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Recent Posts
- MD: Hot pursuit can be days later, here exigent CSLI to find him
- D.D.C.: Alleged illegal arrest doesn’t void DNA SW
- S.D.Fla.: Inventory that omitted “miscellaneous personal items” was not unreasonable
- CA4: That ptf charged with witness intimidation didn’t do it again wasn’t material for Franks
- CO: Not 4A or state constitutional violation for govt to access def’s computer via peer-to-peer sharing with BitTorrent software
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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)
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
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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: Automobile exception
S.D.Ga.: Where def lost 4A claim on merits, he can’t relitigate it as an IAC claim
“Petitioner already presented his suppression argument to the Eleventh Circuit, and it was rejected. He now attempts to relitigate the claim by cloaking it in an ineffective assistance claim. However, Petitioner fails to establish Mr. Crowder’s decision not to pursue … Continue reading
D.N.H.: State liquor agents’ entry into public areas of licensee was reasonable as under administrative authority
NH state liquor agents didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment by entering public space of a regulated establishment to issue verbal warnings. The state supreme court has already held that liquor licensees were highly regulated businesses. E. Coast Serv. Indus. Co. … Continue reading
TX7: Trial court’s initially misstating burden of proof was on def was corrected in the ultimate findings
The trial court first stated that the burden on consent was on the defendant, but the ultimate findings of fact and conclusions of law concluded that the state proved it by sufficient evidence. This corrected the previous mistake, and the … Continue reading
CA5: Text messages on state employee’s state-issued cell phone were reasonably searched under Quon
The search of text messages on a state administrative enforcement officer’s state issued cell phone was reasonable under City of Ontario v. Quon. Tingle v. Hebert, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 26057 (5th Cir. Aug. 17, 2020). Defendant’s renting a car … Continue reading
CA1: Inventory was shown to be investigative; suppression affirmed
“All in all, it seems inescapable that the officers seized Del Rosario’s car so that they could search it for evidence of a crime, and that they later sought to justify the search by invoking the community-caretaking exception. And while … Continue reading
CA6: Def showed no REP in package with a fake name sent to his house
Defendant showed no reasonable expectation of privacy in a package addressed to a fake name at his address. United States v. James, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 22766 (6th Cir. July 21, 2020). Defendant failed to show that the challenged statements … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Automobile exception search doesn’t have to be done promptly
Where the stop and seizure of the vehicle was with probable cause, its automobile exception search could occur later. United States v. Brown, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120634 (W.D. Ky. July 9, 2020).* A private person finding defendant’s SD card … Continue reading
TN: Issue of issuing magistrate’s jurisdiction moot by automobile exception
Defendant’s dispute over whether the judge issuing the search warrant had jurisdiction over the vehicle from which DNA was taken because it was located in a different county is moot. The officers had probable cause in investigating a bloody homicide, … Continue reading
TN: Without findings of fact, the appellate court can review the dashcam video and draw its own conclusions
The trial court didn’t make findings of fact, so the appellate court can review the dashcam video and draw its own conclusions. “The trial court reviewed the testimony of the only witness and made an implicit finding that his testimony … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Open container in car justified search
An open container violation is an offense justifying a search of a vehicle for more. United States v. Hoskins, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90256 (E.D. Wis. May 22, 2020).* The stop reached the level of reasonable suspicion before dispatch responded, … Continue reading
NY3: With PC and automobile exception, any hidden compartment can be searched
A probable cause search of a vehicle includes any hidden compartments. Here, they were apparent to the officers. People v. Kalabakas, 2020 NY Slip Op 02954, 2020 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3066 (3d Dept. May 21, 2020).
NE: Def’s purse could be searched under automobile exception even though it had already been removed from car
Defendant’s purse was validly searched under the automobile exception after the backup officer smelled marijuana coming from the car. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t in the car at the time of the search. State v. Lang, 305 Neb. 726 … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Vehicle already searched under the automobile exception can be searched again at police station
A vehicle already searched under the automobile exception can be searched again after it is removed to the police lot. United States v. Mazon, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64813 (D. N.M. Apr. 13, 2020). The Texas trial court didn’t err … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Renting a motel room doesn’t make their parking lot your curtilage
Just because defendant’s girlfriend rented a motel room and he was with her doesn’t make the motel parking lot their curtilage. “[N]ot even a hotel’s owner, to say nothing of its transitory guests, has a reasonable expectation of privacy in … Continue reading
D.N.J.: There were material misrepresentations in the affidavit for a vehicle SW, but they are mooted by the automobile exception
The validity of the search warrant for defendant’s car was irrelevant where the automobile exception applied. Therefore, defendant’s Franks challenge is moot despite the fact there were material misrepresentations in the affidavit because the officers were trying to keep a … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Although stop might have been unreasonable, def fled from car and abandoned his drugs
Defendant’s stop likely was without reasonable suspicion, but he fled from the car after the stop and tossed a bag of drugs under another car. That was abandonment. United States v. Wilkins, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58058 (D.Mass. Apr. 2, … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: SW for apt and seizure of computers and cell phones includes power to search them later
A search warrant to search an apartment and seize computers and cell phones includes the power to search them later. United States v. Quinonez, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55789 (S.D. Fla. Mar. 30, 2020). The officer’s statement that the CI’s … Continue reading
CADC: AE applied to boxes police reasonably believed contained evidence that was being removed from the premises
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not moving to suppress the seizure of boxes of evidence from defendant’s car. It was reasonable for the officers to believe defendant was loading the car to move evidence to hide it when the police … Continue reading
OH5: Search was valid as inventory and AE
The vehicle search was valid as an inventory. When a weapon was found in the console, it was valid under the automobile exception. State v. Fawcett, 2020-Ohio-1004, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 925 (5th Dist. Mar. 12, 2020). The county’s insurance … Continue reading