July 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Archives
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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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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
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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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
Cal.6th: Implied consent from merely driving has to come from state supreme court, not this court; driver unconscious and blood drawn
Defendant was knocked unconscious in a car wreck, and the court finds the warrantless blood draw based on the consent mandated by statute since 1999 by merely getting a driver’s license was invalid. There was no manifestation of actual consent … Continue reading →
CA8: Execution of white collar SW with bulletproof vests, sidearms, and sirens wasn’t unreasonable
Execution of a white collar search warrant by officers of the SBA and IRS with bulletproof vests, sidearms, and sirens blaring was not unreasonable as a matter of law. Policy required they be armed during the raid. While a couple … Continue reading →
IL: SW for drugs on person permitted strip search and squat; no touching involved
Officers got a search warrant for a strip search to search defendant’s person for drugs. Making him squat to release a packet of drugs between his “butt cheeks” was within the warrant. People v. Jarvis, 2016 IL App (2d) 141231, … Continue reading →
E.D.Mich.: Still a private search even though police were kept informed of what was happening
Defendant’s phone and computer were subjected to a private search, albeit the searcher keeping the police informed what she was doing. She wasn’t a government agent. United States v. McCoy, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20890 (E.D.Mich. Feb. 22, 2016). The … Continue reading →
GA: Absent owner of car called by police consented against driver
Defendant was driving somebody else’s car and was stopped by the police. The police called the owner to get consent to search, and that was binding on the defendant. Also, he wasn’t there at the time. Gomillion v. State, 2016 … Continue reading →
IN: Two untested and uncorroborated informants couldn’t corroborate each other to make PC
Two untested and uncorroborated informants couldn’t corroborate each other to make probable cause. Gerth v. State, 2016 Ind. App. LEXIS 44 (Feb. 18, 2016). Defendant’s stop was consensual. “The question presented in this case is whether a police officer may … Continue reading →
CAAF: Consent was withdrawn before seizure, and seizure lacked PC; no GFE for later SW
Defendant orally withdrew his consent before seizure of his computers and again in writing the next day. The seizure violated the Fourth Amendment because there wasn’t probable cause at the time, and that undermines the government’s alternative argument that the … Continue reading →
ID: A 15 year old runaway on the property is an exigent circumstance
The search of defendant’s shed for a 15 year old runaway was reasonable on exigent circumstances, and there was a no contact order between them. State v. Smith, 2016 Ida. App. LEXIS 20 (Feb. 16, 2016). Defendant moved to suppress … Continue reading →
GA: Bailee of car could consent to search; Randolph on shopping for consent limited to homes
Defendant loaned her car to her pastor, and that was a bailment that permitted him to consent to a search. Defendant refused consent, and the court, likely in dicta but maybe not because it’s not central to the case, limits … Continue reading →
CA5: Consent valid despite language barrier; could have been just giving in to the inevitable
The USMJ’s finding was that the officer obtaining defendant’s consent was professional and not overbearing. Yes, there was a language barrier, but there was a Spanish consent form. And, despite the language barrier, defendant could understand. Knowledge that drugs would … Continue reading →
N.D.Okla: Material govt’s LEO witnesses to consent were so bad govt retracted their testimony, and search fails
The government realized when they called defendant’s estranged wife near the end of the suppression hearing about the alleged consent search of their house that “As the suppression hearing unfolded over the course of two days, the credibility of certain … Continue reading →
M.D.Ala.: Motion to withdraw plea for IAC denied; it wasn’t, and this is just a “change of heart”
The court denies defendant’s motion to withdraw his plea for IAC because defense counsel allegedly overlooked a valid motion to suppress, seriously complicated now by the fact it was third party consent of the codefendant. “It is most apparent to … Continue reading →
FL2: Consent given while officer holding DL without RS is invalid
While the stop lasted only 11 minutes, the officer had defendant’s DL in hand and defendant was not free to leave when the officer asked for consent. The citation process was essentially complete, but the officer chose to ask for … Continue reading →
W.D.Ark.: PC to arrest doesn’t dissipate
Defendant was involved in a controlled buy in November 2014, but he wasn’t arrested until October 2015. The passage of time does not negate the probable cause to arrest, and the staleness doctrine does not apply. Then, the detention being … Continue reading →
E.D.Mich.: Being a “drug dealer” alone isn’t probable cause to search his house; more required, and it’s present
The fact defendant is a “drug dealer” alone isn’t probable cause to search his house. Coupled with him coming and going to drug deals is. United States v. Sewell, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15376 (E.D.Mich. Feb. 9, 2016). The government … Continue reading →
CO: “Appurtenances” in a search warrant included a shed out back
A search warrant for weapons involved in a shooting included the house and “appurtenances” and that included a shed out back. A sawed-off shotgun was found, and that led to a separate charge. There’s no constitutional right to possess a … Continue reading →
DE: Threat to take blood by force if necessary made consent invalid where it was unjustified to say so
The officer’s threat to use force to get a blood draw when the defendant hadn’t done a thing to justify that comment made the blood draw involuntary. State v. Cullen, 2016 Del. Super. LEXIS 68 (Feb. 9, 2016):
D.Nev.: Seizure of cell phone incident to arrest was valid; warrant came later
The court’s credibility determination is that defendant did not revoke his consent after admittedly consenting. The seizure of his cell phone incident to arrest was valid because there was reason to believe there was evidence in it. Thus, the later … Continue reading →
Five cases on consent
The court finds the officer more believable on the consent question because if, as defendant contends, it was fabricated, the officer also had to fabricate that defendant limited consent after the search started, and then the officer had to get … Continue reading →
D.N.M.: While affiant wasn’t sworn, other witnesses were in testifying on application
Defendant consented to a search after being told of the right to refuse. Officers also sought a search warrant for a safe from a tribal judge, and the affiant wasn’t sworn to. Additional testimony was, however. The consent saves the … Continue reading →