Archives
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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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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
D.S.D.: Cross corroboration of three CIs’ stories was PC
The cross corroboration of three CIs’ stories was probable cause. United States v. Wilford, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6074 (D.S.D. Jan. 14, 2020). “The officers had probable cause to arrest Mancilla-Ibarra because Fann’s information was veritable, reliable, and corroborated.” The … Continue reading →
KS: Def’s actions after the police entry and signing the consent form clearly show voluntariness
“We note, however, that Daino’s acts after the officers entered his residence confirm, instead of refute, his intent to consent to their entry. Daino never protested the officers’ presence. Instead, he later opened a safe for the officers, agreed officers … Continue reading →
D.N.M.: Govt fails in burden of showing consent. Was “yes” acknowledgement of statement to def or assent to search?
The government fails in its burden to show consent to a patdown of defendant’s person. There was a language barrier, and previous questions and statements were translated, but this one wasn’t. “Even though that defendant said ‘yes’ in response to … Continue reading →
OH8: When police at door ask to come in and the occupant stands back and aside, that implies permission and consent
When defendant opened the door and police were there and asked for admission, stepping back and aside implied consent to enter. Police then did a proper protective sweep of the room. City of Westlake v. Dudas, 2020-Ohio-31, 2020 Ohio App. … Continue reading →
D.Haw.: USMJ’s prior civil case involving defendant didn’t make him not “neutral and detached”
The USMJ was involved in a prior qui tam civil case by defendant. Defendant in a later criminal case argues that the USMJ should have been disqualified from considering a search warrant affidavit for her property that led to the … Continue reading →
FL2: Standing aside when answering door for police as to whether someone is inside is consent to entry by action
When police are at the door and ask for a person, and the person answering the door steps aside, it is apparent authority to enter that the wanted person is inside. State v. Smith, 2019 Fla. App. LEXIS 19116 (Fla. … Continue reading →
CA3: Consent to search car moots possible mistake of fact motion to suppress
Defendant’s consent to a search of his car after a traffic stop moots the issue that the stop was based on a mistake of fact. United States v. Prado, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 38445 (3d Cir. Dec. 24, 2019).* Facebook’s … Continue reading →
MI remands for an evidentiary hearing on actual or apparent authority
The court of appeals is reversed and the case remanded to the trial court for a hearing on actual and apparent authority and the reasonableness of the officer’s belief there was any authority at all, actual or apparent. People v. … Continue reading →
CO: When a person with apparent authority consents, an objection from another comes too late
Once one with apparent authority consents and the search starts, the other person’s finally objecting to the search comes too late. Williams v. People, 2019 CO 108, 2019 Colo. LEXIS 1280 (Dec. 23, 2019). Syllabus by the court:
D.N.M.: Lack of audible response on bodycam of request for consent leads court to conclude govt failed in its burden of proof
In another case involving a DEA’s interaction with a bus passenger in Albuquerque, the officer was friendly enough, but the parting colloquy was “Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. Sir, would you give me permission just to pat you … Continue reading →
FL2: Herring permits one police mistake for good faith, but not two
The officer gave a wrong name to police communications, and then communications gave a wrong answer back. Two mistakes was too much for Herring, and the exclusionary rule is applied. One mistake may be attenuation; two is not. State v. … Continue reading →
CA6: Def let a man into his house to talk to his wife; he was a plainclothes officer who didn’t ID himself and saw def handle a firearm, and def was a felon; no deception for entry
“While at home on a cold November morning, William Wooden heard a knock at the door. Upon opening it, Wooden was greeted by a man asking to speak with Wooden’s wife. Wooden went to get her. And he allowed the … Continue reading →
W.D.Pa.: Four prior controlled buys and def’s arrival at location for another was PC
Officers had four controlled buys and defendants were arriving at a predetermined location for another one. That was probable cause. United States v. Boxley, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 214715 (W.D. Pa. Dec. 13, 2019).* Consent to search the premises was … Continue reading →
D.Neb.: Def consented to a dog sniff, but there was RS anyway
The stop was based on a traffic violation, and reasonable suspicion developed for a dog sniff. In addition, defendant was asked to consent to a dog sniff and did: “When initially asked for consent, Defendant responded, ‘I guess so, I … Continue reading →
TX14: Bodycam video supported trial court’s findings of voluntariness of consent to search
The bodycam video supports the trial court’s conclusion that the consent to search was voluntarily given. Blue v. State, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 10658 (Tex. App. – Houston (14th Dist.) Dec. 10, 2019) (with a dissent). “Kelley’s only claim–a Fourth … Continue reading →
NY1: SW for cell phone overbroad; no justification for searching photographs
The search warrant for the contents of defendant’s cell phone was overbroad because there was no justification for the breadth of search. This was a sex abuse case, but there was never any indication defendant possessed child pornography on the … Continue reading →
CA1: Mere fact friend had possession of def’s bags didn’t show actual or apparent authority to consent
Defendant stored bags with a friend, and he ended up in jail. There was no actual or apparent authority shown for her to consent to search of the bags. The government carries the burden on both, and it fails. The … Continue reading →
OH8: State’s losing exhibits from suppression hearing requires new trial
Appellant appeals the denial of his suppression motion, but a bunch of the exhibits are missing. The state relies on precedent that it’s the appellant’s obligation to bring up a record. The state, however, somehow got Exhibits 1-23 back and … Continue reading →
D.Guam: 4A standing is not jurisdictional, so the court can go to GFE without deciding PC
Standing to contest a search and seizure issue is not jurisdictional, so the court doesn’t have to decide standing. Going to the merits, there was probable cause for the search warrant for the package arriving by mail, and the delay … Continue reading →
E.D.Tenn.: Consent shown on the totality that def didn’t have to cooperate
“The totality of the circumstances here indicate consent, not mere acquiescence by Defendant. Regarding Defendant’s relevant characteristics, he is an adult, and there is no reason to think this was his first encounter with law enforcement, given that he is … Continue reading →