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Recent Posts
- CA7: False confession claim is a 4A not 14A claim
- CA5: RS required of weapons or contraband for search of vagina
- CA4: Affidavit for SW provided neither nexus nor timing and even failed GFE
- CA9: Ptfs didn’t meet burden of showing administrative subpoena was 4A violation or in bad faith
- CA2: No 4A requirement for SWs being issued with notice to target
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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)
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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.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 →
E.D.Mich.: Video of stop belies officer’s claim of consent; stop should have ended when justification dissipated
“The officers did not search the vehicle until after any permissible justification to search had dissipated. The officers had decided to not even write Defendant a traffic ticket. Yet, the officers continued his detention — seized him, handcuffed him, and … Continue reading →
MD: Dog alert on a car for marijuana where 10g or less is a civil penalty still supports probable cause for a search of the car
Dog alert on a car for marijuana where 10g or less is a civil penalty still supports probable cause for a search of the car. Bowling v. State, 2016 Md. App. LEXIS 37 (March 31, 2016). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective … Continue reading →
RI: Looking back up stairs in response to demand from a tactical team to produce defendant was not voluntary consent
Considering the value in the law of privacy of the home, the court concludes defendant’s mother did not consent to entry into and search of the house for him. Three to six officers came to the door, one carrying a … Continue reading →
FL3: Asking for consent while holding DL makes consent involuntary
While the stop lasted only 11 minutes, asking for consent while holding defendant’s driver’s license makes the consent involuntary because the defendant is not free to leave. Villanueva v. State, 2016 Fla. App. LEXIS 4891 (Fla. 3d DCA March 30, … Continue reading →
OH9: Randolph doesn’t require target be asked for consent first
Defendant’s wife consented to the search of their house. There is no duty of the police to first ask the target of the search for consent under Randolph. The claim her consent wasn’t voluntary wasn’t in the motion to suppress … Continue reading →
IL: Unconveyed intent to seize def didn’t make this not consensual
The officer’s subjective intent that this was a seizure was not conveyed to defendant, and each of the queries to defendant were requests not commands. Defendant consented. “Specifically, LaGrange testified that when he asked Youngman if he had anything illegal … Continue reading →
CA4: Provision in order of protection for def to surrender firearms was subject to consent and GFE
Defendant came to the sheriff’s office and was served with an order of protection. He then consented to a search of his house in response to the provision in the order of protection: “Respondent shall surrender any and all firearms … Continue reading →
CA10: Defendant granted a general consent to search his vehicle, and that included closed containers; even prying broken seams of an ice chest
Defendant granted a general consent to search his vehicle, and that included closed containers. Here, there were two ice chests. The hinges and seams looked tampered with and they contained fish (often to mask drug odor). One officer used an … Continue reading →
OK: Officer could approach parked motorist on closed business parking lot after hours for welfare check
Defendant was standing next to his motorcycle on a closed business parking lot, across the street from a casino, in the early morning hours. The officer approached him to inquire. Defendant said he was “taking a break.” The officer asked … Continue reading →
CA7: The rubric of “consent once removed” needs to be jettisoned as meaningless, but entry still valid by exigency
The rubric of “consent once removed” needs to be jettisoned as meaningless. Here, there was real exigency after the informant’s entry into a potentially dangerous situation with the undercover officers watching, and that was sufficient to justify the entry without … Continue reading →
NC: Consent to search a computer and smartphone did not include external storage devices in the computer bag
Specific consent to search a laptop and a smartphone did not include a SIM card or other storage devices found in a computer bag. Defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in them comparable to the cell phone in Riley … Continue reading →
D.Minn.: CI corroboration of info for SW after the fact at least showed GFE
The CI provided detailed information about defendant’s methamphetamine dealing, and that defendant said he’d die before going back to prison. After the tracking warrant was signed, the officers further corroborated the CI’s story after the warrant issued. The good faith … Continue reading →
N.D.Ga.: Yahoo! provided info to NCMEC which supported RS for border search of def’s laptop
The government and NCMEC got a tip of defendant’s potential purchasing of child pornography through Xoom, a money transferring company, and Yahoo! working together. Defendant was flagged as a potential child pornography should he travel overseas. He arrived in Atlanta … Continue reading →
CA5: Knock-and-talk on a fence’s warehouse was reasonable and led to consent and plain view
Officers did a knock-and-talk on a warehouse suspected of being a location for a fence to keep his stolen goods pending resale. The entry was supported by consent and was reasonable. United States v. Danhach, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 4421 … Continue reading →
OH4: Finding FTA warrant on MJ charge supported calling for drug dog
Defendant was stopped for a lane change violation, and an FTA warrant appeared on a possession of marijuana charge. The officer thus could call in a drug dog because of the already lawful reason to lengthen the detention. State v. … Continue reading →
D.Neb.: Methhead’s familiarity with drugs and observations here made him a reliable CI
Police use of a regular CI who was a known methamphetamine user made him one that could be relied on to score them meth. “Considering the CI’s history and personal observation of activity at 1415, a reasonably prudent officer would … Continue reading →