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- E.D.Okla.: Def’s high speed chase was PC
- CA6: Random and isolated interference with prisoner mail doesn’t state a claim
- D.D.C.: A private tow didn’t violate US Capitol Police inventory policy or 4A
- E.D.Ky.: DTF stop on interstate wasn’t pretextual when it was objectively reasonable for overtinting
- D.S.D.: No standing in employer’s laptop
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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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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
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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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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: Ineffective assistance
DE: Trial court holds Kansas v. Glover not followed under state constitution
A Delaware trial judge holds that the state constitution, adopted before the Fourth Amendment, provides more protection for motorists than Kansas v. Glover. State v. Coffey, 2025 Del. Super. LEXIS 266 (May 22, 2025). (This will be appealed.) There’s no … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Incomplete PC showing here was essentially knowing, so motion to suppress granted
The police here presented incomplete probable cause here that a phone call could have corrected. Since the officer knew it (and that probable cause might be lacking) and said he was charging defendant anyway, the motion to suppress the automobile … Continue reading
GA: GPS data in a child porn image on def’s phone was PC to search his house
GPS data in a child porn image on defendant’s phone was probable cause to search his house. Bibbs v. State, 2025 Ga. App. LEXIS 186 (May 13, 2025). Briefly crossing the centerline is not an offense unless it appears unsafe. … Continue reading
WA: 911 call about following a DUI was RS for stop
Officers could rely on a 911 call about an alleged drunk driver who was reporting what she was seeing. “Law enforcement officers may effectuate a Terry stop based on a 911 caller’s tip when the tip is reliable and contains … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: Not IAC to logically choose 4A arguments
Trial counsel wasn’t ineffective for not arguing his desired defendant’s personal Franks issue when lack of probable cause was a better issue. He also wasn’t ineffective for not arguing that GPS tracking across state lines was unreasonable. Appellate counsel wasn’t … Continue reading
AR: Use of a CI for a SW creates no confrontation issue
The use of a CI for a search warrant creates no confrontation issue. Williams v. State, 2025 Ark. App. 252, 2025 Ark. App. LEXIS 254 (Apr. 23, 2025). It was appellate counsel’s choice to not pursue defendant’s search claim on … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Protective sweep during SW execution not confined by the warrant, if otherwise justified
While the question is close here, the protective sweep of defendant’s house during a search warrant was reasonable on the totality. Essentially, the search warrant doesn’t define the scope of a justified protective sweep. “[T]he Fourth Amendment permits law enforcement … Continue reading
CO: PC a gun was in car permits search of trunk
Defendant was a suspect in a shooting incident. He was found outside a car. There was probable cause to believe the gun was inside the passenger compartment or trunk, even though the windows were down and the trunk closed when … Continue reading
CA10: Disabled vehicle left parked along a highway is subject to impoundment
A disabled vehicle left parked along a highway is subject to impoundment. Jones v. Woodrow, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 8419 (10th Cir. Apr. 10, 2025).* Defendant’s stop was valid because of a defective LPN light. This led to discovering a … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: Mistake in SW address didn’t mislead police; no IAC for not raising it
Mistakes in search warrant papers happen, and they don’t suppress the search unless they are meaningful and prejudicial to the process. Here, it was a wrong address cured by other things that sent the police to the right place. McBride … Continue reading
PA: For crime of obstructing a search, def didn’t have to see SW to know there was one when he was told
Defendant’s conviction for obstructing a search is affirmed. He was not entitled to a jury instruction that he had to have seen or read the warrant first where it was not disputed that he knew there was a warrant. Commonwealth … Continue reading
D.D.C.: BLM 1A speech restriction claim can proceed as a class action
A class claim for the June 2020 Lafayette Square BLM protest is certified for the First Amendment speech restriction claims but not the retaliation claims because they do not satisfy commonality under Rule 23(a). Damages claims can be pursued separately. … Continue reading
OH2: Motion to suppress not proper to challenge authentication of a record for trial
A motion to suppress doesn’t lie just because the defense thinks that a record can be authenticated under Rule 901. State v. Wolfe, 2025-Ohio-866 (2d Dist. Mar. 14, 2025). “Because Phillips did not make a contemporaneous objection to either the … Continue reading
D.N.J.: OSHA site inspection was on a neutral plan and particular
OSHA sought an inspection warrant for a cannabis producer in New Jersey. It was based on a neutral inspection plan [no complaints] and was particular in scope and therefore reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Inspection Warrant, 2025 … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Single image that officer opined was CP is PC
“Under Supreme Court and Eighth Circuit law, Detective Erwin’s professional opinion [based on her experience] that the file contained child pornography was sufficient to establish probable case for the issuance of the search warrant. See Ornelas, 517 U.S. at 700; … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Not IAC to not call private searcher at suppression hearing where it wouldn’t have changed the outcome
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not calling a “hotel maid” who found defendant’s gun at the suppression hearing that led to his ACCA sentence. He doesn’t show that she would have changed the outcome. The private search issue was litigated … Continue reading
OR: Petr’s post-conviction 4A denied for lack of specifics and context
Defendant’s post-conviction Fourth Amendment claim was properly denied for not telling the court what evidence was improperly admitted, where it appears in the record, and how it affected the outcome. Zyst v. Kelly, 338 Or App 597 (Mar. 12, 2025). … Continue reading
CA6: Entering land to post a notice of civil infraction from the property was not a “search”
“The crux of the Gammarinos’ [Fourth Amendment] argument is that the Defendants entered their properties and removed their personal property without a warrant. As a result, they claim these searches and seizures are presumptively unreasonable and thus violated the Fourth … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Defense counsel’s agreement to accept a SW was waiver of Rule 41 service requirements
Defense counsel’s acceptance of a warrant was a waiver of the service requirements for a warrant in Rule 41. It was also otherwise valid. United States v. Reynoso, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40555 (D.P.R. Mar. 4, 2025). “The search and … Continue reading
CA10: The district court properly held that officers climbing over a fence to get to ptf’s front door was a 4A violation, but QI applies, still
Officers came to plaintiff’s property to investigate a marijuana grow. His property was surrounded by a fence, and he didn’t respond to air horns to get his attention, so they climbed over the fence to be able to get to … Continue reading