Archives
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Recent Posts
- FL1: Violation of state knock-and-announce statute requires suppression; Hudson not followed
- N.D.Ala.: All parts of a SW are read in context, and that narrows it so it’s not overbroad
- WA: No immediate bail for DV arrest violates neither 4A nor due process
- S.D.N.Y.: Overseas seizure of Russian oligarch’s megayacht not governed by 4A
- CA7: No IAC in failure to more aggressively pursue Franks challenge
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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,
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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)
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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: November 2022
D.N.M.: DEA admin. subpoena to doctor’s office for all patient records of 41 was overbroad
A DEA administrative subpoena to a doctor’s office was overbroad where it sought all patient records for 41 patients. The doctor’s objection is sustained. The subpoena needs to be narrower in scope to match that of the investigation. United States … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Proving nexus to an alleged drug dealer’s home
Proving nexus to an alleged drug dealer’s home discussed in United States v. Stafford, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 210032 (N.D. Ohio Nov. 18, 2022):
W.D.N.Y.: RS for parole search of house justified by failure to report, curfew and travel violations, and tampering with GPS
A parolee’s “fail[ure] to report to the parole office, staying out past curfew, traveling out of his parole-approved area, and tampering with his GPS monitor” justified a parole search of the home. United States v. Jackson, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
USA Today: Police kill far too many people during traffic stops. We must change why stops are made.
USA Today: Police kill far too many people during traffic stops. We must change why stops are made. by Finesse Moreno-Rivera (“Police have killed more than 1,000 Americans this year – more than any other point in the past decade, … Continue reading
CA6: Seeing person named in arrest warrant at place she was staying satisfied Payton
Officers had sufficient information under Payton that a woman for whom they had a warrant was on the premises she was supposedly living at when they entered. They’d seen her there, and CIs put her there. United States v. Essex, … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Positive UA is RS for a search of a probationer’s home
A positive UA is reasonable suspicion for a search of a probationer’s home. United States v. Walker, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209507 (M.D. Fla. Oct. 17, 2022). “To prevail on a Fourth Amendment claim for false arrest, Johnson must establish … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: “Place of residence” for a parole search of an absconder includes a motel room he’s staying in
The “place of residence” for a parole search of an absconder includes a motel room he’s staying in. He also has no standing to challenge a search of a trash can outside the room. United States v. Nichols, 2022 U.S. … Continue reading
CA2: Not unreasonable here to use flashbang device in execution of SW
Defense counsel was not ineffective for not challenging the use of a flashbang device in execution of the search warrant at defendant’s home. The Fourth Amendment does not usually require limits on how the warrant should be executed. Here, it … Continue reading
CA5: 1836 US-Morocco Treaty of Peace and Friendship as applied to courthouse metal detector not “clearly established law”
Plaintiffs are Moorish-Americans who, on the way to file papers with the clerk, refused to go through the metal detector at the Caddo Parish Courthouse. Entrance was denied. They refused to leave and were then arrested for trespass. They sued … Continue reading
MS: Using ladder to look over wall in rented storage unit wasn’t a “search” and did not violate any REP
Officers used a ladder to look over a ceilingless wall in a storage building into defendant’s leased unit. The observation led to a search warrant. Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy from that look because anyone there could do … Continue reading
OR: Holding def’s ID for 30 minutes for no apparent reason was a seizure without RS
Retaining defendant’s ID for 30 minutes before even thinking about questioning his identity was a seizure without reasonable suspicion. State v. Orman, 322 Or. App. 707, 2022 Ore. App. LEXIS 1479 (Nov. 16, 2022). Defendant was not seized when he … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Franks hearing ordered over officer’s claim of smell of MJ
Defendant gets a Franks hearing even if to rebut the government’s claim the good faith exception applies. The affiant officer claimed there was an “overwhelming” smell of marijuana coming from defendant’s house as they approached for a knock-and-talk, which was … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Could have seen for plain view isn’t the same as actually seeing
Defendant did not abandon the vehicle he was driving with permission of the owner. When officers asked for consent he said it wasn’t his and it was his “baby mama’s” vehicle. Her permission gave him standing. The court disagrees with … Continue reading
D.S.C.: Court is “troubled” by methods of search, but exclusion isn’t remedy
Defendant’s claim there wasn’t any search warrant and that he wasn’t shown one is rejected. He came out of the house with his hands up and empty, and an officer is shown on bodycam handing him a paper and him … Continue reading
FL1: No REP in words blurted out in ER
Defendant’s blurting out that he’d murdered someone caught on bodycam in the ER wasn’t subject to suppression under the state communications privacy law because there was no reasonable expectation of privacy in the utterance. Reed v. State, 2022 Fla. App. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Govt fails on its burden of proving GFE applies; no witnesses called
The search warrant for defendant’s cell phone lacked probable cause for lack of specificity. More importantly, the government failed in its burden of proof to show the good faith exception applies. United States v. Armstrong, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 207602 … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Inmate states claim against Sheriff and jail phone provider that privileged attorney calls were turned over to police
Plaintiff Texas inmate was in an Arkansas county jail in 2015-17, and he discovered in 2021 through his current defense lawyer that the county jail phone contractor turned over telephone calls between him and his criminal defense lawyer to the … Continue reading