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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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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)
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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
NV: School couldn’t condition student’s entrance into building on a full search
A juvenile with chronic behavioral problems was made to sign a contract for readmission to school that he was subject to random searches of his person. The court distinguishes Earls and Vernonia on school drug testing and an Oregon case … Continue reading →
NY4: Def consented to search of his person by entering a courthouse
Defendant entered the Hall of Justice in Rochester, and he set off the metal detector. Three hand wandings showed metal in his crotch. He was handcuffed and taken to a more secure area. A search of his person revealed gold … Continue reading →
NY3: Def’s refusal to consent was waived when he voluntarily left the premises to his live-in girlfriend
Defendant shared the residence with a woman, and the police were permitted in and sought consent. He refused, telling her: “‘[D]on’t … do it, don’t make it easy, make them get a warrant.’ He then asked a detective if he … Continue reading →
D.N.H.: No REP from gov’t installing camera on def’s grow operation in the woods
The defendant and a guy named Bain didn’t like each other. Bain hunted on defendant’s property with permission and stumbled upon a few marijuana plants which he reported to the police. Other than defendant’s conclusory statement Bain was an agent … Continue reading →
NY3: Despite suppressed statement, plenty of evidence supported strip search for drugs
Defendant was in a car stopped for a traffic offense, and the driver got out agitated and crying that the passengers had drugs on them. They consented to searches of their persons and drugs were found. On the way to … Continue reading →
N-MCCA: Def’s consent to recovery of laptop from him already searched and returned was independent source
On a Navy ship, a crewmember accessing the ship’s LAN looking for a movie stumbled into defendant’s computer on the LAN and found child pornography. He reported what he found and that it came from MAYO-PC. They found the laptop … Continue reading →
DE: Handcuffing naked probationer in hotel room was reasonable for officer safety because of the way he looked at pile of clothes on bed
Delaware probation officers need reasonable suspicion for a search, and here they had it. Defendant had moved to a hotel without telling probation, and he’d switched rooms three times in a week. When they came to the room he was … Continue reading →
NJ: Codefendant’s appeal not law of the case; parties get to argue their own cases
The decision in a co-defendant’s separate appeal on a search and seizure question is not “law of the case” as to another defendant’s appeal. The law of the case doctrine requires the same parties, and it would offend due process … Continue reading →
BLT: D.C. Circuit Judge Gives Advice on How to Talk to Police
BLT: D.C. Circuit Judge Gives Advice on How to Talk to Police: D.C. Circuit Judge Janice Rogers Brown on Tuesday urged citizens to exercise their right to end what are supposed to be voluntary encounters with D.C. police. Brown expressed … Continue reading →
DC Cir.: Asking defendant about having a gun wasn’t a stop before he fled
Officers in the DC Metro PD’s gun recovery unit saw defendant walking, and one asked “[H]ey, it is the police, how are you doing? Do you have a gun?” Defendant didn’t answer, so the car stopped and one got out … Continue reading →
IN: Flight from car is abandonment of the cell phone inside, too
Defendant’s flight from his car and into the woods was an abandonment of the car and the contents. Thus, the warrantless search of his cell phone left in the car was reasonable. Harrison v. State, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 357 … Continue reading →
D.Nev.: FBI internet ruse against USAO advice leads to suppression of entry by deception (R&R adopted)
The USMJ issued her R&R on February 2d, and I posted the next day. Friday, the USDJ adopted the R&R, and the press goes wild, apparently oblivious to the news stories from February 2d. United States v. Phua, 2015 U.S. … Continue reading →
N.D.Ga.: Consent after arrest at gunpoint was still valid
“Although the encounter was initially coercive, by the time Shull asked Defendant for consent to search her car, she was standing by the car, the deputies had re-holstered their weapons, and Shull spoke with her in a calm, professional manner, … Continue reading →
DE: Name of owner of property in SW doesn’t need to be identified to be valid
Defense counsel was not ineffective for not challenging that defendant wasn’t named in the search warrant for his specifically described property. [Remember, search warrants are usually for specifically ID’d places, and naming the owner is almost never necessary. If the … Continue reading →
D.Mass.: When defendant was arrested on a SW for premises for just him, a search incident of his bag while handcuffed would be unreasonable; but, he consented
Officers had a search warrant for premises (based on a warrant pinging his cell phone) to arrest defendant. The search incident of his bag at the time could not be justified by the search incident doctrine because he was handcuffed … Continue reading →
D.Nev.: Facebook post of dead protected migratory bird was PC
A Facebook post of a dead bird taken in violation of the Migratory Bird Act is itself probable cause of a violation of the Act. The only question then is the place to be searched, and it’s logical for a … Continue reading →
OH11: Possible domestic dispute in car justified its stop
What was going on in the car suggested to the officer that a domestic disturbance was ongoing, and it was reasonable for the officer to inquire. State v. Smith, 2015-Ohio-1204, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 1225 (11th Dist. April 2, 2015).* … Continue reading →
D.Conn.: In a stop, hesitation then flight is still no submission to authority
When the police tried to stop defendant, he hesitated and then ran, leaving a duffle bag with a gun inside. He argued he was unconstitutionally stopped. No. “In order ‘to comply with an order to stop—and thus to become seized—a … Continue reading →
TX1: Heien ‘reasonable mistake of law’ rejected because Texas doesn’t follow GFE
Defendant was followed to a stop with a flat tire. The officer noticed signs of intoxication, and defendant ended up arrested for DWI. The warrantless blood draw couldn’t be based on two prior DWIs as exigency. Moreover, “Accordingly, we decline … Continue reading →
TX1: Comment on refusal to consent here wasn’t prejudicial
The prosecutor commented on defendant’s refusal to consent and defense counsel didn’t object. On this record, there was plenty of evidence of defendant’s knowledge of the drugs such that the error, if it was, was prejudicial to him. Jones v. … Continue reading →