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- M.D.Fla.: Denying knowledge of the car involved was a lack of standing
- CA3: Conviction for threats by internet justified supervised release condition of computer monitoring
- D.Ariz.: USPO can turn phone seized in supervised release over to FBI
- Reason: “the Supreme Court’s oral argument yesterday in Barnes v. Felix will be noteworthy.”
- E.D.Mich.: “Imprint” of a gun in the pocket can be RS def is carrying
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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 -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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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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--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (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: May 2022
CNN: Supreme Court leak investigation heats up as clerks are asked for phone records in unprecedented move
CNN: Exclusive: Supreme Court leak investigation heats up as clerks are asked for phone records in unprecedented move by Joan Biskupic (“Supreme Court officials are escalating their search for the source of the leaked draft opinion that would overturn Roe … Continue reading
OK: Exclusionary rule applies in civil cases under state constitution
The exclusionary rule applies to Oklahoma City’s effort to enforce a warrantless entry to seize and forfeit birds in apparent distress. Oklahoma applies the exclusionary rule in most civil cases under its state constitutional provision against unreasonable searches. There was … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Younger doctrine bars suit against state AG investigation’s subpoena
Plaintiffs’ claims that various constitutional rights were infringed by the state Attorney General’s alleged politically motivated investigation are barred by the Younger doctrine. As to the Fourth Amendment claim, it was directed at subpoenas. Trump v. James, 2022 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
Cal.1: Superior Court improperly dismissed pretextual stop claim under California Racial Justice Act of 2020
Defendant here gets reconsideration of his discovery request over an alleged pretextual stop under the California Racial Justice Act of 2020 (Stats. 2020, ch. 317, § 1). He gets over the threshold for a preliminary showing. The trial court impermissibly … Continue reading
C.D.Cal. orders state court to unseal SW papers that led to federal prosecution
For some reason, the federal government and defendant do not have the state search warrant in this case after it indicted defendants. So, “The Court ORDERS the Superior Court of California, Los Angeles County to unseal state search warrant No. … Continue reading
NYTimes: A Face Search Engine Anyone Can Use Is Alarmingly Accurate
NYTimes: A Face Search Engine Anyone Can Use Is Alarmingly Accurate (“PimEyes is a paid service that finds photos of a person from across the internet, including some the person may not want exposed.”)
TX13: Gated community not curtilage, but def’s own curtilage was violated
Where the officers followed defendant into a gated community, the roadway within was not curtilage. Evans v. State, 995 S.W.2d 284, 286 (Tex. App.—Houston (14th Dist.) 1999, pet. ref’d). However, the entry into defendant’s own curtilage was unreasonable. State v. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Alleged alibi wasn’t enough for Franks challenge here
Defendant wasn’t entitled to a Franks hearing by attempting to show that he had an alibi for only one controlled buy at issue, which wasn’t quite good enough anyway for probable cause. United States v. Washington, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
MT: Welfare check of car was reasonable, but extending it was without RS
The officer was justified in a welfare check of defendant sleeping in his car, but it never developed into reasonable suspicion. The stop was unreasonably extended. State v. Zeimer, 2022 MT 96, 2022 Mont. LEXIS 479 (May 24, 2022). A … Continue reading
OH12: Dog alert on car and def’s person didn’t justify strip search
There was reasonable suspicion for and continuing defendant’s stop. A dog sniff was permitted. The dog’s alert, however, didn’t permit a strip search of defendant. It did permit a search of the person. State v. Owensby, 2022-Ohio-1702, 2022 Ohio App. … Continue reading
ID: Not unreasonable to check wants and warrants on passenger during a traffic stop
“This appeal arises out of a traffic stop where a single officer, without having reasonable suspicion that a crime involving the passenger was afoot, checked the passenger for outstanding warrants. The officer used her patrol vehicle’s computer and received a … Continue reading
CA6: A minimal showing of nexus is enough for GFE even where PC is lacking
The affidavit failed to show probable cause. There was a minimal showing of nexus. That’s enough here for the good faith exception. United States v. Helton, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 13943 (6th Cir. May 24, 2022):
MI directs its CoA to consider application of exclusionary rule in zoning case
The Michigan Supreme Court remanded Long Lake Twp. v. Maxon, 2021 Mich. App. LEXIS 1819 (Mar. 18, 2021) (posted here) to determine below whether the exclusionary rule should apply in a zoning case. Long Lake Twp. v. Maxon, 2022 Mich. … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Inmate has no standing in a contraband cell phone
A person in prison has no standing to contest a wiretap on a contraband cell phone. United States v. Yandell, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91166 (E.D.Cal. May 20, 2022). “The facts of this case indicate that [Officer] Leitzen, while conducting … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Broad conclusory motions to suppress should be summarily denied
Broad conclusory motions to suppress should be summarily denied. “The Government and the Court had no warning that Munguia-Lopez was going to challenge his own stop at the hearing. This Court does not look favorably on counsel filing motions with … Continue reading
RI: Commercial fishing is a “closely regulated industry” and a vessel’s monitoring system could be examined
Commercial fishing is a closely regulated industry. “Appellant also had a sea scallop permit, requiring the vessel to have a vessel monitoring system (VMS), which transmits global positioning system (GPS) coordinates every half hour to the National Marine Fisheries Service.” … Continue reading