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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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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (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: Automobile exception
Constitution Daily: Supreme Court gets ready for “long conference” today re Collins v. Virginia (pet. pending)
Constitution Daily: Supreme Court gets ready for “long conference” today SCOTUSBlog: Issue: Whether the Fourth Amendment’s automobile exception permits a police officer, uninvited and without a warrant, to enter private property, approach a house and search a vehicle parked a … Continue reading
OR: Vehicle didn’t have to be seen moving before stop for automobile exception to apply (state constitution)
Defendant’s car didn’t have to be seen moving at the time of the stop for the automobile exception to apply. State v. Von Flue, 287 Ore. App. 798, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 1088 (Sept. 20, 2017)* (state constitution):
OR: Under automobile exception, exigency for stop may dissipate as to one thing yet arise as to another
“[T]he automobile exception continues to supply the per se exigency necessary to conduct a warrantless search of the vehicle that was mobile when stopped so long as the officer has probable cause to believe that the vehicle contains evidence of … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Parked RV hooked up to water and electricity with satellite dish on roof with grill and trashcan outside wasn’t subject to automobile exception
Defendant’s RV was being used as a residence when it was searched, and the automobile exception does not apply. Because it was a residence, the search warrant didn’t specify it within the residences to be searched in the search warrant, … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: A car broken down on the highway was still “readly mobile” enough for the automobile exception to apply
A car broken down on the highway was still “readly mobile” enough for the automobile exception to apply. United States v. Ortiz-Santizo, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128710 (S.D. Fla. Aug. 14, 2017):
W.D.Ky.: Driving up to a drug house where a SWAT raid was about to happen here was RS
Defendant drove up to a known drug house that was about to be searched by a SWAT team, and reasonable suspicion quickly developed for his stop. United States v. Clayton, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128041 (W.D. Ky. June 13, 2017).* … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: Def’s driving car to where it was stopped and searched was “mobile” for automobile exception
Defendant’s car was subject to the automobile exception: probable cause “abounded” at the time of the search and it was mobile because it was driven to the place where it was stopped and searched. Weapons used in a robbery were … Continue reading
NH: Limited state auto exception recognized where plainly visible contents are contraband
NH recognizes limited state automobile exception under state constitution where a warrant is not required where “the police have probable cause to believe that a plainly visible item in the vehicle is contraband.” State v. Cora, 2017 N.H. LEXIS 132 … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: SW for car unnecessary because there was PC
There was probable cause for search of defendant’s car, and that makes the search warrant for the car moot as legally unnecessary. United States v. Hudson, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91449 (W.D. Mo. Apr. 27, 2017), adopted, 2017 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
WaPo: How self-driving cars could determine the future of policing
WaPo: How self-driving cars could determine the future of policing by Orin Kerr
W.D.Mo.: Driveway not curtilage for dog sniff of car
Relying on United States v. Beene, 818 F.3d 157 (5th Cir. 2016) (posted here), defendant’s car parked on the driveway in front of his home was subject to a dog sniff as if it was on the street. Because of … Continue reading
CA1: Misstatement Alpha-PVP was in package instead of Alpha-PHP was not material nor in bad faith
The affidavit for search warrant was based on a customs search of a package destined for delivery in Maine that the contents was Alpha-PVP, which is how it looked and field tested as MDMA. Later lab analysis showed it was … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Trailer on blocks with no means around to pull it not subject to automobile exception
An RV trailer elevated on a block with nothing to pull it around is not subject to the automobile exception. United States v. Maley, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69797 (D.Ariz. May 5, 2017). A detailed tip about defendant on supervised … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Damaged and inoperable vehicle that ran into a building was “readily mobile” for automobile exception
Defendant’s car was still “readily mobile” for automobile exception purposes where it had been driven though the front of a building, was wrecked and had a flat and broken windshield. United States v. Scott, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66514 (W.D. … Continue reading
OH3: That def’s car probably was involved in a shooting was PC for an automobile exception search
Officers had probable cause to look in defendant’s car under the automobile exception: “We conclude that law enforcement had probable cause to believe that the silver Honda Civic contained contraband. Kern was shot at from a silver Honda Civic and … Continue reading
MD: PC as to the passenger isn’t automatic PC as to the vehicle
Probable cause that the passenger is in possession does not automatically translate to probable cause to believe that the vehicle contains contraband in the trunk justifying its search. The police could articulate nothing as to the vehicle itself, other than … Continue reading
IN: Def was stuck under car at gas station then freed herself before officer got over there; stop under community caretaking function was unreasonable
Defendant was stuck under her car at a gas station when the officer saw her. He started toward her and she freed herself, got in the car and was attempting to drive away when the officer stopped her. Surveying cases … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Dispute over inventory didn’t need to be resolved because automobile exception applied in any event
Defendant was stopped for no front license plate, and that led to a finding that his DL was revoked and the vehicle unlicensed. During his arrest, it was determined that there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest. The officer … Continue reading
IN: No RS for a protective sweep after def was arrested
A protective sweep of a closed room requires reasonable suspicion that an attack could be launched from the room. After defendant was arrested, there was no reasonable suspicion there was anybody else in the house; therefore, no reasonable suspicion. Johnson … Continue reading
The automobile exception is 92 years old today
Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132 (1925)