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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)
--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
CA5: Texas deer breeding industry is “closely regulated”
Based on prior case law, “the provisions regulating the [Texas] deer breeder industry are sufficiently ‘extensive’ to place that activity ‘squarely within the class of industries to which Burger applies.’” Therefore, it was a closely regulated industry, and the administrative … Continue reading →
NY3: Trial court should have reopened suppression hearing with affidavit showing guest standing
Defense counsel filed a motion to suppress, and it was denied because defendant did not show he was anything other than a transient guest in the premises. An affidavit from the owner was presented the day of the plea that … Continue reading →
W.D.N.C.: Police gathering IP information via a peer-to-peer connections is legitimate investigative technique
Police gathering of IP information about peer-to-peer networks is a legitimate investigative technique, and it violates no reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Baalerud, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37650 (W.D.N.C. March 25, 2015).* 2255 petitioner’s sentence was increased for … Continue reading →
CA10: Standing to challenge a wiretap doesn’t translate to standing to challenge a search of somebody else’s car based on the wiretap
Standing to challenge a wiretap doesn’t translate to standing to challenge a search of somebody else’s car based on the wiretap. United States v. Ocegueda, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 4867 (10th Cir. March 25, 2015). Defendant consented to a patdown … Continue reading →
IL: Even if def’s cell phone was unlawfully tracked, it wouldn’t void his arrest
The fact police used cell phone tracking information, even if it was illegal, a question not decided, to find defendant didn’t void the search of his person because they clearly had probable cause for his detention and search. (This was … Continue reading →
IN: Pre-Jardines dog sniff of front door suppressed
Defendant had an interlocutory appeal of a search issue, and law of the case controls that. Jardines was, however, decided one month after the appeal, and defendant can raise it on appeal now because it was preserved, and it controls. … Continue reading →
NY3: Voluntarily removing drugs from rectum during visual body search was consent
Defendant was suspected of drug dealing because of intercepted telephone calls and the use of coded words. When he was stopped, officers found Vaseline, and they knew that was used to hide drug evidence in the rectum. They had enough … Continue reading →
E.D.Tenn.: Lack of warning book-in phone was being recorded required suppression under Title III; Fourth Amendment issue not decided
Defendant made a call on a jail phone from the booking area that had no sign or warning on the call that the call was being recorded. The Fourth Amendment generally means that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy … Continue reading →
WA: Ferrier warnings of a right to refuse a search of the home on a knock-and-talk must come before the police enter the house, not after
Washington’s Ferrier warnings of a right to refuse a search of the home on a knock-and-talk must come before the police enter the house, not after. State v. Budd, 2015 Wash. App. LEXIS 439 (March 3, 2015):
IN: Conditioning getting out of a vehicle during a traffic stop on a patdown was valid consent
Unless police have reasonable suspicion that a subject is armed and dangerous, they may generally conduct a pat-down for officer safety only with the subject’s voluntary consent. Here, Defendant asked to step out of his truck during a traffic stop, … Continue reading →
M.D.La.: An interstate bus driver has common authority to consent to search of luggage on his bus[!]
Defendant was a passenger on a Tornado Bus Company bus, a company that hauls primarily Hispanic passengers around the U.S. This trip was from Houston to Atlanta. The bus was stopped in Louisiana for swerving over the line. The driver … Continue reading →
CA11: State court DNA consent finding was reasonable under AEDPA
The 2254 CoA was granted as to a DNA consent after invocation of the right to remain silent in a death case. “As to the DNA consent, Everett has not demonstrated that the Florida Supreme Court’s decision—that the request for … Continue reading →
W.D.Pa.: Five week old information in a weapons case not stale
Because weapons have enduring value to the possessor, a five week delay in using that information to search defendant’s house was not stale. United States v. Korey, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20532 (W.D.Pa. February 20, 2015). Defendant’s wife could consent … Continue reading →
OR: Continuing stop that led to a patdown was unreasonable
Defendant was stopped for a traffic offense, but the officer was more concerned about the passenger being involved in identity theft. After the traffic offense was resolved and the passenger was going to drive, the officer got consent to a … Continue reading →
D.Kan.: The KHP two-step to get consent from a motorist
Defendant was pulled over for driving in the left lane of an empty Interstate highway, which actually violates Kansas law. Defendant was told he was free to leave, and the court describes how the officer tells the defendant he was … Continue reading →
OH3: “[Y]ou’re gonna do what you’re gonna do. Do what you gotta do” was consent to a blood draw
Defendant finally said in apparent exasperation about a blood test: “you’re gonna do what you’re gonna do. Do what you gotta do.” This was a valid consent on the totality. State v. Hosko, 2015-Ohio-570, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 530 (3d … Continue reading →
W.D.Wis.: A wired CI can video a statement of the defendant in his house
Defendant invited a wired CI into his place who video recorded only his conversations with him. This doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment, citing the “false friend” cases. United States v. Thompson, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18600 (W.D. Wis. February 17, … Continue reading →
D.C.Cir.: Affirmance of def conviction for felonious assault on officer was a Heck bar to a Bivens action for his shooting
Plaintiff drove at U.S. Marshals, clipped their car, and fled from them, and they opened fire on him. He was convicted of felonious assault on one of the three officers, and acquitted as to the other two. This was a … Continue reading →
M.D.Tenn.: Consent to search bags off a bus did not include destroying picture frames to search them
Consent to search defendant’s bags when he came off a bus did not include destroying picture frames to look inside them. His failure to object after being held for hours also wasn’t consent. Also, defendant’s invocation of his right to … Continue reading →
D.Kan.: Defendants voluntarily extended the traffic stop
Defendants were stopped in a rental car after pulling off to avoid a ruse checkpoint sign, and then they failed to stop at a stop sign. The officer’s statement to keep their hands in view was not coercive and did … Continue reading →