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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)
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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
S.D.N.Y.: A Franks challenge that is nothing more than an argument about inferences doesn’t plead enough to get a hearing
A Franks challenge that is nothing more than an argument about inferences doesn’t plead enough to get a hearing. United States v. Defilippo, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22784 (S.D. N.Y. Jan. 31, 2018):
E.D.Mich.: State court’s finding def didn’t plead enough for Franks hearing was not “unreasonable” for AEDPA
Defendant didn’t plead enough to get a state court hearing on his Franks issue. The state court’s decision falls within Stone v. Powell’s “full and fair opportunity” to litigate, and he took that issue up on his state appeal. Rooks … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Def files a Franks challenge to a state issued SW, and the government says it won’t use the product of the search
The defendant filed a motion to suppress under Franks alleging numerous falsehoods in the search warrant application issued by a state judge in Arizona. “James is surprised by the government’s response. Rather than defend the credibility and integrity of the … Continue reading
D.D.C.: It doesn’t violate Franks to fail to mention a Miranda violation to gain def’s admissions (no violatIon either)
Officers had probable cause for a warrantless arrest of defendant for child pornography. “But Mr. Lieu argues that the names ‘Dave’ and ‘John’ are relatively common names and that the clothing description is too general to support the connection that … Continue reading
CA5: Ptf’s civil Franks claim survives QI; def officer omitted material exculpatory evidence that led to ptf’s 15 min aquittal of murder
Plaintiff spent 16 months in jail awaiting trial for murder. He was acquitted in 15 minutes. He sued all the officers. After a prior appeal (Winfrey v. San Jacinto Cty., 481 Fed. Appx. 969 (5th Cir. 2012)), all that remains … Continue reading
GA: Affidavit as a whole made nexus with clear inference sought after evidence would be found
The affidavit for the search warrant as a whole made a clear inference that the evidence sought would be in the defendant’s house. The rule adopted by the court of appeals is too broad, but the decision is still affirmed. … Continue reading
Lawfare: The Dubious Legal Claim Behind #ReleaseTheMemo
Lawfare: The Dubious Legal Claim Behind #ReleaseTheMemo by Orin Kerr: [Spoiler alert: I agree that it is more than dubious since two branches of our government have absolutely no clue what the Fourth Amendment means. It’s like a Franks challenge: … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Franks challenge fails because there still would be PC
Defendant’s Franks challenge fails because, even accepting it as true, there’s still probable cause. United States v. Barclay, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12061 (E.D. Mich. Jan. 25, 2018).* “Probable cause ‘is not a high bar.’ Kaley v. United States, 134 … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Claim that Franks applies because the CI must have been paid and it was omitted is insufficient as speculative
“In his motion to suppress, Davison did not identify any false information included in the affidavit. Rather, Davison alleged only that he believed the CI could have been paid for information and that fact had been omitted from the affidavit. … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Search of a small container on a key chain was reasonable as search incident
“Here, the officers’ search of the container attached to Mr. Nichols’s keys was within the time, control, and place constraints for the search of an arrestee’s personal property incident to arrest. Mr. Nichols had the keychain in his exclusive control … Continue reading
D. Md.: Def’s 2255 supplemental Franks challenge has a failure of a proffer of evidence
Defendant had a Franks challenge and lost. One 2255 claim is that if defense counsel investigated more, it would have been a better Franks motion, but he fails to state what else would have been found to make it better. … Continue reading
ID: Where probation agreement searches occur “at the request of” PO, searching without request was fatal
Defendant’s probation agreement said that he’d submit to probation searches “at the request of” the probation officer. Searching without a prior request was fatal. State v. Jaskowski, 2018 Ida. LEXIS 19 (Jan 18, 2018). “The Franks challenge to paragraph three … Continue reading
CA5: On totality of affidavit, Franks challenge fails because officer’s error in affidavit was negligent and not reckless
The officer interviewed the Spanish speaking informant and prepared an affidavit with the gist of the conversation. The officer’s Spanish skills were limited, and he overstated the CI’s prior information. On the totality, the officer’s statement was merely negligent and … Continue reading
CA10: Franks doesn’t apply to private actors providing false information to LEOs
Even assuming private volunteer animal cruelty investigators provided false information that was used to get search warrants issued for plaintiffs’ property for evidence of cockfighting, qualified immunity applies because no case holds that the Franks doctrine applies to a private … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Conclusorily pleading a Franks violation isn’t a sufficient offer of proof
Defendant fails in his Franks argument for a failure of an offer of proof. Merely conclusorily stating the issue isn’t enough. There has to be context and how it was knowingly false. United States v. Martin, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Squeezing a leather bag in a frisk and hearing bullets was reasonable
During a frisk, squeezing a leather bag without searching it was reasonable to look for a possible weapon. See United States v. Mattarolo, 209 F.3d 1153, 1158 (9th Cir. 2000). He heard the sound of bullets, and didn’t search further … Continue reading
CA10: SW affidavit was detailed, and Franks challenge targeted def’s being in pen during conspiracy; not shown reckless under Franks and GFE applies
Officers obtained a search warrant for defendant’s house for evidence of drug dealing for his being involved with a gang for years. The affidavit was detailed except that it only suggested defendant’s and another’s incarceration for eight years in the … Continue reading
CA1: SW affidavit’s misstatements were careless at worst and not material to finding of PC
Defendant did not make the required showing that the search warrant affidavit misstatement that a black Volvo with the key license plate number was seen in the area of the fifth robbery was made intentionally rather than merely out of … Continue reading
CA2: In a § 1983 case alleging lack of PC from omission of information to issuing magistrate, it’s ptf’s burden
In this § 1983 case there was probable cause for issuance of an animal abuse warrant. To argue the probable cause was tainted by omission of information, plaintiff carries the burden, and here she failed. Kanciper v. Lato, 2017 U.S. … Continue reading
MD: Def agreed to postpone suppression hearing until trial and then didn’t bring it up; invited error and not preserved
Defendant failed to preserve his Fourth Amendment claims for appeal. You don’t get a hearing just by asking. He didn’t make a proffer in his Franks motion which was enough to deny it. Then, whatever issue was left, the defense … Continue reading