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- Was in jury trial this week
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- D.Alaska: Def’s half hour detention was without RS
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com
Search and Seizure (6th ed. 2025)
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-26,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 600,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 50,000 posts since 2003 (29,000 on WordPress as of 12/31/25) -
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Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
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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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"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)
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“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] -
“Children grow up thinking the adult world is ordered, rational, fit for purpose. It’s crap. Becoming a man is realising that it’s all rotten. Realising how to celebrate that rottenness, that’s freedom.”
– John le Carré, The Night Manager (1993), line by Richard Roper -
"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) -
The book was dedicated in the first (1982) and sixth (2025) editions to Justin William Hall (1975-2025). He was three when this project started in 1978.
Website design by Wally Waller, Colorado Springs. 
Author Archives: Hall
VA: Drugs on the person during a stop led to PC for vehicle
The patdown of defendant’s person produced drugs. That gave probable cause to search the car too. McCoy v. Commonwealth, 2025 Va. App. LEXIS 445 (Aug. 5, 2025). The state gets a hearing on whether there was additional information they had … Continue reading
TX6: Def abandoned cell phone; PC for SW didn’t matter
Defendant abandoned his cell phone, and then the police got a warrant for it. Still, it’s abandonment. Williams v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 5777 (Tex. App. – Texarkana Aug. 5, 2025).* The evidence supported the district court’s conclusion there … Continue reading
Reason: Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Imperils the Fourth Amendment Rights of U.S. Citizens
Reason: Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Imperils the Fourth Amendment Rights of U.S. Citizens by Damon Root:
Geofence cert. petition filed 7/30
Chatrie v. United States, 25-112 (docket; petition; prior post): QUESTION PRESENTED This case concerns the constitutionality of geofence warrants. For cell phone users to use certain services, their cell phones must continuously transmit their exact locations to their service providers. … Continue reading
Reason: Federal Appeals Court Rules Takings Clause Creates Cause of Action Even Without Additional Federal or State Legislation
Reason: Federal Appeals Court Rules Takings Clause Creates Cause of Action Even Without Additional Federal or State Legislation by Ilya Somin (“Victims of uncompensated takings can sue directly under the Constitution. The case involved uncompensated seizure of horses.”). Fulton v. … Continue reading
CA8: Post-Rodriguez, criminal history is still a relevant inquiry during a traffic stop as RS develops
Post-Rodriguez, criminal history is still a relevant inquiry during a traffic stop as reasonable suspicion develops. United States v. Moua, 24-2774 (8th Cir. Aug. 1, 2025) (2-1):
CA9: Stay against race-based ICE stops denied
Plaintiffs and class members were Latino U.S. citizens stopped and arrested and searched by ICE based merely on race, ethnicity, and location. Based on the government’s own admissions of what it was doing, the risk of recurrence was significant enough … Continue reading
CA1: Lying in wait to stop and inventory an unlicensed vehicle driven off wasn’t unreasonable
Officers see a car they’re interested in that was uninsured, unregistered, and with an invalid license plate. They watched and waited for someone to drive off, and then they pulled it over just to impound and inventory it. That wasn’t … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: No REP from ALPR on public roads
No reasonable expectation of privacy from Automatic License Plate Readers on public roads under Carpenter. United States v. Slaybaugh, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146107 (M.D. Ala. July 10, 2025). A mere passenger has no standing in the car he’s riding … Continue reading
CA8 denies en banc 9-2 on a Rodriguez issue
The Eighth Circuit denies rehearing en banc in a Rodriguez case [remember Rodriguez came from the Eighth Circuit] with two dissenters: United States v. Puckett, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 19064 (8th Cir. July 29, 2025), Grasz with Kelly dissenting:
TX14: No REP in electronic monitoring while on pretrial release
Updated: Defendant on electronic monitoring as a bond condition has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the GPS information. Hawkins v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 5601 (Tex. App. – Houston (14th Dist.) July 31, 2025) (substituted opinion posted Feb. … Continue reading
TX1: Ambiguous statement wasn’t false under Franks
Was this ambiguity a “reckless” “false statement” under Franks? No. Rosales v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 5608 (Tex. App. – Houston (1st Dist.) July 31, 2025):
D.C.Cir.: Rental inspection ordinance not unconstitutional because it requires a SW if inspection refused
D.C. Code provision on rental unit inspections requires an administrative warrant if the owner refuses inspection, so it’s not facially unconstitutional. Lyle v. District of Columbia, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 18954 (D.C. Cir. July 29, 2025). Two BAC results here: … Continue reading
NJ: State const. requires SW for car parked at state police barracks after DUI arrest
Under the New Jersey Constitution, a car impounded after a DUI arrest and parked at the State Police barracks is not subject to the automobile exception. A warrant is required. State v. Fenimore, 2025 N.J. LEXIS 747 (July 30, 2025). … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Vague and unsupported allegations of 4A violation during pretrial crime scene walk through denied
Defendant is a pardoned Jan. 6th defendant who had a pretrial walk through at the Capitol in October 2024. He claims the AUSA and FBI tried to read his notes in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Despite his pardon, he … Continue reading
CA1 oral argument on lobstering as heavily regulated
CNS: First Circuit unbothered by Maine’s lobster boat snooping by Thomas F. Harrison (“Because lobstering is heavily regulated, the judges seemed to think it’s OK to track the boats’ every move even when they’re used for other purposes.”)
CA8: While the driver wasn’t the owner with the suspended license, RS separately developed to continue the stop
The officer had reasonable suspicion that the owner of the vehicle had a suspended DL, but that dissipated when he saw the driver wasn’t the same gender as the owner. But, reasonable suspicion was developing the driver was under the … Continue reading
Reason: The FBI Took Her $40,000 Without Explaining Why. She Fought Back—and Lost.
Reason: The FBI Took Her $40,000 Without Explaining Why. She Fought Back—and Lost. by Billy Binion (“The twist underscores just how little accountability exists in civil forfeiture, which allows law enforcement to seize assets without charging the owner with a … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Despite officers’ not thinking there was apparent authority to consent, the consenter did have that authority
“The Court recognizes that Officer Nunez and a female officer expressed ambivalence as to whether N.H. could consent to a search when she was not the registered owner of the Camry.” Still, she had apparent authority to consent. United States … Continue reading
The Guardian: Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You’ve got no rights.’ He secretly recorded his brutal arrest
The Guardian: Immigration agents told a teenage US citizen: ‘You’ve got no rights.’ He secretly recorded his brutal arrest by Clare Considine (“Video from Kenny Laynez-Ambrosio, 18, puts fresh scrutiny on the harsh tactics used to reach the Trump administration’s … Continue reading