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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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
CA6: CI’s past reliability supported reliability here
“Here, the totality of the circumstances reveals enough to get the Government over the goal line, though perhaps not with a lot of breathing room. First, O’Bryan was a known informant. That means that O’Bryan “would [have been] subject to … Continue reading
D.Minn.: USMJ’s order to disclose all CIs is overbroad; not if they aren’t trial witnesses
The USMJ’s order to disclose all information about the informants was overbroad because it included informant’s who are not trial witnesses. It is limited to those who are trial witnesses. United States v. Bias, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112605 (D. … Continue reading
OH2: Towing company couldn’t be ordered to return car without being heard
The trial court doesn’t have the power to order the towing company to return defendant’s car without it being heard. It does, however, have the power to order the police to return what it seized that it does not need … Continue reading
E.D. Mich.: Typo on date of affidavit can be overlooked when proven
The search warrant was facially stale, having been issued on February 7th where the affidavit was signed on January 7th. It’s shown to be a typographical error that may be overlooked. The search warrant was accompanied by its affidavit, and … Continue reading
MA: First time CI still corroborated by “imperfectly executed controlled ‘buy’”
“In this interlocutory appeal by the Commonwealth, we must decide whether the information provided by a first-time, confidential police informant (CI) was sufficiently corroborated by a single, imperfectly executed controlled ‘buy’ of cocaine for the purposes of establishing probable cause … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: CI information was a little stale, but the officer’s corroroboration was with current information and that overcame staleness
The CI’s information was a little dated and potentially stale, but it was corroborated by current information and that was probable cause. United States v. Mobley, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101640 (S.D. Ga. June 18, 2018). “In this case, by … Continue reading
GA: Controlled buy by CI corroborates CI and is PC in itself
“‘Under the common sense approach to search warrants, a controlled buy strongly corroborates the reliability of the informant and shows a fair probability that the contraband would be found.’… Indeed, ‘even if the informant had no known credibility, the controlled … Continue reading
NC: Seeing a “pipe” in a house in affidavit for SW doesn’t tell whether it was drug paraphernalia; no PC
The affidavit for the search warrant in this case mentioned that a pipe was seen in defendant’s house. The court of appeals finds that the affidavit doesn’t tell enough to determine whether it was a pipe for use for ingesting … Continue reading
D.Mont.: No SW needed for non-tribal officer to enter a reservation
The search here was in a remote area on the Crow Nation. First, officers had exigency because it was cold, raining, and getting dark, and evidence might be lost. Also, defendant was abandoned there by his assault victim, and he … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Failure to describe a CI as a “paid informant” isn’t material; every CI has a reason for providing information
Failure to describe the CI as a “paid informant” doesn’t undermine his credibility. Every issuing magistrate should know that a CI has some motive for providing information, be it money or leniency. United States v. Mobley, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: The fact the regular CI was also a drug addict didn’t make him unreliable or unbelievable [on a pretrial release application]
“The Court does not find this argument persuasive. Cooperation with law enforcement suggests reliability of Mr. Brown’s statements. See, e.g., United States v. Pinson, 321 F.3d 558 (6th Cir. 2003) (upholding search warrant predicated on information from a confidential informant … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Def was essentially and admittedly an “innocent bystander” at the place searched and had no standing
This defendant had no standing in the condo that was searched under a search warrant. He produced nothing to show that he had any connection to the property or was a guest with a connection to the premises, even an … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Motion to suppress cell phone SW1 led to issuance of SW2, and SW2 was legally sufficient
Defendant’s cell phone was properly seized incident to his arrest. It was later searched with “search warrant 1.” When the defense filed a motion to suppress, the government got “search warrant 2” which was legally sufficient. United States v. Bailey, … Continue reading
D.Minn.: 5 uncorroborated anonymous callers wasn’t PC
Five anonymous callers claimed defendant was selling drugs. “The Government’s argument is unavailing because, as [USM] Judge Brisbois observed, ‘[i]t is objectively unreasonable for an officer with over 10 years of experience to present a search warrant affidavit to a … Continue reading
NJ: Reliability of CI isn’t a question for a bail hearing
“We do not rule on the validity of the search warrant now. But we note that it supports the informant’s veracity by pointing to past instances of reliability, and expressly details what the informant knew of the criminal activity from … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Citizen informant wasn’t material witness under Roviaro
A citizen informant who called police to say that a store video shown on the news looked like defendant wasn’t a material witness at trial under Roviaro. The government wasn’t calling the person, and defendant didn’t show a reason to. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Def’s alternative argument as to what SW affidavit showed doesn’t undermine PC
The defendant’s alternative argument about how the child pornography ended up on defendant’s computer didn’t undermine the probable cause for the search warrant. “The Court has already addressed Defendant’s argument that a single connection between a home computer and a … Continue reading
UT: While the CI’s stories alone were weak, police corroborated them
The two CI’s stories were weak in themselves, but the police succeeded in corroborating enough to rise to probable cause. State v. Matheson, 2018 Utah App. LEXIS 66 (Apr. 13, 2018).* Hitting the lane dividing line was justification for the … Continue reading
CA4: The facts not included in the affidavit for SW only would have enhanced the PC
“We conclude that, contrary to Combs’ assertions, there is no evidence that Davis intentionally or recklessly omitted material information from the affidavit. In fact, Davis’s testimony at the suppression hearing shows that the facts not included in the affidavit would … Continue reading