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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)
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--Outline of 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: Emergency / exigency
OR automobile exception requires vehicle must be mobile when first encountered in connection with a crime
To justify the automobile exception in Oregon, the vehicle must be mobile when first encountered in connection with a crime. If parked, a warrant must be sought. State v. Belander, 274 Ore. App. 167, 2015 Ore. App. LEXIS 1175 (September … Continue reading
TN: Inconvenience in getting a blood draw warrant is not exigency
Defendant was in a single car accident that killed his passenger. When he was in the hospital getting treatment, there was a warrantless blood draw. The state couldn’t rely on the implied consent statute where it relied on exigency at … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Gunshots inside a house, screaming, and blood outside was exigent circumstances
Gunshots inside a house, screaming, and blood outside was exigent circumstances. [Yet it was argued it wasn’t. Hey, sometimes we have to.] United States v. Vanhorn, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 127261 (E.D.Tex. September 21, 2015). A doctor was denied qualified … Continue reading
DE: Reasonable to order all passengers out during a stop of the car and show IDs
It is reasonable during a traffic stop to order all the passengers out of a car and ask for their IDs and this is not a seizure beyond the initial traffic stop itself. Reasonable suspicion developed after that for a … Continue reading
VA: Smell of MJ from apartment led to knock-and-talk and exigency
Officers on bike patrol encountered the strong smell of burning marijuana, and they quickly were able to pinpoint the location as defendant’s apartment. They went to the door for a knock-and-talk and defendant’s mother answered the door. They explained why … Continue reading
D.S.C.: Gun in plain view in a car at a disturbance call could be seized to neutralize it
Responding to a 911 hangup call, the officer came upon a group of people at that address that split into two. He looked in a vehicle and saw a firearm, and he could ask about it and, under the circumstances, … Continue reading
D.P.R.: 6-8 hour old information a fugitive was in a house was too old to be relied upon for entry into home; no exigency
“[T]he officers’ belief that the fugitive was hiding in a home in Trinidad’s neighborhood consists of — to our knowledge — an imprecise, uncorroborated tip from a confidential informant whose reliability this court ignores. In fact, officer Negron readily admitted … Continue reading
CA11: Knock-and-talk for CP led to plain view of computer running the P2P software and exigent circumstances
The warrantless seizure of defendant’s computer for child pornography was reasonable. Officers using Ares P2P software found CP exchange at an IP address that came back to a Mrs. Oates who was a 60 year old grandmother with no criminal … Continue reading
D.S.C.: UnMirandized admission of gun in car created exigent circumstances
It was reasonable for the officer to ask about defendant having a firearm in the car when responding to a 911 call without Mirandizing him under its “public safety exception.” When defendant admitted there was a gun, the officer had … Continue reading
CA6: During a long standoff, police sent for coffee and granola bars but no warrant before a sniper killed the suicidal defendant before he could kill himself
Police engaged in a long standoff with a suicidal subject whose only alleged crime was to fire a gun into the woods which he thought were unoccupied. Every window in the house was broken by tear gas canisters, and he … Continue reading
NJ: “Our view of this testimony is that it represents a profound misunderstanding of the ‘narrow scope of the exigent-circumstance exception’ to the warrant requirement.”
“Our view of this testimony is that it represents a profound misunderstanding of the ‘narrow scope of the exigent-circumstance exception’ to the warrant requirement.” Brown v. State, 2015 N.J. Super. LEXIS 154 (September 11, 2015):
OH2: The driver matched the description of the owner of the vehicle, so ordering him out was reasonable when a warrant came back for owner
Defendant’s LPN showed that the owner was the same person who had committed criminal trespass. The driver matched the general description of the owner, so that justified getting the driver out. State v. Goines, 2015-Ohio-3505, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 3427 … Continue reading
MD: Dragnet search of 21 apts looking for a shooter was unreasonable
For an exigent entry into a dwelling, probable cause is required. Here, police intended to search every apartment in two buildings looking for a shooter, and there was no probable cause as to any particular unit. They searched 21 apartments … Continue reading
OR: It’s the state’s burden to argue any exceptions to the warrant requirement
It’s the state’s burden to argue any exceptions to the warrant requirement. State v. Maciel-Figueroa, 273 Ore. App. 298, 356 P.3d 674 (2015) (under submission 2½ years), aff’d, State v. Maciel-Figueroa, 361 Ore. 163, 2017 Ore. LEXIS 166 (March 2, … Continue reading
ID: Consent to a BAC test in the face of the sanctions for refusal is not unconstitutional coercion
Consent to a BAC test in the face of the sanctions for refusal is not unconstitutional coercion. State v. Riendeau, 2015 Ida. LEXIS 218 (August 24, 2015). Exigency of looking for the victim of a serious crime justified the entry … Continue reading
OH3: Home burglar alarm company call and partially open door is exigency
Home burglar alarm brought the police via the alarm company. They found the door cracked open, and that was exigent circumstances for an entry. State v. Foster, 2015-Ohio-3401, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 3316 (3d Dist. August 24, 2015). The certified … Continue reading
MN: Likelihood defendant would be flown to trauma center was exigency for warrantless blood draw
The seriousness of defendant’s injuries made his DUI blood draw exigent. It was likely he would be flown by helicopter to a trauma hospital shortly. State v. Stavish, 2015 Minn. LEXIS 470 (August 19, 2015):
OR: Search incident to arrest warrant found on unlawful detention suppressed; no attenuation
An unlawful detention without reasonable suspicion led to a warrants check, finding a warrant, and then a search. Since the stop was unreasonable, the finding of the warrant could not be attenuated from it. State v. Benning, 273 Ore. App. … Continue reading
CO: Providing alcohol to a lot of minors justified warrantless entry into house
Police received neighborhood reports of “hundreds” of teenagers at a house party with plenty of underage drinking. Several officers responded and they saw the alcohol through windows and encountered really drunk teenagers coming out. Once the police were discovered, there … Continue reading