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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: Informant hearsay
W.D.N.Y.: State judge’s notes of oral testimony for SW may be considered in federal court
Under the “four corners rule,” only the content of the affidavit for search warrant can be considered, but what about unrecorded oral testimony in support? New York procedural law requires the issuing magistrate who considers oral representations in further support … Continue reading
MO: SW for a house includes the garden in the curtilage
The search warrant for defendant’s home authorized a search of defendant’s garden because, under Jardines, the curtilage is considered part of the house itself. State v. Daggett, 2019 Mo. App. LEXIS 843 (May 28, 2019). A state court’s 2017 cell … Continue reading
MN decides that gaps in the state’s version don’t preclude the CI being a material witness so the CI must be disclosed
“If a warrant to search a home relies on information from a confidential police informant about contraband inside the home, but the warrant application includes no facts indicating whether the informant could be considered a government agent who violated the … Continue reading
CA5: Hearsay to get a SW isn’t necessarily admissible at trial
Just because hearsay can be used to get a search warrant, that doesn’t make that same hearsay admissible at trial without violating the Confrontation Clause. United States v. Jones, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 14550 (5th Cir. May 16, 2019). “Here, … Continue reading
TX2: Def not entitled to name of CI to get SW
Defendant wasn’t entitled to the name of the CI because the CI was only used to get the search warrant and wasn’t a witness in the state’s case in chief. Coleman v. State, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 3802 (2d Dist. … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: State SW issued for violation of state statute under federal injunction since 1997 should be suppressed
Defendant was federally indicted for possession of child pornography after a state search warrant for violation of state law. There was, however, a federal injunction from 1997 prohibiting prosecutions under a particular New York statute, but at least 11 people … Continue reading
MI: Passenger in car has standing to challenge search of his own backpack (overruling LaBelle)
While a passenger in a car normally doesn’t have standing in the contents of a car, he does in his own backpack that he was carrying when he got into the car. The driver couldn’t consent to a search of … Continue reading
DE: Vague CI information and lack of nexus to def’s home required suppression
There was no substantial basis for a finding of probable cause for this search warrant. Not only were the credibility and reliability of the informant questionable, but the tip was overly broad and made no mention of defendant’s residence and … Continue reading
N.D.Miss.: There’s no right to counsel during execution of a SW where defendant isn’t arrested and being questioned
“Mr. Pillault also argues that he received ineffective assistance of counsel because he had no counsel present when his home was searched. This claim is simply frivolous.” Pillault v. United States, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58295 (N.D. Miss. Apr. 4, … Continue reading
MA: Scope of probation search wasn’t justified by the RS
The probation search of defendant’s bedroom wasn’t justified by the reasonable suspicion that authorized it. “The Commonwealth’s contention that Valenti’s entry into the bedroom was justified as a protective sweep is equally unavailing.” Special needs didn’t work for the state … Continue reading
NY4: State didn’t show that CI actually existed; reversed
The state didn’t make a sufficient showing required by NY law that the CI actually existed. The motion to suppress should have been granted. People v. Givans, 2019 NY Slip Op 02220, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2237 (4th Dept. … Continue reading
N.D.Va.: False name during traffic stop justified extending stop
Defendant’s providing a false name was enough for the officer to extend the stop with reasonable suspicion. United States v. Boley, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46935 (N.D. Va. Mar. 21, 2019). Revealing the plaintiff’s identity as a CI in a … Continue reading
ND: Citizen informants are presumed reliable
Citizen informants are presumed reliable. Coupled with trash pulls and the informants’ reports of repeated short term stays at defendant’s house, there was probable cause. State v. Laverdure, 2019 ND 72, 2019 N.D. LEXIS 59 (Mar. 15, 2019). Officers had … Continue reading
FL2: Search incident for being in a city park after hours unreasonable
A custodial arrest for being in a city park after closing time and a search incident was invalid. State law cautions against search incident for noncriminal violations. Nelson v. State, 2019 Fla. App. LEXIS 3159 (Fla. 2d DCA Mar. 1, … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: 14 month delay in searching seized cell phone was reasonable because it wouldn’t have been returned anyway
A 14 month delay between seizure and search of defendant’s cell phone was not unreasonable because the phone would not have been returned to defendant in any event. Plus, he was in jail and couldn’t possess it. United States v. … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: No RS for stop for alleged street deals based on CI
The officers’ claimed reasonable suspicion of street drug deals in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District just doesn’t add up to it on the totality of circumstances. The CI wasn’t adequately corroborated. The stop and frisk fails. United States v. Castaneda, 2019 … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Protective order issued to keep def from seeing body camera videos in discovery
There were several body camera videos relating to this case as well as the search and seizure. The issue here is the scope of a protective order to keep defendant from seeing. The government met its burden of showing good … Continue reading
OR: In a DUII stop, a request for consent to search is not reasonably related to the basis for the stop; it unreasonably extended it
In a DUII stop, a request for consent to search is not reasonably related to the basis for the stop and it unreasonably extended it. State v. Rondeau, 295 Or. App. 769, 2019 Ore. App. LEXIS 123 (Jan. 24, 2019). … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Part of CI’s criminal history wasn’t disclosed, but enough was; CI was corroborated, and there was PC
The affiant didn’t withhold enough of the CI’s criminal history to be misleading. Not all of it was disclosed, but enough was to show he was part of the criminal milieu. And even if the withholding was significant, there was … Continue reading