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Recent Posts
- 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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General (many free):
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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
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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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (2012)
ACLU on privacy
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
Section 1983 Blog -
"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
AR: Officer’s personal knowledge def’s DL suspended is reasonable suspicion
The officer knew defendant and knew that defendant’s DL was suspended. That was reasonable suspicion for a stop. Medlock v. State, 2016 Ark. App. 282, 2016 Ark. App. LEXIS 303 (May 25, 2016).* Summarily affirmed based on recent precedent: “State … Continue reading →
OH10: Plain view during consent search supported SW when consent withdrawn
Officers responding to a shots fired call asked defendant about a gun in his house. He denied there was one and consented to a search of the first floor. In the bathroom, officers saw crack cocaine in plain view. They … Continue reading →
OR: Two on scope of consent, one suppressing drug paraphernalia found during a courthouse security check
Defendant put her purse through the x-ray at the security checkpoint into a juvenile court facility. There were signs warning about searches for weapons. The security officer opened her purse and found a spoon as drug paraphernalia. The consent was … Continue reading →
CA8: Consent to fully search a home includes forensically searching computers found there
Consent to fully search defendant’s home by PO’s after a computer was found in violation of the terms of his release is consent to forensically analyze the product of the search, here a computer hard drive. United States v. Berger, … Continue reading →
D.Neb.: Consent also shown by def’s action of opening bag when requested
Defendant consented to a search of his bag by one officer when others were present. Consent was also by implication by opening it when requested. United States v. Garcia, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66061 (D.Neb. May 19, 2016). Officers had … Continue reading →
NC: Def’s bizarre travel plans, nervousness, masking odors, and smell of MJ was RS even to the uninitiated
Based on defendant’s bizarre travel plans, his nervousness, the use of masking odors, the smell of marijuana on him, and the third-party registration of the vehicle, even an untrained person would doubt defendant’s story. Thus, the officer, a 15-year veteran … Continue reading →
CA5: Tax appraiser worked by consent; qualified immunity on scope of search claim
Plaintiff consented to entry onto his property by a tax appraiser, and his dispute was whether the appraiser exceeded the scope of the consent. The district court denied summary judgment for the appraiser, but the Fifth Circuit finds such a … Continue reading →
CA7: Officer’s use of translation app on iPhone to ask for consent in Spanish was close enough for consent
Defendant disputed the officer’s attempt at asking for consent in Spanish using a translation app on his iPhone. The defense called expert Spanish speakers that the query was essentially “may I look [at or for] your car” not in it. … Continue reading →
S.D.Fla.: No standing in a rental car obtained with a fake ID and CC and then turned over to another
Defendant had no standing in this rental car rented in a false name with a fake ID and credit card and then he drove the car away and then turned the car over to a co-conspirator who was driving at … Continue reading →
CA8: POs had RS to seize and search a flash drive from def’s residence during a probation search caused by a tip
Probation officers had reasonable suspicion to seize a flash drive found during a supervised-release search of defendant’s residence. Reasonable suspicion existed because of defendant’s prior conviction for possession of child pornography, a release condition prohibiting him from accessing a computer, … Continue reading →
AL: Controlled buys were PC for car search
A search warrant was issued for defendant’s home, and he was also involved in three controlled buys from his car. His stop miles from the search of his house was based on the probable cause from the buys, not the … Continue reading →
CA3: A prostitute has apparent authority to consent to entry into a hotel room rented by her pimp
A prostitute working in a motel room for a pimp has apparent authority to consent to an entry. When a man entered the room with a key, he could be patted down. United States v. Murray, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading →
N.D.Ga.: Consent still voluntary despite argument it’s not logical that somebody holding would consent; argument def believed nothing would be found supports voluntariness
That it can be argued it isn’t logical that somebody with drugs would consent, they still do, and it still doesn’t mean that he didn’t consent voluntarily. United States v. Collins, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54816 (N.D.Ga. Feb. 9, 2016), … Continue reading →
CA5: DEA subpoena preempts Texas Occupational Code on patient privacy
The DEA subpoena power of the federal Controlled Substances Act subpoena preempts the Texas Occupational Code, so the doctor here can’t rely on state law to prevent disclosure of patient medical records. The gag order request in the subpoena was … Continue reading →
D.Nev.: Consent on Amtrak platform wasn’t voluntary
Defendant was button-holed during a smoke break off the train when his Amtrak train stopped in Reno. His consent for a search of this compartment and stuff wasn’t consensual and induced by the threat of a dog sniff; it was … Continue reading →
N.D.Cal.: When officer asks if there’s anything illegal in car and def consents, consent includes the trunk
Defendant’s consent was found voluntary on the totality, and defendant had to understand that the scope of consent included the trunk. “First, with respect to the object of the search, the evidence shows that Officer Williams asked defendant if he … Continue reading →
D.Neb.: Cut and paste error where address went into “things to be seized” wasn’t fatal where things were apparent from warrant application as a whole
An apparent cut and paste error led to the officer pasting the place to be searched into the things to be seized section of the warrant looking for clothing from a robbery. The affidavit included pages of photographs of the … Continue reading →
CA11: Where the SW was drafted the day before the alleged illegal entry, the independent source doctrine clearly applied
The independent source doctrine was sufficient to show that the search was valid, no matter what. The affidavit for the search warrant was drafted the day before the alleged illegal entry for arrest and protective sweep, which the court can … Continue reading →
TN: Not deficient performance for IAC where Fourth Amendment argument hadn’t yet been recognized
It was not deficient performance on the part of trial counsel to fail to argue that text messages should have been suppressed, a legal theory which, at the time, lacked statutory or precedential support. Vaughn v. State, 2016 Tenn. Crim. … Continue reading →
OH10: Def can’t suppress his assault on officer by claiming entry was illegal
Defense counsel was not ineffective for not challenging under the Fourth Amendment the police entry into the house that led to defendant assaulting an officer. Even if it was a nonconsensual entry, defendant’s crime against the officer was independent of … Continue reading →