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
- OR: Even if original served warrant wasn’t the one returned, it doesn’t warrant suppression
- Two on suicide calls as exigency
- W.D.N.Y.: Civil discovery dispute denies access to other employees’ cell phones as 4A issue
- Reason: All New Cars Could Have Mandatory Surveillance Tech Unless Congress Stops This Mandate
- CA3: In seeking arrest warrants, officers need not present all exculpatory evidence to issuing magistrate unless it’s “conclusive”
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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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"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
S.D.N.Y.: CA2 doesn’t recognize “stalking horse” theory of probation searches
“Skyfield’s stalking horse theory ‘that the NYPD was the real law enforcement animator’ behind the Probation Office’s actions is therefore inconsistent with binding Second Circuit precedent. United States v. Chandler, 56 F.4th 27, 43 (2d Cir. 2022), cert. denied, 143 … Continue reading
CA6: Def’s getting CI’s call and driving to controlled buy and home was nexus for SW
Defendant’s being in his home when he received a call from the CI for a controlled buy and then his driving to the buy and back was sufficient nexus. United States v. Badley, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 33031 (6th Cir. … Continue reading
LA: Def’s lie about living in place to be searched helped GFE to apply to overcome staleness
The trial court and court of appeals both erred in finding that the affidavit for search warrant was “so lacking” in probable cause that the good faith exception should not apply. “The affidavit accompanying the search warrant application explained the … Continue reading
CA6: SW’s minor error in naming place to be searched did not entitle ptf to relief; qualified immunity applies
A minor error in the address of the place to be searched could be overlooked because only the right place was searched. There is still qualified immunity. Neal El v. Valasek, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 30000 (6th Cir. Nov. 9, … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Nexus shown by car involved in controlled buys parked at def’s house
Defendant drove his vehicle to multiple controlled buys. The vehicle was usually parked at his home. That’s nexus. United States v. Brooks, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 193635 (N.D. Ohio Oct. 30, 2023). This child pornography affidavit for search warrant didn’t … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Just because legal conduct is mentioned in the SW affidavit does not mean it lacks PC otherwise shown
The inclusion of legal conduct in the affidavit for search warrant doesn’t make the warrant lack probable cause. There’s sufficient information otherwise. United States v. Reebel, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 192048 (N.D. Ohio Oct. 26, 2023). Defendant is accused of … Continue reading
IN: State could rely on alternative theory on appeal where record supports it
The state relied on inventory at trial and prevailed. On appeal it also relies on search incident. The record developed supports that, too. Cobb v. State, 2023 Ind. App. LEXIS 299 (Oct. 26, 2023). [In my state, it’s “right result, … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Home of a drug dealer does not create nexus without more evidence of a connection
The home of a drug dealer does not create nexus without more evidence of a connection. United States v. Edwards, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176766 (W.D. Tenn. Sep. 29, 2023). Plaintiff’s arrest for unlawful fishing in Manhattan’s Morningside Park was … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: No RS for stop, but def fled when tried to be pulled over and that was
Taking the government’s six proffered circumstances which they claim add up to reasonable suspicion, the court finds them lacking on the totality. But, as defendant was being pulled over, he fled, and that made reasonable suspicion. United State v. Shelton, … Continue reading
IL: No RS for stop of van allegedly involved in a robbery; officer had no details
“The trial court decided the facts were sufficient to justify a Terry stop. After taking account of the totality of the circumstances, we reverse the denial of Maxfield’s motion to quash arrest and suppress the identification and other evidence obtained, … Continue reading
NE: Franks challenge that included allegations that alternative suspects weren’t identified fails
Defendant’s Franks challenge that included allegations that alternative suspects weren’t identified fails. State v. Garcia, 315 Neb. 74 (Sep. 7, 2023). There was no reasonable suspicion to detain defendant for a dog sniff. He answered all the officer’s questions, and … Continue reading
MD: IAC Brady claim fails over search claim
Defense counsel’s failure to seek the IAD file on the officers at a suppression hearing wasn’t ineffective assistance of counsel. The searching officer had an alleged propensity to exaggerate and excessively strip search. Here, however, another officer was there to … Continue reading
CA3: Def’s possession of rental car with renter’s permission gave standing
“Christopher Montalvo-Flores moved to suppress evidence the Government obtained in its search of his girlfriend’s rental car. The District Court denied his motion, holding that he failed to show he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in that vehicle. We … Continue reading
CA6: GFE applies to showing of nexus, too
The affiant for the warrant failed to show nexus, but there was enough nexus for the good faith exception to apply. United States v. Westley, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 22357 (6th Cir. Aug. 22, 2023):
“There is no ‘inadvertent negligence’ exception to [Stone v.] Powell.
“More to the point, however, is the irrelevance of any officer negligence in this habeas corpus case. Stone v. Powell bars habeas corpus consideration of Fourth Amendment claims as a basis for habeas relief. There is no ‘inadvertent negligence’ exception … Continue reading
OH1: RS went stale by the time def was seen again days later
There was no reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop days after he was seen on the street. “Perhaps if the officers had stopped J.T. and his red-sweatshirt-wearing companion nearby the church immediately after the shooting, the totality of the circumstances could … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Sentence enhanced for destruction of subpoenaed emails found in later search
The government subpoenaed emails from defendant. Suspecting that some were deleted, a search warrant was issued for his account, and the missing emails were found. Thus, the sentence was enhanced for destruction of evidence under U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1. United States … Continue reading
CA8: Pulling off a blanket during a stop on slight RS was unreasonable
Defendant got off a Greyhound bus in Omaha during a driver change. The officers just barely had reasonable suspicion to detain defendant, and pulling his blanket off amounted to a search. That enabled the officer to see he had a … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: Info on def’s cell phone provided nexus for SW of house
Information on defendant’s cell phone linking him and Trafficker A also linked his home to the transactions and that showed nexus. United States v. Johnson, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130082 (W.D. Va. July 27, 2023).* The information about defendant’s drug … Continue reading