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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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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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--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (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: Dog sniff
NY: Dog sniff of the person is a search
A dog sniff of the person is a search. There is a greater zone of privacy for the person than an inanimate object. People v. Butler, 2023 NY Slip Op 06468, 2023 N.Y. LEXIS 2023 (Dec. 19, 2023), aff’g and … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Expert saying drug dog not reliable not a Franks issue
Defendant’s expert report that the drug dog here wasn’t reliable doesn’t make a Franks challenge. Besides, there was good faith as to it. United States v. Estevez-Castillo, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 221601 (D.N.J. Dec. 13, 2023). That officers created the … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: A Terry stop can occur for civil infractions
A Terry stop can occur for noncriminal offenses, such as traffic citations. Here it was for vaping in the wrong place. United States v. Perez, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 218640 (N.D. Okla. Dec. 8, 2023). Volunteering one is armed “when … Continue reading
D.Utah: Questions about anything of “concern” or “illegal” inside vehicle were not about officer safety
The traffic stop was valid, but the extension of the stop was not, and defendant’s statements during the stop are suppressed. “Here, the officers extended the traffic stop to ask whether there was anything ‘of concern’ or ‘illegal’ inside of … Continue reading
AR: Probation search waiver can be required in suspended sentences, too
The state probation search waiver statute doesn’t refer to suspended sentences, but the court has the power to impose it there, too, even without a supervision requirement. Johnson v. State, 2023 Ark. App. 509 (Nov. 8, 2023). The dog sniff … Continue reading
CA9: Drug dog entering vehicle after alert not unreasonable
The drug dog entering defendant’s vehicle after the alert is not unreasonable. An Idaho state CSLI warrant served outside of Idaho was not an issue for federal court. Even if the court agreed that there was a technical violation of … Continue reading
TX5: Even with legalized hemp, smell of MJ from car is still PC
The smell of marijuana from a vehicle is probable cause even if legal hemp can be mistaken for it. State v. Gonzales, 2023 Tex. App. LEXIS 7827 (Tex. App. – Dallas Oct. 12, 2023). Plaintiff’s claim for false arrest for … Continue reading
AR: Dog alerted outside before it went in open door to sniff again
A drug dog alerted on defendant’s car before the dog approached an open door and sniffed inside, too. The outside alert made the inside alert reasonable. Fleming v. State, 2023 Ark. App. 439 (Oct. 4, 2023). Officers received an anonymous … Continue reading
S.D.Ind. Warrant for video surveillance required under Title III
A warrant for CCTV surveillance of the defendant came under the wiretap statute, Title III, and necessity and probable cause was shown. United States v. Jones, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178457 (S.D. Ind. Oct. 4, 2023). The totality of information … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Drug dog breaking plane of the car window is a trespass and entry without PC
The drug dog broke the plane of the window, and that’s a trespass. There was no probable cause at that point, and the R&R is rejected. The motion to suppress is granted. United States v. Buescher, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
NE: Franks challenge that included allegations that alternative suspects weren’t identified fails
Defendant’s Franks challenge that included allegations that alternative suspects weren’t identified fails. State v. Garcia, 315 Neb. 74 (Sep. 7, 2023). There was no reasonable suspicion to detain defendant for a dog sniff. He answered all the officer’s questions, and … Continue reading
OH7: Anticipatory warrant for prostitution
The anticipatory warrant here was for prostitution. State v. Zhang, 2023-Ohio-3173, 2023 Ohio App. LEXIS 3129 (7th Dist. Sep. 7, 2023). “The use of a drug-sniffing dog during a routine traffic stop that does not prolong the stop does not … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Govt’s learning of another potential crime from “sneak and peak” SW wasn’t entrapment
The government suspected defendant of acquiring a pill press and got a sneak and peak warrant to look around and photograph inside his place. Later, they got a search warrant for the place and seized drugs. The government’s knowledge of … Continue reading
D.Conn.: False dog alert may not mean anything
Alleged false alerts of a drug dog may not be at all because the dog could have smelled residual odor of drugs from some other time. United States v. Manson, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 138590 (D. Conn. Aug. 9, 2023) … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: A place probationer spent some nights wasn’t his official residence for probation search
Probation staff and the government failed to prove that the place searched under a probation search condition was defendant’s place. He was permitted to stay with relatives on occasion but those were not his residences. The search is suppressed. United … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: BIA officer conducted high volume traffic stops for drug interdiction
The officer here was a Bureau of Indian Affairs highway officer with four states in his purview. He admittedly stops a lot of motorists, and he also does drug interdiction. He stopped defendant for following too close, engaged in conversation, … Continue reading
OH8: Dog alert on a car permits search of containers in it
A dog alert on a car was probable cause for a search of it and containers, here a backpack. State v. Kumuhone, 2023-Ohio-2586, 2023 Ohio App. LEXIS 2554 (8th Dist. July 27, 2023). “The contemporaneous tip, the visual details that … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: In a murder for hire case, a two year delay between the killing and the search didn’t make it presumably stale
In a murder for hire case, a two year delay between the homicide and the search warrant for defendant’s premises did not make the warrant presumably stale. The warrant sought digital evidence, and there were four conspirators and it spanned … Continue reading