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- CA11: Yahoo not a govt actor in scanning emails for CSAM
- Treatise 25% off through 7/8
- SCOTUS: Geofence warrants governed by Carpenter and are a search; remanded for resolution of issues (interesting take on third party doctrine, too)
- The Guardian: ‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears
- W.D.N.Y.: Possibility of co-conspirators in mass murder justified emergency disclosure request to Apple, Verizon, and Facebook
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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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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
WI: State didn’t violate due process or fair trial by commenting on def’s refusal to submit to a breath test
It did not deny defendant a fair trial for the state to refer to defendant’s refusal to take a breath test. State v. Lemberger, 2017 WI 39, 2017 Wisc. LEXIS 227 (April 20, 2017):
E.D.Tenn.: Video showed clear consent and contradicted def’s testimony
Defendant consented to the search of her purse. The video clearly shows that, and it contradicts the defendant’s testimony. United States v. West, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58892 (E.D. Tenn. Jan. 6, 2017),* adopted, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58672 (E.D. … Continue reading →
Three on consent
Defense counsel was not ineffective for not moving to suppress a search by consent where the consenter admitted during a pretrial deposition that she consented. Banks v. State, 2017 Fla. LEXIS 893 (April 20, 2017).* Defendant’s father consented to the … Continue reading →
MT: Def was driving parents’ car and they had equal or superior authority to consent to its search
Defendant, a known drug user and suspected dealer, was driving his parents’ car, and they gave consent to search it. “Miller had permission from his parents to use the vehicle and thus had common, if not superior, authority to Baty … Continue reading →
CO: Unconscious [and dead] drivers have consented to a blood draw
Unconscious drivers have consented to a blood draw by statute, and it’s constitutional. People v. Hyde, 2017 CO 24, 2017 Colo. LEXIS 282 (April 17, 2017); People v. Simpson, 2017 CO 25, 2017 Colo. LEXIS 283 (April 17, 2017); Fitzgerald … Continue reading →
CA5: Handing over one’s phone in response to “do you mind if I look through your phone?” is consent
Defendant’s stop 30 miles from the border in a corridor known for smuggling was based on reasonable suspicion. When defendant was asked “do you mind if I look through your phone?”, he handed it over, and that was consent. United … Continue reading →
IN: Def handing CI a package risked CI handing it to police
The government’s CI was handling the package with drugs for the defendant to ship it, and he could consent to searching it. Erickson v. State, 2017 Ind. App. LEXIS 140 (March 29, 2017). The CI’s information was against his self … Continue reading →
OH5: Helicopter flyover discovery of MJ plants didn’t justify warrantless entry into curtilage; open fields search valid
The helicopter flyover of defendant’s property gave probable cause but no exception to the warrant requirement. The officers could enter up the driveway, and then consent to enter was given. The marijuana plants in the woods were in open fields. … Continue reading →
OH4: Isolated unsolicited comment def refused to consent to search was not error and was harmless error at best
An isolated comment volunteered by a witness that defendant refused to consent to a search that was never mentioned again wasn’t error. Even so, the evidence of guilt was overwhelming so it’s harmless. State v. Angus, 2017-Ohio-1100, 2017 Ohio App. … Continue reading →
CA6: Court details all the facts that make consent to search a cell phone voluntary
Defendant’s consent to search his cell phone for child pornography was voluntary. A host of facts support voluntariness. United States v. Mays, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 5246 (6th Cir. March 23, 2017)*:
OH5: Consent was invalid when def was told she’d only be charged with tampering if she didn’t disclose the heroin on her person
The evidence supported the trial court’s finding that defendant’s consent to search was not freely and voluntarily given because the officer’s explanation to defendant incorrectly intimated that she could be charged with tampering with evidence if it was concealed on … Continue reading →
NC: Driver not free to leave during questioning while officer holds his DL
The officer did not return the defendant’s driver’s license to him before beginning to question him while in his car in a hotel parking lot. Thus, a reasonable person would not have felt free to leave. Therefore, it was a … Continue reading →
D.Minn.: SW for “pornography” that “constitutes a crime” is specific enough to include CP
A search warrant for “pornography” that “constitutes a crime” is specific enough to include child pornography despite the fact that adult pornography isn’t a crime. There was also probable cause for issuance of the search warrant. United States v. Barthman, … Continue reading →
D.Mont.: Def’s live-in girlfriend’s consent was enough to expand the SW beyond its particularity; she volunteered something police weren’t even looking for
Defendant had an argument with his live-in girlfriend which escalated about the time the police arrived to hear it outside. They got a search warrant for his handgun, some papers, and her belongings to help her get out. She assisted … Continue reading →
S.D.Ala.: Hitting fog line 8 times is reason for a stop even if it doesn’t necessarily violation AL law
Touching the fog line once isn’t an offense (and dozens of cases are cited), but eight times is reasonable suspicion for a stop and at least justifies it under Heien: “While the Court questions whether touching or slightly crossing a … Continue reading →
IL: 13 yo couldn’t consent to search of his person
The juvenile didn’t consent because he was too young to think independently when confronted by police officers. They did, however, have reasonable suspicion for his stop for violating curfew. In re Elijah W., 2017 IL App (1st) 162648, 2017 Ill. … Continue reading →
AZ: Non-consensual blood draw DUI provision is unconstitutional as applied, but the Davis GFE applies
Non-consensual blood draw DUI provision is unconstitutional as applied, but the Davis good faith exception applies here. Defendant was airlifted to a Nevada hospital for the blood draw. The trial court didn’t make findings on whether Nevada or Arizona law … Continue reading →
W.D.Mo.: Def’s primary language wasn’t English but he also spoke Spanish, and his reading aloud the consent form showed he understood it
Defendant was found to have consented. His primary language was Portuguese because he was from Brazil. He also spoke Spanish and he read aloud the Spanish consent form. United States v. Dacruz-Mendes, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30094 (W.D. Mo. Jan. … Continue reading →
E.D.N.C.: Officers first said they were from Publishers’ Clearinghouse, then said “open the door or we are going to knock it down.” Consent after that was valid
Officers first knocked at door saying they were with Publishers’ Clearinghouse, but defendant didn’t come to door. Then they said in Spanish “open the door or we are going to knock it down.” It was on body camera. On the … Continue reading →
ME: Def’s mere acquiescence to his blood draw was not consent
Defendant’s mere acquiescence in his blood draw was not consent, and the trial court’s suppression order is affirmed. Implied consent no longer exists by statute, and the state had to prove consent. The trial court held that it did not, … Continue reading →