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)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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
AZ: General consent to search includes use of a drug dog
A general consent to search includes use of a drug dog. State v. Becerra, 2016 Ariz. App. LEXIS 9 (Jan. 25, 2016). A woman concerned about the safety of a child conducted the cell phone search here, and that was … Continue reading →
FL2: Police had no objectively reasonable basis to believe that there was an emergency inside the residence based on an open door and scattered mail
Police had no objectively reasonable basis to believe that there was an emergency inside the residence based on an open door and scattered mail. State v. Fultz, 2016 Fla. App. LEXIS 880 (Fla. 2d DCA Jan. 22, 2016). “Here, under … Continue reading →
MN: Once blood obtained by SW, second SW not required to search it
After blood was obtained by a search warrant, there was no need for second warrant to search or analyze it. State v. Fawcett, 2016 Minn. App. LEXIS 2 (Jan. 11, 2016). The search of defendant’s house was valid because of … Continue reading →
TN: Operating meth lab is exigent circumstances for a warrantless entry
An operating meth lab is exigent circumstances for a warrantless entry. State v. Meadows, 2016 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 10 (Jan. 11, 2016). The renter of a truck, the CI, consented to installing a GPS on the truck, and that … Continue reading →
N.D.Cal.: Consent given after threat to search was involuntary where search would have violated Fourth Amendment
Defendant consented to a search of a his backpack after he was told it was going to be searched. The problem with the search was that the search would have violated the Fourth Amendment. Therefore, the consent was invalid, as … Continue reading →
S.D.N.Y.: Mistake of law wasn’t reasonable and stop suppressed; Heien distinguished
Defendant was stopped because one taillight was dimmer than the other, but not burned out. The court finds the stop was unreasonable and not a mistake of law under Heien, and the motion to suppress is granted. United States v. … Continue reading →
TN: While tip was anonymous, def’s apparent impaired driving was RS
Officers received a 911 anonymous tip about a suspected impaired driver. Observing the driving gave reasonable suspicion for the stop, and whether Navarette is implicated doesn’t need to be decided and is outside question certified for review. State v. Headla, … Continue reading →
D.Minn.: Redacting information from SW affidavit allegedly illegally obtained still left PC
The police entered after making an arrest and did a protective sweep then “froze” the premises to get a search warrant. Redacting the observations from the entry for the protective sweep from the affidavit still leaves probable cause for the … Continue reading →
IL: Refusal of consent to DNA or drug test admissible to show consciousness of guilt, analogizing DUI refusal
State’s argument that defendant refused to submit to a DNA and drug test was not irrelevant nor more prejudicial than relevant. The court analogizes its holdings on refusal in the face of implied consent laws in DUI cases as being … Continue reading →
S.D.Ind.: A car carrier is a bailee with the ability to consent to a search cars he is hauling
A car carrier as a bailee with exclusive control on a truck has the ability to consent to a search of a car he is hauling. (See the close case of United States v. Crowder, 588 F.3d 929 (7th Cir. … Continue reading →
NV: That third-party consenter consented is not inadmissible hearsay
Trial court’s ruling that the third party consenter’s consent was hearsay was plain error. It’s not offered for the truth of the matter asserted. Moultrie v. State, 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 97, 2015 Nev. App. LEXIS 15 (Dec. 24, 2015). … Continue reading →
If you’re going to contest consent, you better have some testimony countering the officers
While the state carries the burden on warrantless searches, if the officer’s testimony is uncontested, it can certainly be credited by the trial court, and that clearly will be sufficient for appellate review: “Here, the defendant was under arrest at … Continue reading →
ND: Excising information from illegal search from affidavit for SW still left PC for the warrant, so suppression denied
Defendant’s cell phone was searched without a warrant six weeks before Riley, and the information derived from his text messages made it into a search warrant affidavit. The state concedes Riley applies. However, excising the unlawfully obtained information from the … Continue reading →
D.Md.: Officer’s lack of memory of words used in exchange over consent leads to finding govt didn’t meet burden of proof
Officer’s lack of specific memory on the words used back and forth on the question of consent leads to finding the government didn’t meet its burden of showing consent. United States v. Stanback, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 171751 (D.Md. Dec. … Continue reading →
FL5: Putting down a backpack when told to by officer was hardly an abandonment
While officer safety is important, it doesn’t always justify a search. The officer told defendant to put down his backpack, and that was not an abandonment of the backpack. Rather, it was submission to authority. There was no legal justification … Continue reading →
TN: “The statutorily created implied consent satisfies the consent exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement.”
“The statutorily created implied consent satisfies the consent exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement.” “Recently, this Court has held that ‘consent occurs at the point that a driver undertakes the privilege of operating a motor vehicle in the State … Continue reading →
WA: No requirement of a consent search def be there to see it to be able to withdraw consent
There is no authority that a consent search is invalid if the target isn’t there to watch it or communicate with the searching officer. That is not a prerequisite to consent, even when the target his the authority to withdraw … Continue reading →
W.D.N.C.: Protective sweep permits a plain view, but officers could not open closed containers
The protective sweep of defendant’s hotel room permitted looking at a glass jar and box of ammunition that were out in the open. Looking in a glasses case and a duffle bag, however, cannot be justified by the protective sweep … Continue reading →
W.D.N.Y.: Consensual entry to a tracking-drug dog during a robbery and burglary investigation led to finding drugs in potential victim’s home
Officers were investigating a robbery and a potential burglary near defendant’s house. The officer with the dog was outside for 45 minutes going around the area looking for a scent [of what?] and then they sought to enter defendant’s home … Continue reading →
AZ implied consent law valid under McNeely
“Defendant now challenges the facial constitutionality of [the Arizona implied consent law,] § 28-1321, arguing that it is invalid under the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Missouri v. McNeely, 133 S. Ct. 1552, 185 L. Ed. 2d 696 (2013), … Continue reading →