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Recent Posts
- CA2: No 4A requirement for SWs being issued with notice to target
- CA6: Denying ptf access to his own bathroom during a search of his house stated 4A claim
- W.D.Mo.: Not exactly following the inventory policy doesn’t make it unreasonable under 4A
- GA: No IAC for not challenging complete cell phone download before search
- DNYUZ: CBP Workers Allegedly Used Government Databases to Spy on Exes, Crushes, and Colleagues
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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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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
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 →
MO: Traffic stop not custodial for Miranda
A traffic stop is not a custodial arrest requiring Miranda warnings. Defendant’s admissions he had drugs wasn’t excludable. State v. Ybarra, 2021 Mo. App. LEXIS 1031 (Nov. 23, 2021). Not objecting to the state offering a search warrant application into … Continue reading →
D.Colo.: 911 call about being shot by unknown assailant in a locked building was implied consent to enter or justified by emergency
Defendant called 911 to report he was shot by a masked assailant and asked for help. That was implied consent for EMTs and police to enter either by implied consent or the emergency exception. Once investigating, they concluded defendant more … Continue reading →
TX10: Def’s invitation to look in vehicle console for receipt for allegedly stolen property led to plain view of drugs
Defendant was suspected of leaving a Lowes with a stolen shop vac. He was seen at a nearby McDonalds and officers came up to him. He volunteered that the receipt was in his console and they could look for it. … Continue reading →
CA8: Merely asking for ID not a seizure
Merely asking for ID is not a seizure. “Officer Hotz’s conduct would not have communicated to a reasonable person that he could not leave. Officer Hotz was alone, she did not display a weapon, she did not touch the defendants, … Continue reading →
D.Vt.: Def has to show his REP in his Facebook account; what are the privacy settings?
Defendant didn’t show a reasonable expectation of privacy in his Facebook account by showing what he did to keep the account private. Even if he did, there was probable cause for the Facebook warrant. United States v. Whitcomb, 2021 U.S. … Continue reading →
W.D.Ky.: Fireman jumping through def’s car window to stop him was unjustified and a search and seizure
A volunteer fireman diving into defendant’s car to keep him from driving away was a search and seizure. And, the community caretaking function did not apply. “Here, Wahl lacked any specific and articulable facts that Fairrow would be dangerous to … Continue reading →
CO: Anonymous, uncorroborated, and stale tip on school safety hotline not RS
An anonymous tip through a school safety hotline was also uncorroborated and stale and did not provide reasonable suspicion for a school search. In the Interest of C.C-S., 2021COA127, 2021 Colo. App. LEXIS 1440 (Oct. 20, 2021). See techdirt: Students … Continue reading →
OH12: Consent to “check” car for weapons includes containers in it
Defendant’s open-ended consent to “check” the car for weapons was broad enough to permit looking in containers. State v. Williams, 2021-Ohio-3704, 2021 Ohio App. LEXIS 3610 (12th Dist. Oct. 18, 2021). Defendant made a lane violation when turning, and that … Continue reading →
D.Kan.: Def had a loaner car loaned by a person with no authority over it; no standing
Defendant had no standing in a car that was loaned to him by another who himself might not have even had standing. Defendant was looking for a car that wasn’t “hot,” and he was loaned one by a source that … Continue reading →
W.D.Pa.: Warrantless production of state ALPR data to FBI not governed by Carpenter
The FBI requested the state search its Automated License Plate Reader database for defendant’s LPN to trace the movement of his car. Carpenter simply cannot be made to apply to ALPR data. 106 records were found. United States v. Bowers, … Continue reading →
VA: Claim of exigency belied by 45 minute wait and then seeking telephonic SW
The officers’ claim they didn’t have time to get a search warrant before entering because the magistrate was 30 minutes away was belied by the fact that they waited 45 minutes and then got a telephone authorization to search after … Continue reading →
M.D.Pa.: Google Translate is not constitutionally sufficient to attempt to get consent from a non-English speaking motorist
Google Translate is not constitutionally sufficient to attempt to get consent from a non-English speaking motorist. Some of the translations here were non-sensical. Alternatively, however, the search was valid under the automobile exception. United States v. Ramirez-Mendoza, 2021 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading →
CA8: Running a false affidavit through the prosecutor doesn’t create QI
Running an allegedly false affidavit through the prosecutor doesn’t create qualified immunity for the affidavit. Wheeler v. City of Searcy, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 29364 (8th Cir. Sept. 29, 2021). The New Jersey Division of Child Protection & Permanency (“DCPP”) … Continue reading →
TX5: Consent to a blood draw is also consent to its testing
Consent to a blood draw is also consent to its testing. Schulz v. State, 2021 Tex. App. LEXIS 7748 (Tex. App. – Dallas Sept. 21, 2021). “Citizens have long-cherished constitutional rights which deserve our protection. Law enforcement officers have difficult … Continue reading →
NE: Continuing stop past end of mission of stop was without consent
Once the mission of the traffic stop should have ended, the officer continued questioning and sought consent. The consent was not voluntary. State v. Thompson, 30 Neb. App. 135, 2021 Neb. App. LEXIS 223 (Sept. 14, 2021). Touching the hood … Continue reading →
NE: Consent during unreasonable extension of stop not voluntary
The traffic stop was reasonable, but it was unreasonably extended. Defendant’s consent during that period was not attenuated. State v. Thompson, 30 Neb.App. 135 (Sept. 14, 2021):