Archives
-
Recent Posts
- Cal.1st: Minor in possession of MJ is PC for search of car
- D.P.R.: Def waived his Franks by providing nothing to show what’s what
- D.Nev.: Exclusionary rule does not apply to IRS violating its operations manual
- D.Utah: Drug dog arriving within 7 minutes was reasonable and part of the initial stop
- D.Kan.: Preliminary hearing moots claim of lack of PC for arrest
-
-
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: March 2022
VI: Def’s incapacity not bar to BAC blood draw and implied consent
Defendant’s incapacity does not nullify his implied consent to a BAC blood draw by statute. People v. Joseph, 2022 VI SUPER 12, 2022 V.I. LEXIS 16 (Jan. 27, 2022) (10 months from suppression hearing to order). A nonprosecution agreement does … Continue reading
NJLJ: Driving While Black is not a Reasonable Suspicion
NJLJ: Commentary: Driving While Black Is Not a Reasonable Suspicion (“State v. Nyema reminds us that there are issues with criminal identifications, stops and detentions resulting in criminal prosecutions that are bound up with race.”)
CA6: On “four corners” review, new evidence isn’t considered
Search warrant applications are reviewed on the “four corners” of the affidavit. “New evidence” isn’t considered. United States v. Shade, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43451 (6th Cir. Mar. 9, 2022). There was reasonable suspicion for the officer to expand the … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Two parking tickets in same day not a 4A violation
Multiple parking tickets in NYC in one day is not an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Nor an excessive fine under the Eighth; nor a due process violation under the Fourteenth. Torres v. City of New York, 2022 U.S. … Continue reading
D.Md.: Covid helped explain the delay in SW for cell phone search
This cell phone was reasonably seized under a warrant. The second warrant was issued a few weeks later, but, because of covid, the delay was reasonable. United States v. Reaves, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43243 (D.Md. Mar. 9, 2022). “Defendant … Continue reading
FL2: SW affidavit didn’t support nexus to home; GFE not applicable
The affidavit for search warrant here didn’t show nexus to defendant’s home, and the good faith exception doesn’t carry it. Smitherman v. State, 2022 Fla. App. LEXIS 1715 (Fla. 2d DCA Mar. 11, 2022):
Child removal claim is the child’s, not the parents’
“Plaintiff may not maintain an action on behalf for her child for this removal because ‘Fourth Amendment rights are personal rights which … may not be vicariously asserted.’ Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 174 (1969); Southerland v. City … Continue reading
Reason: The Fourth Amendment and Geofence Warrants: A Critical Look at United States v. Chatrie
Reason: The Fourth Amendment and Geofence Warrants: A Critical Look at United States v. Chatrie by Orin Kerr:
S.D.W.Va.: Helicopter flyover of curtilage at 500′ was reasonable
A helicopter flyover of the curtilage at 500′ was within FAA regulations and thus was reasonable. Defendant’s racing to the spot of the grow operation was exigency for fear he was on his way to destroy evidence. United States v. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Traffic stop led to PC by plain view
There was probable cause for a stop, and that quickly developed into probable cause to search from marijuana residue around the driver’s seat. United States v. Estes, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41951 (D.Minn. Mar. 8, 2022).* Possession of a large … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Execution of writ of execution a reasonable seizure
Execution of a facially valid writ of execution is a reasonable seizure. Coonts v. Potts, 316 F.3d 745, 750-51 (8th Cir. 2003). Knight v. City of Omaha, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41932 (D.Neb. Mar. 9, 2022). “In sum, Price’s status … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Non-answers to questions added to RS
There was reasonable suspicion here from the officer’s observations and defendant’s non-answers to questions. United States v. Dunn, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 41610 (W.D.Ky. Mar. 9, 2022).* Not filing a motion to suppress here was not ineffective assistance. Defendant was … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: SW didn’t need to be supported by proof def was involved in crime; it looks for evidence of crime
The search warrant for defendant’s home did not allege he was involved in a crime, but the government showed that evidence still could have been found there. The search of his electronic devices in the home is a closer call, … Continue reading
Buzzfeed News: ICE Conducted Sweeping Surveillance Of Money Transfers Sent To And From The US, A Senator Says
Buzzfeed News: ICE Conducted Sweeping Surveillance Of Money Transfers Sent To And From The US, A Senator Says (“Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents obtained millions of people’s financial records as part of a surveillance program that fed the information to … Continue reading
CA2: Hand-to-hand transaction supports search incident
Hand-to-hand transaction as probable cause supports search incident to arrest. United States v. Campbell, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 6060 (2d Cir. Mar. 9, 2022). This is a prison employee drug testing case. The employee left the premises rather than submit … Continue reading
FL4: Suspicionless probation search condition violates state law
The probation search condition permitting one without reasonable suspicion violates state law. Remanded to strike it from probation terms. Bowman v. State, 2022 Fla. App. LEXIS 1611 (Fla. 4th DCA Mar. 9, 2022). Window tinting stop: “Moreover, because Trooper Otterson … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Telling def to get out of vehicle and sit on curb is seizure
“The Court concludes that the encounter transformed into a seizure only moments later, when Deputy Baptista asked Defendant to step out of the vehicle and have a seat on the curb. Although these requests were phrased as questions, they would … Continue reading
NY Co.: Failure to execute SW in ten days voids it
The search warrant wasn’t executed within 10 days as required by statute where it had to be returned to the court if not. Suppressed. People v. Tonner, 2022 NY Slip Op 50175(U), 2022 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 833 (N.Y. Co. Feb. … Continue reading
ID: 5th wheel trailer parked, slides out, and hooked up to electricity was an outbuilding subject to the SW
A fifth-wheel trailer parked, jacked, chocked, with extensions out and hooked up to electricity was on the property to be searched. It was not specified in the warrant, but it was treated as an outbuilding covered by the warrant. The … Continue reading