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- 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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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)
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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
MA: Def was in CODIS four times; first might be illegal but rest were attenuated
Defendant contended that a 2000 blood sample that ended up in CODIS that connected him in a cold case hit was unreasonably obtained. However, he also had three other samples in the system that were not because of his convictions … Continue reading →
VA: “Assuming the position” when a frisk is requested by an officer is a consent to a frisk
“Assuming the position” when a frisk is requested by an officer is a consent to a frisk. Hawkins v. Commonwealth, 2015 Va. App. LEXIS 237 (August 4, 2015). Defendant was observed doing a hand to hand transaction on a New … Continue reading →
CA7: Def lived with grandparents, and they could consent to search of bomb making stuff in basement
Defendant who lived with his grandparents had “mental health issues” and expressed “anti-government sentiment.” They called the police because he was making M-80’s in the basement, and M-80s were classified as explosive devices. They police and ATF came warrantless to … Continue reading →
N.D.Ga.: Just because one feels he has no choice but to consent, that doesn’t mean it’s involuntary
“Even if Sharp did feel that he had no choice but to consent, under the totality of the circumstances it is clear that he knowingly and voluntarily consented to the search of his laptop and online accounts, and that his … Continue reading →
E.D.Wis.: Motion to suppress decided on police reports alone: only a hunch and no reasonable suspicion
Based on the police reports alone which are provided the court in the defendant’s effort to get an evidentiary hearing, the court denies the evidentiary hearing and then suppresses the search finding that the stop was based on a mere … Continue reading →
D.Neb.: Body camera video shows defendant’s alleged consent at his door was involuntary
Body camera video shows defendant’s alleged consent at his door was involuntary, and the USMJ’s R&R is rejected. United States v. Rodriguez, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98292 (D.Neb. July 28, 2015):
OH9: Repeated questions to defendant when stopped about why he was avoiding the officers did not show consent
Repeated questions to defendant when stopped about why he was avoiding the officers did not show consent. “Here, based upon the facts as presented by the officers, we cannot agree with the trial court that the officers’ encounter with Mr. … Continue reading →
CA7: Saying “I guess” and nodding yes showed consent
In response to a request for consent, defendant’s answering “I guess” to a request to consent and then nodding yes to “So we’re good?” was consent. United States v. Ruiz, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 12866 (7th Cir. July 24, 2015). … Continue reading →
CA8: Implied consent law is not coercive of consent
Plaintiff’s summary judgment against her for her consensual blood draw in the face of the state’s implied consent law is affirmed. “‘[T]he choice to submit or refuse to take a blood-alcohol test will not be an easy or pleasant one … Continue reading →
CA8: Without objection to USMJ’s findings, plain error is standard of review
There were no objections to the USMJ’s findings of consent adopted by the USDJ, so plain error is the standard of review. Considering the credibility determinations, the consent was valid. United States v. Williams, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 12465 (8th … Continue reading →
FL2: Gesture to enter was consent
Defendant lost his phone at the scene of a burglary. Police came to his house to talk to him, and the evidence supports the conclusion that his sister invited them in by her gestures, and she had apparent authority. Thompson … Continue reading →
D.Minn.: Violation of state law in admin subpoena for ISP information of no consequence in federal prosecution
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his third party information with his internet service provider, so the validity of the administrative subpoena isn’t an issue under circuit precedent. The fact that state law was used by state investigators … Continue reading →
TN: Def’s consent to look at cell phone for suicide threat text messages was not violated when officer opened up a folder looking for deleted TMs
The record supports the conclusion that, on the totality, defendant consented to a search of his phone for text messages about a suicide threat. The messages were gone, and the officer went to a folder looking for them and found … Continue reading →
CA1: Def consented to entry to serve an order of protection and sawed off shotgun hanging on wall was in plain view
Officers came to defendant’s house to serve a domestic abuse order of protection. He motioned for them to enter. They asked about guns, and defendant motioned to the wall where two guns were on display, one of which was a … Continue reading →
AZ: Even def lying about his identity on arrest didn’t justify search incident of cell phone
When defendant was arrested, his cell phone was seized and searched, and it could not be justified as a search incident even though defendant initially lied about his name. State v. Ontiveros-Loya, 2015 Ariz. App. LEXIS 111 (June 30, 2015). … Continue reading →
S.D.N.Y.: Driver’s apparent authority to consent to search of car did not extend to a digital camera that belonged to another; Riley applies to digital camera
The woman driving defendant’s car with the keys in hand had apparent authority to consent to its search. That consent, however, did not extend to a digital camera in the car. “The consent the officers received to search the car … Continue reading →
D.Mass.: True inventory not defeated by subjective intent to conduct criminal search
Reasonable suspicion to believe a wanted parole fugitive is in a vehicle is reasonable suspicion for a stop. The decision to tow, and thus inventory, the car was reasonable because both occupants were arrested and there was a pitbull left … Continue reading →
IA: Def had reasonable expectation of privacy in a motel room even though her purpose to rent it might have been infanticide
Defendant concealed her pregnancy and gave birth in a motel room, apparently drowning the baby in the bathtub and leaving the body in the trash can. There was a “do not disturb” sign on the door, but hotel housekeeping came … Continue reading →
DE: Inevitable discovery saves a search that started before the warrant was actually signed
Although the search in this case started before the search warrant was actually issued, the court applies the inevitable discovery exception to sustain it. The house was secured by the police waiting for the warrant to arrive, the application for … Continue reading →
CA2: Obtaining a building permit is an express consent of building inspectors to enter during construction
“McNeice’s [building] permit application provided express consent for town officials to enter and inspect his property in connection with the building laws.” McNeice v. Town of Waterford, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 10645 (2d Cir. June 24, 2015). Defendant was staying … Continue reading →