May 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Archives
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Recent Posts
- NY Columbia Co.: Alleged excessive nervousness when multiple police cars arrive at a traffic stop doesn’t add to RS
- CA4: Backpack dumped in flight in grandmother’s yard was abandoned
- GA: Virtually all-inclusive list of items to be seized wasn’t overbroad
- CA4: Dist.Ct. erred in applying search incident to arrest to suppress bag when inventory was inevitable
- OR: Even if original served warrant wasn’t the one returned, it doesn’t warrant suppression
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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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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the 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: Nexus
CA6: Nexus shown to search def’s house for evidence of his drug deals
Defendant’s drug dealing connections were sufficient to establish nexus to his house. Drug dealers cannot immunize their activities by doing drug deals in parking lots. In any event, the good faith exception applies. United States v. Jenkins, 2018 U.S. App. … Continue reading
PA: Trial court’s deciding to suppress based on an argument not made by def was error
Trial court’s deciding to suppress based on an argument not made by defendant was error. Commonwealth v. Jones, 2018 PA Super 208, 2018 Pa. Super. LEXIS 815 (July 17, 2018). Defendant argues in post-conviction proceedings against the trial court’s ruling … Continue reading
TN: Seizure of a cell phone incident to arrest is provided for in Riley; search still requires warrant
Defendant’s cell phone was properly seized incident to his arrest, as contemplated by Riley. It was not searched until a search warrant was obtained. State v. Wade, 2018 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 523 (July 13, 2018). The search warrant for … Continue reading
IN: Cell phones are a tool of the trade of drug dealers; a lot of information extracted from it doesn’t show SW was overbroad
There was nexus between defendant’s alleged crime of drug dealing and his cell phone since cell phones are a tool of drug dealers. The search warrant was not impermissibly overbroad. Although 1000 pages of information was extracted from the phone, … Continue reading
DE: PC and nexus to search def’s house came from his leaving to do a drug deal on a bicycle and then coming right back
There was probable cause and nexus to search defendant’s house because he left the house on a bicycle to conduct a drug delivery and returned. Spencer v. State, 2018 Del. LEXIS 296 (June 26, 2018). There was probable cause to … Continue reading
DE: A visitor’s car parked outside a house being raided wasn’t enough to search it; here, however, the keys were found next to heroin inside, and that was enough
Defendant’s vehicle was parked outside of a house where a search was going down. Merely being outside isn’t cause to search the car. Finding the keys next to heroin inside was because that provided nexus to the drugs in the … Continue reading
PA: Information from CI’s recording in the home not suppressible even though full conversation might be
Recordings made in defendant’s house were not relied upon in issuing the search warrant for his house, so they can’t be a basis of suppression under the wiretap statute. As a Fourth Amendment matter, under Hoffa, the recordings made inside … Continue reading
NJ: “Hot pursuit” into a home to seek an iPhone via the find phone application was unreasonable
“Hot pursuit” into a home to seek an iPhone via the find phone application was unreasonable. Here, however, there was a private search by defendant’s brother, and the exclusionary rule doesn’t apply. State ex rel. J.A., 2018 N.J. LEXIS 713 … Continue reading
DE: Nexus applies to vehicles; no showing car was involved in drugs, and no automatic search of drug def’s car
There must be nexus to search a drug defendant’s car. There is no automatic right to search it without some indication the car was involved in drugs. State v. Valentin, 2018 Del. Super. LEXIS 236 (May 29, 2018):
WV: Search of def on the premises of a place searched by SW was unreasonable without a showing of his nexus; merely being there isn’t nexus
Search of defendant found on the premises of a search of another person’s property was unreasonable because there was no shown nexus to him and the crime under suspicion. Even the occupants of the property weren’t named in the search … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: SW affidavit didn’t sufficiently show nexus, but not so lacking that GFE didn’t apply
The affidavit for the search warrant here failed to show nexus to defendant’s house under Sixth Circuit precedent. It was sufficient, however, for the good faith exception to apply because the affidavit was not so lacking in information that reliance … Continue reading
CA4: It’s a reasonable inference that evidence of bank fraud will be found at home
It is a reasonable inference that records of bank fraud would be found in defendant’s home because it is usually kept for many years. The officer stated this in the affidavit for the search warrant as based on his experience, … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Showing of nexus was not bare bones; it was a reasonable inference on totality
The showing of nexus was thin, but not bare bones, and it was reasonable to infer that evidence of three robberies would be found where he was staying with his girlfriend. There clearly was probable cause to arrest him in … Continue reading
CA4: Firearms are usually kept at home, and nexus was shown
The only inference that can be drawn from the affidavit is that there was a firearm in defendant’s house, and this satisfied the nexus requirement. Firearms are usually kept in the home. Because the affidavit showed probable cause, the good … Continue reading
NC: Affidavit’s complete failure to show nexus required suppression
The affidavit for the search warrant completely failed to link defendant to the place to be searched, and the trial court erred in not suppressing the search. State v. Lewis, 2018 N.C. App. LEXIS 442 (May 1, 2018):
E.D.Mich.: No PC for nexus to def’s house, and no GFE
The affidavit failed to show probable cause for nexus to defendant’s house. It was so devoid of probable cause that the good faith exception does not apply. United States v. Myles, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69373 (E.D. Mich. Apr. 25, … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Affidavit for SW failed to show nexus, but GFE was enough to save it
“The bare assertion that defendant departed his home prior to engaging in a drug transaction does not ‘directly connect the residence with the suspected drug dealing activity.’ Id.” Peffer, 880 F.3d at 272-73 (quoting Brown, 828 F.3d at 383-84). The … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: There was a fair inference business records would be at def’s house
When a white collar investigation is underway, the staleness inquiry is more flexible because records, as opposed to drugs, are regularly kept for a long time. It was reasonable here to conclude that business records would be found at defendant’s … Continue reading
WA: State const. requires nexus between parole violation and scope of probation search
“It is well established that an individual on probation has a reduced expectation of privacy, and a community corrections officer (CCO) may conduct a warrantless search if he or she suspects the individual has violated a probation condition. The issue … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Def was driver for drug dealer selling from car; a trash pull from his house was sufficient to show nexus
More was shown than just that defendant was a drug dealer. He was the driver for a man who regularly did drug deals and he watched them all go down. He was seen leaving a house attributed to him in … Continue reading