Archives
-
Recent Posts
- D.D.C.: Placing firearm on wheel of parked car was abandonment
- MD: Hot pursuit can be days later, here exigent CSLI to find alleged murderer on the run
- D.D.C.: Alleged illegal arrest doesn’t void DNA SW
- S.D.Fla.: Inventory that omitted “miscellaneous personal items” was not unreasonable
- CA4: The fact that ptf charged with witness intimidation didn’t do it again wasn’t material for Franks
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
-
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
-
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
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
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)
-
“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
D.Nev.: GPS warrant based on transaction from car three weeks earlier wasn’t stale
A GPS tracking warrant wasn’t stale based on a drug deal out of the car three weeks earlier. That led to probable cause to stop and search the vehicle two weeks later. United States v. Cabrera, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
NY1: Search of a car doesn’t have to occur at the scene of stop
Defendant was stopped, and the smell of marijuana came from the car when he was stopped. A joint was seen on the console. The car was towed rather than searched at the scene. The search back at the station was … Continue reading
OR: State carries burden of proving the reliability of the drug dog in the first instance (under state const.)
“Here, we easily conclude that the state did not create a sufficient record to support the use of Quincy’s alert as a basis for probable cause to search the car. At the suppression hearing, the state elicited testimony from Raiser … Continue reading
TN: Blood on def’s sock supported PC for automobile exception
Based on blood on defendant’s sock, on the totality there was probable cause to believe that more possible blood evidence would be found in his car. That was sufficient for the automobile exception to apply. State v. Peden, 2016 Tenn. … Continue reading
NM: Driver’s failure to produce proof of registration and insurance doesn’t permit search of console
Defendant’s failure to produce his registration and proof of insurance during a traffic stop didn’t give the officer justification to search the center console for it himself. Thus, defense counsel was ineffective for not raising this issue. State v. Howl, … Continue reading
VA: Mobility for automobile exception doesn’t depend on fact def would be arrested as soon as he got on the motorcycle
The mobility basis for the automobile exception has nothing to do with whether the officer watching would have been able to apprehend defendant if he suddenly appeared and tried to drive the motorcycle off. “Moreover, ‘[a] vehicle’s inherent mobility—not the … Continue reading
OH5: Def’s wrecked empty car on road to house justified entry onto curtilage to check on potential injury
Defendant’s car was upside down and there was blood on the passenger air bag. Nobody was there. The officer went to the house where the car was registered to find the driver and passenger. “Present in this case was a … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: The automobile exception is based on inherent mobility, and the fact the defendant is handcuffed and the police have the keys is “inconsequential”
The automobile exception is based on inherent mobility, and the fact the defendant is handcuffed and the police have the keys is “inconsequential.” United States v. Collins, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101003 (M.D.Fla. May 31, 2016), adopted, 2016 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
MO: Where there’s PC to believe evidence is in a vehicle, it may be seized to remove it for search
When there is probable cause to believe a vehicle contains criminal evidence, exigent circumstances can support its seizure pending determination whether to search it under the automobile exception or to remove it to a secure location for search. State v. … Continue reading
D.Ore.: No territorial limitation for SW to Facebook under § 2703
“The territorial limitation in Rule 41 … does not limit warrants issued pursuant to [18 U.S.C.] § 2703.” A search warrant for Facebook in another jurisdiction was valid. United States v. Bundy, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 94476 (D.Ore. July 20, … Continue reading
IA: School officials had RS to search football player’s equipment bag on hearing metal clunk
Defendant was a high school football player injured during a game, and he went to the hospital. He was expressly concerned about the contents of his school-issued equipment bag to the point that school officials nearly had reasonable suspicion. When … Continue reading
OH7 follows Hudson; failure to knock-and-announce doesn’t warrant suppression
A failure to properly knock-and-announce an entry does not warrant suppression, following Hudson v. Michigan. State v. Bembry, 2015-Ohio-5598, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 5397 (7th Dist. December 30, 2015). [Yes, just now on Lexis.] The motion to suppress is denied … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: No point in reopening suppression hearing for new evidence that won’t change the outcome
Defendant sought to reopen the suppression hearing, and it’s denied because the new evidence wouldn’t alter the outcome at all on the question of apparent consent. United States v. Archambault, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61783 (W.D.N.Y. May 9, 2016). “The … Continue reading
OH9: Taking def’s purse from car as she’s going to jail and searching it justified by auto exception or inventory
When defendant was arrested, the officer took her purse out of the car so it could go to jail with her. The search of the purse was valid as inventory or under the automobile exception. Also, Ohio recognizes good faith … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Just because def ran away from the car, it was still “readily mobile” for the automobile exception
“His argument is that because the car was parked and defendant had run away from the car, it was ‘not mobile within the meaning of the Carroll/Chambers exception.’ Not surprisingly, defendant cites no case law to support this argument; and … Continue reading
CA11: Luggage dog alerts to on interstate bus is subject to automobile exception
Defendant was apparently a regular passenger on El Expreso bus traveling from Florida to Texas and back. Intel briefings told him that heroin was being concealed in large cans of food. Defendant had a large can of food in his … Continue reading
TX1: Frequenting bar known for drug sales, going in and out repeatedly, and furtive gestures when stopped was PC
Officers had probable cause under the automobile exception to search defendant’s truck, or at least the trial court had a basis for finding it. Defendant had entered a bar known for drug sales that the police were surveilling. He’d been … Continue reading
RI: Stop was pretextual; court doesn’t believe that officer smelled MJ
Defendant’s car was stopped on the RI turnpike for no seatbelts after being noticed at a toll booth. The stop was valid. The officer saw a pill bottle in a mesh holder on the driver’s door, and then he announced … Continue reading