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Recent Posts
- VA: 12 second question about drugs didn’t unreasonably prolong the stop that was going to take a while anyway
- 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
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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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--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: Protective sweep
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
MS: Failure to include SW materials anywhere in record was waiver of issues about it
Failure to include the search warrant materials anywhere in the record, either as an attachment to the motion or an exhibit at a hearing, is waiver for appeal on whether the warrant was properly issued. Burdine v. State, 2026 Miss. … Continue reading
OH8: Seeing gun magazine justified protective sweep of car for gun it could belong to
Defendant was pulled over and officers could see the magazine to a gun. They asked if he had a gun in the car and he said “I don’t admit to that.” He said it was home. He was a known … Continue reading
ID: POs may do protective sweeps of a house same any other officer
“Having considered the rationale justifying protective sweeps, we hold, as a matter of first impression, that probation officers conducting lawful compliance checks in a residence may conduct a protective sweep to the same extent and are subject to the same … Continue reading
D.S.D.: The fact a protective sweep came up empty doesn’t mean it wasn’t justified
“The court finds that the government has met its burden of demonstrating that the protective sweep exception to the warrant requirement applies. Before the protective sweep, officers received reports that someone matching Mr. Day’s physical description and alias was threatening … Continue reading
CA10: Protective sweep of car where driver already handcuffed unreasonable
After arrest of driver, the protective sweep of the car left to passenger who owned it, was insured, and had a DL was unreasonable. It was done just because of her romantic relationship with the arrestee. United States v. Williams, … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Traffic stop with shots fired call led to valid protective sweep of car for weapon on RS
“After reviewing the evidence, the arguments of the parties, and the relevant law, the undersigned finds that the officers had both probable cause to believe Defendant had committed traffic violations and reasonable suspicion to stop the vehicle in connection with … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Volatile home situation justified sweep for gun
A volatile situation in the house justified an exigency search (or sweep) of other rooms for a weapon. United States v. Boyd, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38079 (D.S.D. Feb. 23, 2026).* 2254 petitioner’s CSLI claim and trial were all before … Continue reading
PA: RS not needed to seize firearm on car seat in plain view during traffic stop
The inherent dangers in a traffic stop justified the officer doing a protective sweep to seize a firearm on the seat in plain view, despite lack of any sense that defendant was going to use it. Commonwealth v. Hawkins-Davenport, 2026 … Continue reading
CA3: Second protective sweep was justified by noise inside
The premises had been subjected to a protective sweep seeing firearms, locked up, and a search warrant was sought. Officers heard a noise inside and came in and found defendant and he’d apparently moved one of the guns. The initial … Continue reading
GA: Visitor has no REP in common areas of host’s home
The MV’s grandmother suspected defendant was molesting her granddaughter. She placed a video camera in the living room. It was obvious with a red light on it, and there was a sign that a camera was in use. He moved … Continue reading
TX1: Motion to suppress after officer testified at trial not timely
Defense counsel’s motion to suppress coming during trial at the end of the officer’s testimony wasn’t timely. Brown v. State, 2026 Tex. App. LEXIS 1014 (Tex. App. – Houston (1st Dist.) Feb. 3, 2026)* (unpublished). An automobile exception search can … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: No standing while violating order of protection
Being inside the garage of this house in violation of an order of protection means no standing. Hernandez v. Chandler, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3096 (D. Ariz. Jan. 7, 2026). The visual sweep of defendant’s car was just meticulous and … Continue reading
CA10: Protective sweep of car was valid despite presence of six officers; def would get back in car
There was reasonable suspicion enough potential for dangerousness for a protective sweep of defendant’s car. “The district court’s dangerousness analysis relied on four factors: (1) Raban’s gang affiliation, (2) the high-crime and rival-gang neighborhood, (3) Armstrong’s presence, and (4) Raban’s … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Taking 10 minutes to review a SW affidavit doesn’t show magistrate not neutral and detached
The issuing judge taking ten minutes to review an affidavit for warrant does not show that he or she abandoned the role of a neutral and detached magistrate. [I can usually see probable cause in an affidavit in 30-45 seconds. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Seeing handgun reasonably led to handcuffing to see if def had permit on him
Officers suspected defendant was carrying a weapon, and they saw it as they approached. Under state law, he had to have the permit on him. “So, were the officers’ following actions (handcuffing Pettes and putting him in the squad car) … Continue reading
DE: Def was not denied confrontation by not getting to cross-examine about pictures attached to warrant application
Defendant was not denied confrontation of the CI who took photographs of his property used to get the search warrant. When the state offered them at trial, defendant successfully objected, so there was nothing to confront. State v. McCurdy, 2025 … Continue reading