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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)
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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
FL1: Law of the case doesn’t preclude state from another bite overcoming suppression when there’s a change in law
On remand post-Heien, the law of the case didn’t bar the state from approaching the suppression issue from a different tack because of a change in the law. State v. Thomas, 2016 Fla. App. LEXIS 16235 (Fla. 1st DCA Nov. … Continue reading →
GA: Being handcuffed did not preclude her from having consented to a breath test
Defendant’s being handcuffed did not preclude her from having consented to a breath test. State v. Young, 2016 Ga. App. LEXIS 615 (Nov. 2, 2016). Defendant’s stop was for speeding, and that’s not contested. The officer “testified that he found … Continue reading →
OR: Bag of meth seen in car justified search incident
The officer here saw methamphetamine in a baggie in defendant’s car, and that justified a search incident for the “crime of arrest.” State v. Delfino, 281 Ore. App. 725 (Oct. 19, 2016). The police came to defendant’s house with a … Continue reading →
MO: RS of driving on a suspended DL requires real facts, not hearsay
When a police officer stops you and asks for your DL, any reasonable person would not think he’s free to leave. The officer’s claim that he knew two weeks earlier that defendant’s DL had been suspended had to be supported … Continue reading →
MO: Consent to enter house to check voices heard by a crazy man wasn’t unreasonable
Defendant had auditory hallucinations and believed that voices, including that of his cat, were telling him to stab himself in the heart. He called 911 and police arrived. He talked with him on the porch and he explained the voices. … Continue reading →
Minnesota’s refusal to consent to a DUI blood or urine test is unconstitutional under Birchfield
Minnesota’s refusal to consent to a DUI blood or urine test is unconstitutional under Birchfield. State v. Thompson, 2016 Minn. LEXIS 656 (Oct. 12, 2016):
IL: Officer’s false report of burglary to get def home to ask for consent to search made it involuntary
The officer here suspected a grow operation in defendant’s house. He used a false claim defendant’s house had been broken into to get him to come home. When he arrived, the officer asked for consent, which defendant refused. Later, defendant … Continue reading →
MI: Search exceeded scope of consent
Defendant had standing to contest seizure of items from his mother’s home because he lived there and could control them and the area searched. His mother’s consent to search for illegal drugs did not admit the items because the officers … Continue reading →
N.D.Ga.: Officer was credible on search 9 years ago by admitting what he couldn’t remember
The consent search in this case was nine years before the suppression hearing. The officer’s willingness to admit that which he could not remember made him more credible, and it was expected he couldn’t remember all of it because it … Continue reading →
TN: SW with the wrong name once after the correct name appeared several times was not invalid
In a search warrant that included the defendant’s name repeatedly and then mistakenly included another name on the computer printed search warrant, common sense dictates that the warrant was directed at her. State v. Szabo, 2016 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS … Continue reading →
NY4: Parole search based on parolee being unemployed but with large sum of cash
Defendant’s parole search was justified by defendant’s being unemployed but possessing a large sum of cash and other parole violations. People v. Goss, 2016 NY Slip Op 06596, 2016 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6457 (4th Dept. Oct. 7, 2016). One … Continue reading →
OH10: Request for consent at end of traffic stop requires RS
The traffic stop was valid, but the request for consent at the end of the stop required reasonable suspicion. “Thus, because Officer Hughes sought appellant’s consent to conduct a search following the completion of the stop and absent any reasonable … Continue reading →
TN: Consent shown justified despite denials because def admitted he attempted to withdraw consent
The evidence showed defendant consented to a search despite his denials. He admitted, however, “rescinding” his consent, too. State v. Hernandez, 2016 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 727 (Sept. 27, 2016).* Driving without headlights at 3 am is probable cause for … Continue reading →
W.D.Ark.: “it was not clearly established that the inspection of legal materials during a shakedown violates the inmate’s clearly established constitutional rights”
“[I]t was not clearly established that the inspection of legal materials during a shakedown violates the inmate’s clearly established constitutional rights.” Knox v. Livermore, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130485 (W.D.Ark. June 2, 2016). Defendant’s consent three minutes into the stop … Continue reading →
MO: When def relies on traffic stop cases, she has to show when reasonable suspicion was required
Defendant relies on traffic stop cases, so it’s incumbent on her to show that at what point the consensual stop transformed into a stop governed by the Fourth Amendment requiring at least reasonable suspicion. State v. Marr, 2016 Mo. App. … Continue reading →
NM: Consent to look at one receipt during a stop didn’t justify looking at any others
Two stops of defendant towing a van a couple of minutes apart were separately justified. The second stop was based on the owner of the van saying that defendant took it from him, but that was only to a second … Continue reading →
AZ: Overnight guest’s cell phone in house retained REP
An overnight guest who left her cell phone at her host’s place did not lose her reasonable expectation of privacy in the phone. State v. Peoples, 2016 Ariz. LEXIS 228 (Sept. 12, 2016). After a stop for a traffic offense, … Continue reading →
CT: Two police cars converging on def and telling him to stop was a seizure
Two police cars driving at defendant in a Subway parking lot from different directions and stopping him was a stop. And, he was ordered to stop by an officer. State v. Edmonds, 2016 Conn. LEXIS 251 (Sept. 13, 2015) (concur; … Continue reading →
ID: Officer telling defendant to set aside because he was looking for a man with a warrant was not a seizure
When the officer came to defendant’s house, he said he was looking for another person, and asked defendant to move back. A reasonable person in his position would not have felt free to leave. Thus, when defendant was confronted outside … Continue reading →
M.D.N.C.: In 4A IAC claim, defendant has to show standing in detail and vague allegations aren’t enough
Defendant’s IAC claim here depends on his having standing. His vague allegations of standing aren’t enough. Organes-Espino v. United States, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 113536 (M.D.N.C. Aug. 25, 2016). The officer had reasonable suspicion defendant had been driving under the … Continue reading →