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- VA: Search incident between def’s shorts and underwear was reasonable
- Reason: Border Cops Seize Nurse’s Phone Filled With Psychiatric Patient Information
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- S.D.Ga.: Def’s car in driveway next to sidewalk was not on curtilage
- S.D.Ind.: Post search database search of occupants of a place didn’t show SW affidavit was false at time it issued
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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)
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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. 
Category Archives: Franks doctrine
E.D.Mich.: Officers could accompany POs where there was fear def engaged in criminal conduct
It was not unreasonable for law enforcement officers to accompany defendant’s parole officer on a parole search because of concerns defendant was involved in criminal conduct. United States v. Davis, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147629 (E.D.Mich. Aug. 6, 2021). “Brewster’s … Continue reading
OH2: Specific 4A claim not made to trial court is waived
The specific Fourth Amendment argument made on appeal wasn’t made to the trial court, so it’s waived. On the merits, officers getting defendant in to talk on basis of a ruse didn’t make it an unreasonable seizure. State v. Luther, … Continue reading
UT: Information omitted from SW affidavit added in still shows PC
The omitted information still leaves probable cause. Here, the warrant was for cell tower location information to connect defendant to the burglary of the victims’ house while they slept. State v. Gonzalez, 2021 UT App 83, 2021 Utah App. LEXIS … Continue reading
PA: Exclusionary rule applies to PA probation revocation proceedings
The exclusionary rule applies to probation revocation proceedings in Pennsylvania. Having suppressed in the underlying criminal case, the court should have suppressed on the violation of probation. Commonwealth v. Parson, 2021 PA Super 151, 2021 Pa. Super. LEXIS 487 (July … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Ptf shows Franks violation for leaving out important mitigating information; officer also had apparent motive
Defendant satisfied his Franks burden of showing a material false statement in support of the probable cause showing for the warrant. That information undermined the probable cause. As to the good faith exception, this is what the exclusionary rule is … Continue reading
CA6: DEA can get state SWs and assist in state investigations, then go federal
DEA officers can get search warrants in federal investigations from state judges for state law violations aiding state officers. That doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment or Rule 41. And, there is also the good faith exception. United States v. Williams, … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Lev Parnas can’t get discovery of Rudy Giuliani search for his own emails
Lev Parnas seeks discovery of Rudy Giuliani’s later search warrant return for his own emails. Denied as cumulative. He already has them. United States v. Parnas, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131253 (S.D. N.Y. July 14, 2021).* Officers conducting the stop … Continue reading
CA6: Officer continuing a prosecution on false evidence states a § 1983 claim
“A reasonable jury could find that Deputy Edmonds’s post-arrest incident reports contained knowing or reckless falsehoods. Drawing all inferences in favor of Ernest, Deputy Edmonds knew that Ernest never pointed his gun at her and that Ernest did not know … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: SI lacking PC is suppressed
Defendant was arrested and searched incident to arrest, and the court finds no valid basis for the search. He was too far away from and out of sight of the drugs the government was attempting to link to him. United … Continue reading
CA11: Including omitted information under Franks still left PC
The omission here was not a Franks violation. “Here, even if Jackson’s statement had been included in the affidavit, it would not have tipped the balance. The officers still would have had probable cause to search the home, because the … Continue reading
CA3: No REP in sent text messages
“[C]ounsel notes that he moved to suppress the text messages Bereznak and A.G. exchanged, arguing that those messages were acquired from A.G.’s cellphone in violation of Bereznak’s Fourth Amendment rights. This issue lacks merit because Bereznak had no reasonable expectation … Continue reading
LA2: Cell phone seizure and search moot where nothing used in court
Contemnor was in a grand jury proceeding, and he was holding his cell phone like he was recording it. Based on witness reports, a contempt order issued and the phone was seized. The court issued an order authorizing it be … Continue reading
NY2: Date typo in drug field test report after search wasn’t material
Defendant’s motion to suppress was properly denied by the trial court. Defendant’s reliance on when a field test of the product of the search showed only a typographical error as to the date it was done and doesn’t undermine the … Continue reading
CA6: Successor habeas trying to make search claim a Brady issue fails
Successor habeas on ground that audio of dashcam video was muted to conceal a Fourth Amendment violation denied. It doesn’t show actual innocence for 2255(h). In re Jelks, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 18552 (6th Cir. June 21, 2021). Defendant had … Continue reading
IA: Def’s registration papers weren’t in order; while waiting on a response from dispatch, criminal history led to calling drug dog. This didn’t extend the stop
The officer intended only to give a warning, but it took a while for defendant’s registration to clear a computer check. While waiting, the officer checked defendant’s criminal history finding a significant meth history and then called for a drug … Continue reading
CA5: The fact more information could have been gathered didn’t make what had been learned false
The fact the affiant officer could have checked other sources to determine the validity of his probable cause didn’t mean that the information in hand was false. Davis v. City of Andrews, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 17845 (5th Cir. June … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Officer’s lack of credibility results in finding of no RS
The court finds the officer’s testimony and credibility completely lacking on the basis for the stop and grants the motion to suppress. United States v. McGibney, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110826 (N.D. Ind. June 14, 2021).* Execution of a search … Continue reading
E.D.Wisc.: Domestic abuse victim bleeding outside had apparent authority to consent to entry and search
A domestic abuse victim police encountered bleeding outside had apparent authority to consent to an entry and search of the property. As the police came up, she said “He beat me bad this time.” Quintero v. Vega, 2021 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Arrest in common area of apt building not on curtilage
Defendant’s arrest in a common area of an apartment building was not on the curtilage. United States v. Anderson, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106278 (N.D. Ill. June 7, 2021). Defendant’s Franks challenge fails as to what was omitted from the … Continue reading
CA7: Omission of CI’s criminal history was “unfortunate” but not material for Franks
“[W]e agree with the district court that the ‘omission of information about the sources’ backgrounds, criminal histories, or motives does not change the probable cause determination.’ See also United States v. Sims, 551 F.3d 640, 645 (7th Cir. 2008) (omission … Continue reading