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- Reason: Iowa Voters Don’t Want Police or Flock Tracking Their Cars. Politicians Are Still Catching Up.
- Reason: The Founders Warned Against Secret Arrests. ICE Is Testing That Principle.
- UT: Lack of a bodycam doesn’t make officer not believable
- W.D.La.: Gant search incident permitted for arrest for violation of supervised release terms
- VA: Search incident between def’s shorts and underwear was reasonable
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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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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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
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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
S.D.N.Y.: Riley issue preserved and came down after verdict, but harmless on this record
The motion to suppress a cell phone search under the automobile exception was filed and heard in November before Riley, and defendant was convicted. Before sentencing, Riley came down, and the court asked for briefs. The court concludes the search … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Apartment was searched with a warrant; def’s car down street was searched under automobile exception
Officers had probable cause to search defendant’s car for drugs under the automobile exception. They had a search warrant for his apartment but it didn’t include the car which was parked down the street. They had, however, plenty of information … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: 911 call about possible OD permitted police walk through to look for cause
Police and the fire department responded to a 911 call involving the unexplained death of a 25 year old woman. Once inside, they called the coroner, and then walked through to check for possible causes, finding in plain view cash, … Continue reading
CA6: Exigency supported seizure of animals from pet store, but not its records
Animal control officers seized animals and records from a pet store in Chattanooga for lack of water, food, and proper care. The animal seizure was valid and did not violate any clearly established right. The business record seizure, however, could … Continue reading
PA: Nighttime entry onto the curtilage and then into the home for a stolen firearm wasn’t justified by exigency
Nighttime entry onto the curtilage and then into the home for a stolen firearm wasn’t justified by exigency. Suppression ordered. Commonwealth v. Bowmaster, 2014 PA Super 199, 2014 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2906 (September 17, 2014):
CA3: Neither SI, exigency, nor protective sweep permitted re-entry to locate gun
A protective sweep had already occurred and defendant had been removed from his house in handcuffs and the house secured. A gun was suspected as unaccounted for, so they went back to look for it, and this was unreasonable. The … Continue reading
NJ: Emergency entry valid despite two hour delay attempting to locate victim
The entry into defendant’s home was justified under the emergency aid doctrine on a finding of blood despite a two hour delay where the police were calling hospitals trying to locate the defendant to avoid the entry unless it was … Continue reading
CA9: “brutal and physically invasive” warrantless rectal search in jail should have been suppressed
In a “brutal and physically invasive” warrantless rectal search in jail, the motion to suppress should have been granted. He was handcuffed, Tased, and surrounded by five officers, and exigent circumstances were lacking. United States v. Fowlkes, 770 F.3d 748 … Continue reading
CA6: Ptf’s own video of stop supported that his arrest was without PC
Plaintiff in this § 1983 case videotaped his own stop because he was concerned of continued harassment by one particular officer. The video shows no factual basis for plaintiff’s arrest for “menacing” or disorderly conduct in his interaction with the … Continue reading
OH9: Merely having open garage door for a couple of days didn’t warrant emergency aid entry
The emergency aid exception did not warrant entry into defendant’s home and finding marijuana. Neighbors reported that the garage door had been open for a couple of days, and that was unusual. There was no sign of breaking and entering, … Continue reading
OR: Exigent circumstances applies to animals in distress
Exigent circumstances permitted an entry onto property to seize and emaciated horse and get it to a veterinarian for care. State v. Fessenden, 2014 Ore. LEXIS 560 (August 7, 2014). The stop was 21 minutes long, but it was justified … Continue reading
WI: When a probation term includes no computers, it is reasonable for a probation officer to search one found in the home
When a probation term includes no computers, it is reasonable for a probation officer to search one found in the home. This one had child pornography on it. State v. Purtell, 2014 WI 101, 2014 Wisc. LEXIS 538 (August 1, … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Defendant’s denial he had an ID didn’t warrant searching his wallet
Just because defendant was nervous and denied having ID when it was apparent he had a wallet, a search of his wallet wasn’t justified. United States v. Garcia-Garza, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105586 (D. Minn. June 30, 2014):
D.Colo.: Photo of property in SW application cures address typo
A typo in the address, 1557 v. 1577, was not material where the application for the search warrant had a photograph of the property involved. United States v. Padilla, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104023 (D. Colo. July 30, 2014). Exigent … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: None of four exceptions to warrant requirement supported search of jacket in another room
The search of defendant’s coat in a separate room from him could not be justified under any exception to the warrant requirement: protective sweep, emergency/exigency, Terry frisk, or search incident. Defendant did finally break away from the officers, too, making … Continue reading
KS: Outgoing prison letters may be searched
A prison inmate’s outgoing letters are not protected by the Fourth Amendment since Stroud (1919). State v. Burnett, 2014 Kan. LEXIS 429 (July 25, 2014) A brief hand-to-hand transaction may have been innocent, but it was enough for a trained … Continue reading
AZ: Open door in area known for string of burglaries justified entry
Officers came to defendant’s house looking for somebody else as a suspect because of a significant number of home burglaries in the area. They found a gate, a 120′ driveway, and opened the gate. About 15′ in they noticed that … Continue reading
CA11: No exigency present on a domestic call to justify warrantless entry into home
No reasonable officer could conclude on these facts that there was exigency for a warrantless entry. There was no evidence that actual violence was occurring or threatened. Therefore, qualified immunity was denied. Walters v. Freeman, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 13540 … Continue reading