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- VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would not be suppressed
- NM: Trial court’s finding of consent is reversed because the court engaged in its own internet investigation beyond what the parties provided
- Reason: No Warrant, No Suspicion, No Problem: Flock and Border Cellphone Searches Excluded From 4th Amendment Rules
- Reason: Flock’s Gunfire Alerts Raise a New Fourth Amendment Question
- N.D.Ohio: Car in driveway was on curtilage and plain view prohibited
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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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: Search incident
W.D.Ky.: Text messages to 11 year old boy for sex was justification for warrantless seizure of cell phone
The seizure of defendant’s cell phone incident to his arrest was reasonable. Defendant was accused by an 11 year old boy of sexual conduct on Fort Campbell, and the FBI and Army CID investigated and got enough information to have … Continue reading
NC: Open container in plain view permitted a search incident for more evidence
Defendant’s stop led to plain view of an open container. That justified a search incident for more because, after all, the console could hold beer cans, even if the officer could have merely issued a citation. State v. Fizovic, 2015 … Continue reading
IL: Officer staying on porch after completion of business was unauthorized, and def couldn’t be conviction of obstruction after that
Defendant’s obstructing a peace officer conviction had to be reversed because, while an officer could initially enter defendant’s porch, once he found no evidence of a crime, staying there was an unauthorized act which defendant could lawfully obstruct. People v. … Continue reading
OR: Probable cause for arrest for burglary and furtive movements toward backpack made its search subject to search incident
The officer had objective evidence that the juvenile was involved in a burglary and a theft of an Xbox. When confronted he acted furtively and seemed like he was distancing himself from a backpack. That justified a search of the … Continue reading
GA: Mistaken belief def was on probation made search invalid; no GFE in GA, either; suppressed
The officer mistakenly believed that defendant was still on probation, but he wasn’t. The probation search was unlawful, and the good faith exception doesn’t apply in Georgia. State v. New, 2015 Ga. App. LEXIS 115 (March 12, 2015). The officer … Continue reading
WA: Search incident of a locked box in a backpack unreasonable
Defendant was arrested on outstanding warrants. He had a backpack on him that was searched incident to arrest that had knives attached outside which were “weapons” under the city code because of blade length. A combination locked box was inside … Continue reading
GA: Search of passenger’s purse in restaurant, after driver and she walked inside, for saying she didn’t know where he was was unreasonable
The officer here ran the tags of a truck and determined that the owner was wanted. By the time he was ready to make the stop, the driver and passenger had stopped and were walking into a restaurant. He came … Continue reading
CA11: Automobile exception applied, so Gant argument moot
Defendant’s Gant almost hypertechnical search incident argument fails because the automobile exception applied in any event, so the search was good. United States v. Alston, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 2367 (11th Cir. February 17, 2015). Officers in Memphis were saturating … Continue reading
NY1: Search incident of a jacket on the trunk of police car when def handcuffed and inside car was unreasonable
“In this appeal, we are asked to determine whether the police lawfully searched defendant’s jacket, which was lying on the trunk of a police car, while defendant was sitting handcuffed in the vehicle and numerous police officers were present at … Continue reading
MN: The search incident doctrine permits a breathalyzer test in a DUI case, so a refusal charge doesn’t violate a fundamental right
The search incident doctrine permits a breathalyzer test in a DUI case. Thus, a refusal charge doesn’t violate a fundamental right. State v. Bernard, 2015 Minn. LEXIS 46 (February 11, 2015) (5-2):
MO: Disturbing the peace arrest supports a search incident of shopping bag[!]
Officers had probable cause to arrest defendant for disturbing the police for shouting profanities at the police within earshot of children, and the observers were appalled and startled by it all. The search incident of his plastic shopping bag was … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Handcuffing a defendant alone does not bar a search incident in close proximity to him
Handcuffing a defendant alone does not bar a search incident in close proximity to him; there are plenty of things that a handcuffed defendant can still do. United States v. Cushnie, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178919 (S.D. N.Y. December 31, … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: USMJ erroneously puts burden on def to show inventory invalid
Defendant was seen drunk in the grass behind a liquor store and then crawling to his car by a citizen informant who called the police. An officer arrived and arrested defendant for DUI. The vehicle was properly towed because it … Continue reading
NY: Search incident to arrest requires an arrest
There has to be an arrest that occurred or is going to occur to justify a search incident to arrest. Here, there was no intent to arrest until the search turned up something, so the search is invalid. People v. … Continue reading
CA9: Cell phone is not a “container” under the automobile exception
In a cell phone search case submitted pre-Riley, the Ninth Circuit applies Riley and also holds that the proffered exigencies of the automobile exception and search incident do not apply to a search of the photographs and text messages on … Continue reading
CA11: Exactly when the officer found out about the arrest warrant for defendant when the search incident occurred really doesn’t matter; there was a warrant
Exactly when the officer found out about the warrant for defendant when the search incident occurred really doesn’t matter. “A valid warrant for Freeman’s arrest existed when Officer Miller searched him. Regardless of whether the dispatcher had confirmed the warrant … Continue reading
DE: A frisk has to be based on reasonable suspicion; protocol not enough
A frisk during a traffic stop, without reasonable suspicion and based solely on protocol, violated Terry. “All parties agree that it was permissible for the officers to stop and search the vehicle. There was a broken headlight, and the officers’ … Continue reading
W.D.Wis.: Search of def’s car essentially was based on curiosity; no warrant exception applies; suppressed
The search of defendant’s car couldn’t be justified as a search incident or an inventory, and the testimony is woefully inadequate to support either. Essentially, the officer testified, and acted at the scene like, he could search the car with … Continue reading