the patrol car doesn’t matter
“Also, the fact that Gardea was questioned in the patrol car is of no consequence. ‘An officer making a traffic stop does not violate the Fourth Amendment by asking the driver his destination and purpose, checking the license and registration, … Continue reading
New Law Review: The Fourth Amendment Limits of Internet Content Preservation
Orin Kerr, The Fourth Amendment Limits of Internet Content Preservation, forthcoming in the St. Louis University Law Journal. Abstract:
W.D.Ky.: PC to arrest for a drug crime doesn’t require a completed crime
Probable cause for arrest because of planning to commit a drug crime based on corroborated CI information without the drug transaction even happening. United States v. Kristopher, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 236421 (W.D. Ky. Dec. 16, 2020) [e.g., attempt, conspiracy]. … Continue reading
TX: Flight from arrest on a warrant doesn’t permit litigating the validity of the warrant
There was an outstanding arrest warrant for defendant that justified the officer’s attempting to arrest him, and his flight justified his conviction for evading. The exclusionary rule doesn’t reach down to the actual validity of the warrant and the statute … Continue reading