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Recent Posts
- 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 $ -
Research Links:
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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (2012)
ACLU on privacy
Privacy Foundation
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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
E.D.Mo.: 911 call of burglary in progress and open door with blood justified entry
911 received a burglary in progress report, and officers responded finding the door open and damaged, blood on the broken window, and the home alarm going off. Exigent circumstances permitted the entry because it was reasonable to infer that the … Continue reading
D.V.I.: Citizen informant’s tip was corroborated by important details and justified stop
The citizen informant’s tip defendant was the person wanted in a carjacking was alone not enough to make a stop, but here it was corroborated by significant details. “Accordingly, considering the totality of the circumstances in this case, the Court … Continue reading
OH8: Working meth lab found on execution of arrest warrant was exigency
Officers at defendant’s house to execute an arrest warrant had exigent circumstances when they found a probable working methamphetamine lab. State v. Maust, 2016-Ohio-3171, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS 2101 (8th Dist. May 26, 2016). Defendant’s stop was justified by his … Continue reading
TX: Two cases on exigency for warrantless blood draw for DUI
Cole v. State, 2016 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 84 (May 25, 2016) (dissent), found exigency, reversing the court of appeals. Defendant here drove 110 mph down a city street, ran a red light, and the ensuing accident resulted in a … Continue reading
D.Haw.: False alert package was opened didn’t nullify reasonable belief of exigent circumstances
The package had a GPS and a trigger “alarm” or alert for when it was opened. Here, however, the trigger alert was subject to failure if the package was dropped with sufficient force. Officers assembled outside the apartment, and the … Continue reading
MN: Police had exigency to seize cell phone during murder investigation
Police were interviewing defendant in a murder case. Once her story started making no sense anymore, an officer seized her phone and then applied for a warrant to search it. The officer had exigent circumstances to seize the phone to … Continue reading
IN: Def mom’s arrest outside of home permitted officers to enter to check on unattended young children
Defendant was stopped at night on the way to the store for milk for her kids for morning, and she was arrested and searched because she smelled of marijuana. She told the officers about the children at home alone. The … Continue reading
CA10: “not every domestic call justifies a warrantless entry,” but this one objectively did
“Although not every domestic call justifies a warrantless entry, see id. at 1244 (rejecting ‘a special rule for domestic calls because they are inherently violent’), the officers had information in addition to the call that indicated McCoy’s girlfriend’s safety could … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Domestic violence call wasn’t immediately before police arrival, but there was no objective evidence danger had dissipated either
The officer here had a reasonable belief that there had recently been a domestic battery on the premises, the door was open, and no one was visible. “Thus, there was no objective evidence to suggest that any imminent threat posed … Continue reading
KS: State gets benefit of GFE in DUI cases in a post-McNeely stop but before state supreme court ruled
While McNeely was decided in April 2013 and defendant’s DWI stop was in September 2013, the state supreme court had not held the implied consent statute unconstitutional until later. Therefore, the good faith exception applied. State v. Kraemer, 2016 Kan. … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Def knew police were “on his tail” that he possessed CP, and that authorized warrantless seizure
The record supports the conclusion that defendant, a probationer, knew that the police were “on his tail” that he possessed child pornography and expressed concern about finding child pornography on his electronics. Thus, the police acted reasonably in seizing a … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: Warrantless entry into house was reasonable for officer safety and to prevent destruction of evidence
Officers acted reasonably in entering defendant’s house without a warrant to both prevent destruction of evidence and protect the safety of the officers. United States v. Aguirre, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50236 (N.D. Okla. April 14, 2016):
MO: Driver had standing because passenger was owner of car
Defendant was driving his girlfriend’s car, and she was the passenger. Stopped for a traffic offense, the officer found a warrant from another town, but advised that they didn’t want him arrested on it. The paperwork on the car was … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Denying ownership of phone and knowledge of password was a lack of REP
There were exigent circumstances for seizure of defendant’s cell phone because of the possibility of the phone being remotely erased or thrown away. Then defendant denied knowledge of the password or ownership of the phone, and that showed a lack … Continue reading
OH5: Entry permitted by 911 call of unresponsive person; protective sweep factually unjustified
A 911 call about an unresponsive man was justification for a warrantless entry into defendant’s apartment, but no facts justified a protective sweep once inside. Heroin in bedroom suppressed. State v. Levengood, 2016-Ohio-1340, 2016 Ohio App. LEXIS 1227 (5th Dist. … Continue reading
IA: While no “hot pursuit” of DUI suspect into his house, def’s belligerent attitude justified exigency for entry
Defendant was driving under the influence, having run into a building, and the police were called. When officers got to defendant’s home, he was somewhat belligerent, and the police ultimately entered the house. Distinguishing Welsh v. Wisconsin and admitting there … Continue reading
CA3: Entry for arrest was virtual hot pursuit; door opened on knock
An off-duty officer witnessed a robbery at a 7-Eleven at 4:30 am and followed the masked man out on the street where the mask was removed, and he got a look at the robber’s face. He followed to a duplex … Continue reading
CA9: 911 domestic abuse call from woman didn’t justify entry when she answered door and questions
The police entry into the house on a 911 call from a woman about a domestic abuse call wasn’t justified when she answered the door and their questions and wasn’t hurt and didn’t seem scared. United States v. Harris, 2016 … Continue reading
OR: Emergency aid doctrine permitted entry, but search had to stop when it was shown dissipated
The emergency aid exception to the warrant requirement justified officers’ warrantless entry into defendant’s home because there was a report of yelling and sounds of possible hitting, defendant was intoxicated, uncooperative and belligerent to the officers, and he repeatedly lied … Continue reading