Archives
-
Recent Posts
- techdirt: The Problems Of The NCMEC CyberTipline Apply To All Stakeholders
- 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
-
-
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: April 2021
M.D.Pa.: Calling for backup before asking motorist for consent was the “Rodriguez moment” but it was with RS
“‘[T]he proper inquiry is not whether a traffic violation actually occurred, but rather whether there are facts presented that would lead a reasonable officer to believe that a violation may have occurred.’ … ‘This standard is not particularly rigorous, as … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Protective sweep of hotel room of armored car robbery suspect was reasonable
“Here, the uncontested facts justify a protective sweep of the hotel room. Detective Holmes testified that at the time of Defendant’s arrest, there was still a suspect in the armored truck robbery at-large whose whereabouts were unknown. … As such, … Continue reading
CA11: Assuming geo-location info for def’s cell phone was illegally obtained, it was harmless BRD
“We assume without deciding that the district court erred in allowing the admission of the Google geo-location data during trial because it amounted to fruit of the poisonous tree, and no exception applied. Nevertheless, Pendergrass is not entitled to a … Continue reading
CA6: Affiant’s not checking the accuracy of information in a computer system before relying on it was not a Franks violation
The affiant’s not checking the accuracy of information in a computer system before relying on it was not a Franks violation. United States v. Thomas, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 11884 (6th Cir. Apr. 20, 2021):
D.Neb.: CI report led to controlled buy and that was PC
A CI with a reliable track record reported defendant was selling ecstacy. That alone was likely at least reasonable suspicion, but then police used him to make a controlled buy, and that was probable cause for the stop. United States … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Uncorroborated CI, criminal history, and inconclusive trash pull didn’t support SW for house; no GFE
“Pending before the court is Defendant’s motion to suppress 48 pounds of methamphetamine, $41,000 in cash, and all other evidence seized during a search of his residence by the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team (‘MDENT’). I find that neither the … Continue reading
EFF: Your Service Provider’s Terms of Service Shouldn’t Overrule Your 4A Rights
EFF: Your Service Provider’s Terms of Service Shouldn’t Overrule Your Fourth Amendment Rights by Jennifer Lynch:
E.D.Mo.: Constitutionality of window tint statute doesn’t have anything to do with PC for a stop for overtinting
Even if Missouri’s window tint statute was unconstitutional, something in doubt, it wouldn’t have any affect on the reasonableness of defendant’s stop for violating it, and the exclusionary rule would not apply. Factually, the officer said he couldn’t see into … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Out past curfew during BLM protests was PC for stop
Officers seeing defendant driving during a BLM protest curfew in June 2020 in Louisville had probable cause for the stop. United States v. Shrivers, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77047 (W.D. Ky. Apr. 21, 2021).* A CI with a reliable track … Continue reading
IL: For “immediately apparent” in plain view, only “practical, nontechnical” probability that incriminating evidence is involved is required
On the incriminating nature of an object in plain view being “immediately apparent,” “[a]ll that is required is a ‘“practical, nontechnical”’ probability that incriminating evidence is involved.” People v. Molnar, 2021 IL App (2d) 190289, 2021 Ill. App. LEXIS 192 … Continue reading
W.D.Mich.: 1983 suit over state detention without bond barred by Younger abstention
Plaintiff detainee’s 1983 case he was being held without bond in a state prosecution is barred by Younger absention. Snowden v. Schipper, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76275 (W.D. Mich. Apr. 20, 2021). “Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Exigency for entry fails; officers knew victim was not there
The emergency aid justification for a warrantless entry into defendant’s house in a domestic dispute wasn’t applicable because there no longer was an emergency. The victim was safe elsewhere and nobody was home. Also, the good faith exception wasn’t proved … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Cell tower dumps to attempt to solve 12 robberies did not require SW
There were 12 robberies and officers got cell tower dumps to attempt to figure out the phone involved. Cell tower dumps did not require a search warrant. United States v. Rhodes, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75184 (N.D. Ga. Apr. 20, … Continue reading
NC: Officer waving down a motorist at 3 am was a seizure
“The issue in this case is whether a driver is “seized” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment when he is tailed by a marked police cruiser down empty streets at 3 a.m., followed into an empty parking lot, and … Continue reading
WI: Officer inquiring of pill bottle in plain view during traffic stop did not unreasonably extend stop
Officer in a traffic stop inquiring of a pill bottle in plain view wasn’t unreasonable under Rodriguez. State v. Crone, 2021 Wisc. App. LEXIS 192 (Apr. 20, 2021). The officer’s sticking his head inside defendant’s car and smelling marijuana was … Continue reading
Reason: Lawmakers Look To Stop the Feds From Secretly Buying Your Private Data
Reason: Lawmakers Look To Stop the Feds From Secretly Buying Your Private Data by Scott Shackford (“A 2018 Supreme Court decision was supposed to protect your location data from federal snooping. That’s not what happened.”)
CA9: Saying you just found the backpack you’re carrying in a dumpster shows no REP
“First, the court did not clearly err in finding that Gage had abandoned any reasonable expectation of privacy in the backpack by telling Officer Robinson that the group had just retrieved the backpack from a garbage dump and that he … Continue reading