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- CA11: Yahoo not a govt actor in scanning emails for CSAM
- Treatise 25% off through 7/8
- SCOTUS: Geofence warrants governed by Carpenter and are a search; remanded for resolution of issues (interesting take on third party doctrine, too)
- The Guardian: ‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears
- W.D.N.Y.: Possibility of co-conspirators in mass murder justified emergency disclosure request to Apple, Verizon, and Facebook
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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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General (many free):
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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (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)
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Section 1983 Blog -
"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: Emergency / exigency
S.D.Ind.: Spending money is not an exigent circumstance justifying a warrantless search to recover the money
Defendant spending money is not an exigent circumstance justifying a warrantless search to recover the money. United States v. Jett, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13544 (S.D. Ind. Feb. 1, 2017):
ID: Driving on a suspended DL supports a search incident of the person
The officer knew defendant had a suspended DL, and seeing him drive to a convenience store justified his detention and arrest. A frisk incident to the arrest produced drug paraphernalia which was validly found. State v. Lee, 2017 Ida. App. … Continue reading
LA1: DNA testing for paternity testing is governed by the 4A
Court ordered DNA testing for paternity is a search under the Fourth Amendment, but it is reasonable. L.J.D. v. M.V.S, 2017 La. App. LEXIS 107 n.8 (La.App. 1 Cir. Jan. 25, 2017). The police knew three weeks ahead of time … Continue reading
KY: Blood and debris trail to def’s open door and his refusal to talk about who was inside or what happened justified entry
Exigent circumstances justified the officers’ entry into defendant’s home. There was a blood trail that did not go all the way back to his apartment, but there was a debris trail, too, he was badly hurt and bleeding, and he … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Entry into the curtilage was justified by exigency of a shots fired call
Defendant’s next door neighbor called 911 to report shots fired at defendant’s house. When they arrived, officers set up a perimeter and entry into the curtilage was valid based on exigency, and a cartridge case was seen in plain view. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Sex trafficking a minor in a hotel room was exigency for warrantless entry on PC
Defendant rented his hotel room under a known alias of his for which he had an ID card. That gave him standing. The exigency of sex trafficking a minor justified the officer’s warrantless entry, and it’s apparent there was probable … Continue reading
D.V.I.: Def’s failure to move or respond to officers shouting then pounding on windows justified opening door under emergency exception
Defendant’s failure to respond at all to officers standing next to his stopped vehicle justified opening the door under the emergency exception. United States v. Nisbett, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4067 (D.V.I. Jan. 11, 2017):
OH8: 911 call about a door open and a possible break-in justified police entry to check
A minister called the police to report the door of a warehouse across the street was open, and he felt something was wrong and it must be a break-in. The police respond and enter and see a marijuana grow operation. … Continue reading
CA9: 911 call about suicide by overdose justified entry
Police received a 911 call about a suicide by overdose, and the entry into the premises was reasonable. Ames v. King County, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 660 (9th Cir. Jan. 13, 2017). Claimant failed to make a Fourth Amendment claim … Continue reading
W.D.La.: Arrest of two in a check forgery scam created exigency for search of hotel room from which they operated with others
Defendant used a foil to cash checks for them, claiming it was for tax purposes. They turned out fairly quickly to be forged. Police found the foil and he told them all about it, and he said the same two … Continue reading
PA: Lifting floor mat in protective weapons search of car was reasonable
Lifting the floor mat during a protective weapons search of a car is reasonable. Defendant’s IAC claim fails because the search was valid. Commonwealth v. Watley, 2016 PA Super 311, 2016 Pa. Super. LEXIS 810 (Dec. 29, 2016). A 911 … Continue reading
TX DWIs: RS for cont’d detention to get certified officer there; no justification shown for failure to get a SW for draw
There was reasonable suspicion of DWI for defendant’s detention for an additional 21 minutes to get an officer there certified to conduct an HGN test. The delay for was legitimate law enforcement and investigative purposes. Cagle v. State, 2016 Tex. … Continue reading
NY2: Burglar alarm wasn’t license to enter when objective facts at scene belied emergency
Police responded to a burglar alarm in Nassau County. At the house, they found the defendant working under a car. They inquired, and he claimed to be the son of the homeowner. He showed them his keys. He said he … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Both protective sweep and emergency aid justifications fail for lack of objective facts somebody else was there
Where there are no articulable facts somebody else might be present in the house, the protective sweep doctrine can’t be relied on. Likewise with the emergency aid doctrine. Here there was a 911 hang up call, but the critical fact … Continue reading
DE: CI reported arrest warrant for def so he was arrested; no warrant, however, so search incident was invalid
A CI told the police that defendant had a warrant for his arrest. Without checking, the police arrested. There was no warrant, and the search incident to arrest is void. State v. Rodriguez, 2016 Del. Super. LEXIS 642 (Dec. 21, … Continue reading
OH11: Uncorroborated anonymous call about suicide threat brought police to house; entry unjustified
Defendant was arrested for obstructing because he told officers to come back with a warrant after they showed up at his house at midnight to check on defendant’s son. The police received an anonymous call that defendant’s son had a … Continue reading
CA10: USDA officers committing a break-in without exigency to conduct an inspection violated 4A
USDA inspectors breaking into plaintiff’s wildlife preserve to check on animals that the previous day the preserve said would go to the veterinarian the next day stated a Fourth Amendment claim under Bivens. At the time of the entry, the … Continue reading
CA9 (en banc): Where exigency for CPS worker to take child wasn’t really clear at time, she gets qualified immunity
At the time of this seizure of an infant from the parents in 2008, it was clearly established that child protection workers could not remove children from the parents without a warrant or exigency, but not something like these facts … Continue reading