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- FL: Violation of knock-and-announce statute doesn’t require exclusion
- TX3: DUI blood draw while in restraint chair not 4A unreasonable
- TX1: Def has a duty to make his record on PC and the SW; missing affidavit was on him
- N.D.Ala.: SW not invalid because issuing judge previously represented the target
- The Guardian: ‘We should be worried’: report sheds light on ICE’s booming arsenal of hi-tech surveillance tools
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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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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: Consent
LA5: Motorist assist led to plain smell and valid search
Police were called for a motorist assist to unlock a car. Once opened, the car smelled of marijuana, and that created probable cause. The police were invited to the curtilage. State v. Keller, 2022 La. App. LEXIS 247 (La. App. … Continue reading →
C.D.Ill.: Jail telephone provider can’t be sued under the 4A for recording telephone calls
A jail telephone provider can’t be sued under the Fourth Amendment for recording telephone calls. An alleged violation of the Illinois wiretapping statute is not a constitutional violation. Hunt v. Securus Techs., 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26452 (C.D.Ill. Feb. 15, … Continue reading →
S.D.Ohio: Officer’s reading a note during consent entry violated scope of consent
Defendant consented to an entry but the officer’s reading a note exceeded the scope of consent. That made the later search warrant based on that void. United States v. Genco, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21055 (S.D.Ohio Feb. 7, 2022). The … Continue reading →
CO: Prosecutor’s closing argument that def refused consent to searching for DNA sample was reversible error
Prosecutor’s argument defendant refused to consent to taking his DNA in a sex crime prosecution violated the Fourth Amendment and was error here. People v. Buckner, 2022 COA 14, 2022 Colo. App. LEXIS 163 (Feb. 3, 2022). The bodycam video … Continue reading →
DC: Possession of a knife doesn’t mean RS for possession of a firearm
A warrant for premises found a visitor there, and the record shows nothing about why he was searched and the trial court upheld it. “As discussed, the factors the trial court relied upon to validate the patdown of Mr. Bingman—his … Continue reading →
M.D.Fla.: Cell phone calls with co-conspirator was PC for phone, and GFE applies anyway
Defendant was indicted in Florida for endangered species trafficking, occurring partly in California and Florida. The fact he talked 186 minutes with a co-conspirator over a year was probable cause to search his phone for evidence. Also, the good faith … Continue reading →
CA9: IRS didn’t coerce consent, def was advised of rights in writing
“To prove a Fourth Amendment violation, Orrock needed to show by clear and convincing evidence that an IRS agent induced a consent search by deceit, trickery, or an affirmative misrepresentation. … No IRS agent made an affirmative misrepresentation. Rather, Orrock … Continue reading →
TX: Pet’r gets remand over alleged pattern of lies elsewhere of one officer on SW application
Petitioner gets remand and a hearing that a police officer caught in lies on multiple search warrant applications around the same time could have here, too. Ex parte Mathews, 2022 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 36 (Jan. 26, 2022). Defendant’s father … Continue reading →
Cal.3: Warrantless seizure of car to get a warrant for it was without PC and search suppressed
In this murder case, officers had a search warrant for defendant’s house and any cars on the property. They learned he had another car at a ranch of a friend. They entered the friend’s property and seized the car and … Continue reading →
IL: Refusal to submit to SW for blood or urine was obstruction of justice
Defendant’s refusal to submit to a search warrant for his blood or urine in a DUI case supported his conviction for obstruction of justice. People v. Hutt, 2022 IL App (4th) 190142, 2022 Ill. App. LEXIS 28 (Jan. 18, 2022). … Continue reading →
OH12: Trial court’s finding of no RS and no consent affirmed
The state failed to prove that the stop was with reasonable suspicion. “While Officer Ianson’s questioning was not expressly coercive, the circumstances surrounding the request to search made the questioning impliedly coercive. Thus, the circumstances suggest that Massey merely submitted … Continue reading →
CA9: A visitor to premises has no standing in the curtilage
A visitor to premises has no standing in the curtilage. United States v. Castellanos, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 1278 (9th Cir. Jan. 18, 2022). The officer had reasonable suspicion to stop defendant when the officer shined a flashlight on him, … Continue reading →
IN: Even with a typo in the address of the place to be searched in the warrant, the correct otherwise particularly described place was searched
The address on the search warrant was wrong, but the physical description for defendant’s place was different than place with the wrong address. Defendant’s place was the target and it was searched under the warrant. The search warrant was sufficiently … Continue reading →
CA2: Officers had reasonable belief the person granting consent was a co-occupant
Crediting the police officers’ version, the district court found that the officers had substantial reason to believe the person granting consent was an occupant of the place searched. United States v. Vega, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 38169 (2d Cir. Dec. … Continue reading →
D.Mont.: Coercive situation made def’s consent in own home involuntary
On the totality, defendant’s consent was not freely given. The situation was coercive and in his own home. United States v. Simpson, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 243401 (D.Mont. Dec. 21, 2021)*:
CA10: Buses and trains in ABQ
A DEA officer’s lifting but not manipulating defendant’s duffle bag on a Greyhound bus that stopped in Albuquerque for passengers and service was not timely raised by the defense. But it was not a search. “It is not unusual on … Continue reading →
S.D.Ind.: Handcuffed def could have jacket pocket searched incident to arrest
The search of defendant’s jacket pockets when he was arrested was valid under the search incident doctrine even though he was handcuffed. United States v. Coates, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 232798 (S.D.Ind. Dec. 6, 2021). Defendant had a right to … Continue reading →
CA1: Protective sweep for weapons requires only objective reasonableness, and actual fear not required
A First Circuit panel overrules its caselaw as inconsistent with SCOTUS cases that a frisk for weapons must be both objective and with subjective fear: “United States v. Lott that officers cannot do a ‘frisk for weapons … where, although … Continue reading →
CA6: Failure to object to co-occupant’s apparent consent supported consent
An occupant of defendant’s house with apparent authority consented to an entry. When the officers expressed an interest in defendant’s cell phone, he didn’t voice any concerns. “He maintains that the male occupant’s invitation to the officers to enter Mason’s … Continue reading →
D.Ariz.: Covid-19 testing is (essentially) so minimal it is not a 4A intrusion
“Nasal swab testing for COVID-19 does not create an intrusion under the skin, does not involve any genetic testing, and there is no use of the sample for law enforcement purposes. Accordingly, the Court finds that Gold is unlikely to … Continue reading →