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- Lawfare: How Google’s Location History Program Could Upend Digital Surveillance Law
- CA6 disagrees with CA7 on de minimis injuries under § 1983 force cases
- MO: No duty of care owed by police to fleeing motorist
- D.P.R.: Indictment for possession of switches to convert handguns to machine guns justified vehicle search when defendant was stopped
- N.D.Ohio: Heroin and three guns in plain view was exigency for entry with child alone inside
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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,
citations, and links -
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
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--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (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: February 2022
S.D.N.Y.: A reasonably conducted eviction is not a 4A violation
“Most eviction-type seizures do not violate the Fourth Amendment. Thomas v. Cohen, 304 F.3d 563, 574 (6th Cir. 2002) (citing Soldal v. Cook County, 506 U.S. 56, 71, 113 S. Ct. 538, 121 L. Ed. 2d 450 (1992)). Seizing an … Continue reading
FL2: Resisting illegal arrest without violence not a crime
Where it was clearly shown defendant’s arrest was unlawful because he was told to come out of his house to be arrested, his resisting without violence conviction could not stand. Seiracki v. State, 2022 Fla. App. LEXIS 1040 (Fla. 2d … Continue reading
WaPo: Facial recognition firm Clearview AI tells investors it’s seeking massive expansion beyond law enforcement
WaPo: Facial recognition firm Clearview AI tells investors it’s seeking massive expansion beyond law enforcement by Drew Harwell (“The company is pushing toward 100 billion images in its ‘index of faces,’ even as lawmakers worry the company poses a dangerous … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Dropping a bag when stopped, walking away from it, and then denying having it was abandonment
Defendant had a red Nike bag on him when the car was stopped, and he got out of the car and dropped it on the ground and walked away from it. When questioned about the bag, he denied he’d dropped … Continue reading
Reason: Teacher Spying Is Instilling Surveillance Culture Into Students
Reason: Teacher Spying Is Instilling Surveillance Culture Into Students by Liam Day (“‘We totally stalked what they were doing on Google,’ one teacher said.”)
W.D.Wash.: Extensive surveillance of def showed PC
The government’s extensive surveillance evidence of defendant showed probable cause for the warrant. United States v. Alvarez-Quinonez, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26292 (W.D.Wash. Feb. 14, 2022).* Defendant’s claim of racial profiling pleads no facts and is denied. He can, however, … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: Def’s resisting execution of a SW was a factor in finding dangerousness to deny release pending trial
Defendant’s resisting his arrest, including a search warrant, was a factor in denying release pending trial. United States v. Wagoner, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25232 (W.D.Va. Feb. 11, 2022). Questions of fact exist on whether plaintiff’s forced digital rectal exam … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Officers can enter a bathroom for a protective sweep
The protective sweep of the bathroom was justified and defendant’s claim the officers didn’t need to enter the bathroom to look is rejected. United States v. Perez, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26275 (N.D.Ga. Feb. 15, 2022). Plaintiff inmate’s claim that … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Eastman’s claim 1/6 House Committee’s subpoena is without authority or overbroad is denied
John Eastman’s claims against the Jan. 6 House Committee subpoena for records fail on his claim for injunctive relief. (Attorney-client privilege will be taken up later.) Eastman v. Thompson, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25546 (C.D.Cal. Jan. 25, 2022). On the … Continue reading
WaPo: As lethal fentanyl flows across Mexico border, CBP tries powerful scanning technology
WaPo: As lethal fentanyl flows across Mexico border, CBP tries powerful scanning technology by Nick Miroff (“With fatal drug overdose deaths in the United States soaring to record levels, Congress has directed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to come up … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Attenuation doctrine applies to this SEC interview; in dicta, no 4A violation
Even assuming the exclusionary rule applies to the SEC in this case, the attenuation doctrine applies. There is no direct or indirect evidence derived from the SEC’s action. As to the direct, “The Court finds that, even if the exclusionary … Continue reading
AP: Man whose home was bombed by police holds off on rebuilding
AP: Man whose home was bombed by police holds off on rebuilding:
NYTimes: I Used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS Tracker to Watch My Husband’s Every Move
NYTimes: I Used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS Tracker to Watch My Husband’s Every Move by Kashmir Hill (“A vast location-tracking network is being built around us so we don’t lose our keys: One couple’s adventures in the consumer … Continue reading
AL adopts new crime exception to exclusionary rule
When being arrested, defendant pulled away from officers in his room and dove for his bed and reached under a pillow. Officers thought he was going for a gun, and a melee ensued. He was charged with assault and resisting … Continue reading
SD: Call about a mere “argument” at 2:48 am didn’t support def’s stop leaving apartment parking lot
The community caretaking exception did not apply to defendant’s stop leaving an apartment parking lot at 2:48 am. A child called the police about an argument in the house, but nothing in the call or the report from dispatch indicated … Continue reading
HI: When valid SW executed, no 5A taking involved
When a valid search warrant is executed, there is no Fifth Amendment taking. Young v. Haw. Island Humane Soc’y S.P.C.A., 2022 Haw. App. LEXIS 21 (Feb. 9, 2022) (unpublished). “Here, the totality of the circumstances then appearing to the officers … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: A “network of pole cameras” doesn’t violate 4A
Five pole cameras were trained on defendant’s house. A “network of pole cameras” isn’t a Fourth Amendment violation. See United States v. Tuggle, 4 F.4th 505 (7th Cir. 2021). Moreover, he does not rebut the presumption of good faith with … Continue reading
MA: State law requires PC for pole camera surveillance, and officers had it
Pole camera surveillance in Massachusetts requires probable cause to set it up. Officers had it in defendant’s case, and his front door and left side of his house were watched for 15 days. Commonwealth v. Comenzo, 2022 Mass. LEXIS 54 … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: No REP in pawnshop records uploaded to pawnshop detail
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in pawnshop records uploaded for the NYPD pawnshop detail. (Therefore, in the trial of this case, attacking the datamining of the NYPD for information is more prejudicial than relevant under F.R.E. 403.) Gem … Continue reading