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- NYT: Judge Temporarily Blocks Border Patrol’s Stop-and-Arrest Tactics in California
- techpolicy: Reverse Keyword Search Warrants and the Threat to Online Privacy
- MA: Extraterritorial citizen’s arrest power doesn’t permit seizures of cell phone and removal back home
- CA4: SW affidavit not required to name an offender
- Reason: Justice Department Memo Claims Alien Enemies Act Allows Warrantless Home Searches and No Judicial Review
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (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)
--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, Let it Bleed (album, 1969) -
"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: October 2023
N.D.Ga.: No justification shown for geolocation data of def’s phone
The affidavit for geolocation data about defendant’s phone showed no nexus to crime. Merely having a cell phone on you at the time of a crime doesn’t provide justification. United States v. Cable, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 190357 (N.D. Ga. … Continue reading
NY: Inventory policies don’t have to be in writing to be reasonable
“There is no requirement that an inventory search protocol be written …, and courts will not ‘micromanage the procedures used to search properly impounded cars’ … ‘[R]easonable police regulations relating to inventory procedures administered in good faith satisfy the Fourth … Continue reading
techdirt: How The Courts Have Made It Easier For Cops To Steal From Citizens
techdirt: How The Courts Have Made It Easier For Cops To Steal From Citizens by Tim Cushing (“It’s always been easy for cops to take stuff from people. Civil asset forfeiture allows law enforcement to bypass most of the Constitution … Continue reading
TN: Trial court erred in deciding no standing where state didn’t argue that
The trial court decided the suppression issue on lack of standing when the state conceded standing and argued the merits of the search. Reversed for another suppression hearing. State v. Richards, 2023 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 430 (Oct. 23, 2023). … Continue reading
CA6: State issuing magistrate’s failure to transcribe supplemental information for PC was not enough to suppress
The affidavit and supplementing testimony provided substantial probable cause for issuance of the warrant. State law requires any testimony supplementing a search warrant affidavit be preserved and transcribed. The state issuing magistrate failed. The officer, however, acted in good faith, … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: That state arrest warrant was unsigned is not a 4A violation
A violation of state law on arrest warrant papers doesn’t per se make a Fourth Amendment violation. “There is no Fourth Amendment requirement that a state criminal complaint for an arrest warrant be signed, or even that the warrant itself … Continue reading
IL: In this forfeiture seizure, the car could not be inventoried; contents were to be returned to the owner
Officers attempted a stop of a vehicle potentially involved in an earlier occurrence. Instead of stopping, the driver fled from the stop in the car. Instead of pursuing, officers had the LPN and went to where it was registered, and … Continue reading
Bitcoin.com: Report Exposes Warrantless Cash Searches at Atlanta Airport
Bitcoin.com: Report Exposes Warrantless Cash Searches at Atlanta Airport by Jamie Redman (“In a startling investigation report, Atlanta News First uncovered the concerning practices of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) task force officers. At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, DEA … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Arrested target of cell phone SW has common law right of access to affidavit and SW
The target’s motion to unseal the search warrant affidavit for his cell phone is granted. There is a common law right of access, and the First Amendment right of access does not even have to be decided. The government’s only … Continue reading
NC: Search incident doesn’t apply to hit-and-run; automobile exception didn’t apply to car partly submerged in ditch
Defendant was the passenger in a car owned by her parents involved in a hit-and-run that fled the scene and ended up in a ditch. The driver ran off because he said he had warrants. She gave the driver’s name. … Continue reading
CA9: Drug dog entering vehicle after alert not unreasonable
The drug dog entering defendant’s vehicle after the alert is not unreasonable. An Idaho state CSLI warrant served outside of Idaho was not an issue for federal court. Even if the court agreed that there was a technical violation of … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Police entry into a fire damaged home after fire was out and it was “all clear” violated 4A
There was a kitchen fire in defendant’s home, and firefighters told the police that there were unsecured handguns in the house. A police aide entered the house without a warrant and took them. The government argues the house was abandoned … Continue reading
TX5: A safe removed from a car under the automobile exception was subject to search without a warrant
A safe removed from a car that was otherwise subject to search under the automobile exception was still subject to a warrantless search after it was removed and taken to the police station. Defendant’s effort to compare it to a … Continue reading
NY Suffolk Co.: Entry under Extreme Risk Protection Order statute for potential suicide was exigent
“The Court finds that the search conducted pursuant to the E[xtreme] R[isk] P[rotection] O[rder] statute was reasonable. P.O. Keenan provided sworn testimony as to the basis for his belief that defendant was expressing suicidal ideations (defendant’s text messages), and recounted … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Driver’s failure to laugh at odd question during stop not RS
Defendant’s failure to laugh at the question of whether he had “firearms, drugs, cats, dogs, alligators, and weapons” in his vehicle stop was not reasonable suspicion. United States v. Holloway, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 187752 (E.D. Pa. Oct. 18, 2023):
M.D.Pa.: State law jurisdiction of the officers involved isn’t cognizable in a 2254
State law jurisdiction of the officers involved isn’t cognizable in a 2254. McDowell v. Hainesworth, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 187496 (M.D. Pa. Oct. 18, 2023). Petitioner doesn’t get a CoA to appeal his 2255. He provides no basis for concluding … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Seizure of car key from around def’s neck to search glovebox was with PC
Seizure of defendant’s car key from around his neck to open glove compartment was with probable cause to search the car interior. His cell phone was also seized and then searched with a warrant. It is not challenged. United States … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Def doesn’t show Colombia wiretap was U.S. instigated
Defendants produced nothing to show that U.S. officers enlisted Colombian officers to wiretap their phones there. United States v. Ruiz, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186612 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 16, 2023).* Just because there were discrepancies between the testimony at the suppression … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Text and Facebook messages about crime justified warrant for them
In a health care fraud case, the government knew that messages about the crime were exchanged by text and Facebook, and that was sufficient to get a search warrant for them. In any event, the good faith exception applied. United … Continue reading