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- E.D.Tenn.: Application for SW was considered in detention ruling
- TN: RS didn’t develop to continue stop; second stop based on first suppressed
- CA4: Traffic stop immediately became firearms investigation; suppressed
- CA10: Disagreement over spelling of street name didn’t make warrant fail particularity; GFE at least would apply
- VA: Statutory requirement to provide SW papers only applies to “places of abode”
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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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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (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, 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. 
Category Archives: Good faith exception
CA10: Disagreement over spelling of street name didn’t make warrant fail particularity; GFE at least would apply
“The warrant authorized a search of 10 McGinnis Street, Eufaula, OK 74432. The correct address, Mr. Davis said, was 10 Meginnis Street, Eufaula, OK 74432. And beyond the address, the warrant contained no description of the house.” The suppression hearing … Continue reading
CA10: Apple SW was insufficiently particular, but GFE still applies
“We agree with Kimberley that the Apple search warrant was insufficiently particularized in violation of the Fourth Amendment. However, we hold that, in the circumstances of this case, the Government has shown the good faith exception to the warrant requirement … Continue reading
CA5: Affidavit for SW here was thin, but not bare bones boilerplate; suppression reversed
The affidavit for warrant here was thin, but not bare bones boilerplate. There was something to go on, and it’s enough for the good faith exception to apply. The district court erred in suppressing. United States v. Weaver, 2026 U.S. … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: No IAC for not better arguing GFE
Failure to better confront the good faith exception before conviction wasn’t ineffective assistance. Ramirez-Prado v. United States, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68941 (S.D. Ind. Mar. 31, 2026):
AL: No RS for pulling up behind legally parked car with blue lights on to inquire; smell of MJ suppressed
There was no reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop in a residential neighborhood when he was lawfully parked and doing nothing wrong. The officer pulled behind him with emergency lights on. That’s not always a seizure, but here it was. When … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Privacy Protection Act has a border search exception
The Privacy Protection Act has a border search exception. Madaio v. United States, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64418 (S.D. Fla. Mar. 26, 2026). When defendant was stopped, the officers had reasonable suspicion the car had been involved in a shooting … Continue reading
CA5: No REP against license plate readers
License plate readers violate no reasonable expectation of privacy. Also, the stop was supported by reasonable suspicion. United States v. Porter, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 7888 (5th Cir. Mar. 17, 2026). The informant’s information was sufficient to show probable cause … Continue reading
D.Kan.: SW application with expired notary stamp doesn’t violate 4A
A search warrant application that was notarized with an expired notary stamp was not a Fourth Amendment violation. McAlister v. Kansas, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55139 (D. Kan. Mar. 17, 2026). 2255 petitioner’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim for not … Continue reading
DC: Alleged violation of Rule 41(b) for “property located within the district” not subject to exclusionary rule when property is moving
A warrant to ping a cell phone in the DC Metro area which is three jurisdictions (DC, MD, VA) to find defendant to arrest him was with probable cause and good faith despite an alleged violation of Rule 41(b).“Rule 41(b) … Continue reading
ND: Dog sniff occurred before the Rodriguez moment and was reasonable
The dog sniff occurred before the Rodriguez moment and was thus reasonable. State v. Cooper, 2026 ND 68, 2026 N.D. LEXIS 99 (Mar. 12, 2026) On the totality of circumstances, there was reasonable suspicion as to defendant as the subject … Continue reading
CA10: Ptfs pled enough to get past QI on PC showing for social media warrant
Plaintiffs pled enough to overcome qualified immunity that the search warrants at issue here were objectively without probable cause including a social media warrant. Armendariz v. City of Colo. Springs, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 7362 (10th Cir. Mar. 12, 2026). … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Just because the state seizes a cell phone doesn’t mean they know the Brady implications of the contents
Just because the state seizes a cell phone doesn’t mean they know the Brady implications of the contents. Moss v. Jeffreys, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45716 (D. Neb. Mar. 4, 2026) (§ 60.58 n.2) 2255 petitioner’s claim that defense counsel … Continue reading
CA7: Ptf has burden to adequately respond to 4A qualified immunity claim when made by defense
Plaintiff didn’t sufficiently plead a Fourth Amendment violation and overcoming qualified immunity from the officer’s seizing his notebook and perusing it and handing it to another officer. It’s his burden to deal with qualified immunity, and he didn’t adequately respond. … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: No standing in GPS locator of car rented by another; also private search
Defendant had no standing to challenge the state’s use of a rental car’s GPS where another person rented the car. It was also private action. United States v. Busby, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27276 (W.D. Tenn. Feb. 10, 2026). This … Continue reading
CA10: Nexus subject to GFE
The charge was impersonating an FBI agent at a school student pickup line. A warrant was issued for defendant’s house and computers to see if he bought faux FBI paraphernalia online.* The district court suppressed for lack of nexus. Reversed; … Continue reading
MN: GFE does not apply to after search changes in law that were obviously coming
“The good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule does not apply to a warrantless vehicle search based solely on the smell of marijuana that occurred before we issued our opinion in State v. Torgerson, 995 N.W.2d 164 (Minn. 2023), which held … Continue reading
CA6: Student not entitled to warning before school search
The search of this student was reasonable, and the student had no right to be warned before it was going to happen. Halasz v. Cass City Pub. Sch., 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 33093 (6th Cir. Dec. 18, 2025). There was … Continue reading
TN: 2009 DNA seizure that should have been purged and wasn’t could be relied on in GF and then another order issued
Defendant’s DNA was seized in 2009 and should have been purged, but it wasn’t. He’s later charged with another crime. A confirmatory test was run. The good faith exception applies to the DNA that wasn’t purged like it was supposed … Continue reading
TX7: SW sworn to before wrong official still in good faith
While the search warrant affidavit was not sworn to before the correct official as required by statute, the good faith exception is enough to sustain this search. There was probable cause, and it was particular. All constitutional requirements were met. … Continue reading