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- CA10: SW for gun three weeks after road rage incident wasn’t stale
- OH10: Parole search of cell phone can occur even when it’s taken from the property room at jail
- TX14: No REP in location information on bondsman’s GPS monitor
- W.D.N.Y.: No IAC for not challenging search without standing
- CAAF: Victim’s 4A rights were at issue, too
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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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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)
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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: Prison and jail searches
IA: No REP in attorney call from interrogation room
Defendant’s in-custody call to his attorney was overheard by the recording system in the room. There was no reasonable expectation of privacy where it was made. Luthi v. Neis, 2021 Iowa App. LEXIS 930 (Nov. 3, 2021). The trial court … Continue reading
NY3: Tossing backpack from one’s window into the window of the abandoned house next door to avoid seizure is a waiver of REP
When the police came to his house, defendant threw a backpack with a sawed-off rifle from his second floor window into a window of the house next door. He claimed that house was his uncle’s, but it was unsecured and … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Prison law librarians can examine papers to determine whether there’s a litigation deadline to manage library access
“Librarian Winters’ request to see Ivy’s legal documents to verify that he had upcoming deadlines also serves the DOC’s interest in institutional order and management of resources by balancing an individual inmate’s need for additional law library time with the … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Three day seizure of inmate’s legal papers was reasonable
Jail seizure of plaintiff’s legal papers for three days was not unreasonable. “Here, Plaintiff has not shown that the seizure of his personal property by jail officials—during a disturbance he created—violated his rights under the Fourth Amendment. And Plaintiff acknowledges … Continue reading
The Intercept: Federal Prisons’ Switch To Scanning Mail Is A Surveillance Nightmare
The Intercept: Federal Prisons’ Switch To Scanning Mail Is A Surveillance Nightmare (“The Bureau of Prisons has piloted a program that can give authorities ‘huge secret intelligence into the public sender of postal mail.’”) Politico: Covert Postal Service unit probed … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Def had no REP in sister’s bedroom
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy to contest the search of his sister’s bedroom. United States v. Slater, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 180673 (E.D.Wis. Sept. 22, 2021). There was probable cause for search of defendant’s car, and the opportunity … Continue reading
CA8: Unnecessary prolonged handcuffing of ptf overcame QI; if there was a reason for it, it had long passed
Plaintiff overcame qualified immunity here because he was unnecessarily left handcuffed without any objective reason for it. There was no reasonable suspicion. Haynes v. Minnehan, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 28550 (8th Cir. Sept. 21, 2021). In this prison search case, … Continue reading
D.Conn.: No REP in parolee’s GPS monitor that placed him at scene of murder
The search warrant for defendant’s phone to attempt to link him to a murder of a witness was based on probable cause that he was seen in a car likely involved and his parole GPS monitor that put him there. … Continue reading
CA3: Carpenter just doesn’t apply to jail call recordings
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in jail calls admitted to prove a conspiracy, and Carpenter doesn’t apply. “While we need not decide how far Carpenter extends to other technologies, it does not apply to prison phone calls. Unlike … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Search of DOC employee’s papers for drug soaked paper on entering prison was reasonable
Search of a NYC DOC employee’s belongings for drug soaked paper after passing the metal detector at Riker’s Island was reasonable either under special needs or because there is no reasonable expectation of privacy and it’s not even a Fourth … Continue reading
NE: No REP in cell in pretrial detention for evidence of witness tampering; also, SW obtained
The state got a search warrant for a pretrial detainee’s county jail cell for evidence of witness tampering. The search was not institutional security. The trial court suppressed, but the court of appeals reversed: there is no reasonable expectation of … Continue reading
SD: Failure to put video of stop in record limits review of lack of consent claim
Failure to put the video of defendant’s stop in the record means the court can’t consider it on appeal, and it goes from the trial court’s findings. State v. Slepikas, 2021 SD 43, 2021 S.D. LEXIS 82 (July 21, 2021) … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: SW for single family dwelling valid even if there’s a renter living inside
A search warrant for what’s ostensibly a single family dwelling is sufficient to search the entire building, despite the fact that it turned out that there was a renter in one room. The good faith exception applies, too. United States … Continue reading
D.Mass.: 14 day delay between seizure and search of cell phone reasonable
This 14 day delay between the seizure of his cell phones and the application of the warrant to seize them is reasonable. In addition, there is no Fourth Amendment right to have a search warrant issued sooner than it was, … Continue reading
NY3: No REP in pretrial detainees’ jail calls
There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in jail telephone calls for pretrial detainees because the inmates were warned. “To the extent that defendant argues that the admission of the phone calls violated his rights because he was being held … Continue reading
CA6: Protective sweep under a couch was reasonable
The government showed that a protective sweep under a couch was reasonably justified in looking for a person. United States v. Vanhook, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 17245 (6th Cir. June 10, 2021). The contents of recorded jail telephone calls coupled … Continue reading
CA4: Trash out for collection at the curb is not on the curtilage
Trash out for collection at the curb is not on the curtilage. United States v. Holmes, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 16418 (4th Cir. June 2, 2021). The affidavit for a tracking warrant was misleading in one respect, but it wasn’t … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Sexual assault allegation by school official states 4A claim
Allegation of a sexual assault by a school official states a Fourth Amendment claim. Hermann v. Kirkwood R-7 Sch. Dist., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102574 (E.D. Mo. June 1, 2021). Officers with a search warrant for electronic devices could look … Continue reading
CA6: Misdescription of alleged robber was close enough for RS for stop
There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop. “But the touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is reasonableness, not perfection. See Heien v. North Carolina, 574 U.S. 54, 60-61, 135 S. Ct. 530, 190 L. Ed. 2d 475 (2014). The facts reported … Continue reading