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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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"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
E.D.Tenn.: Detail alone in hearsay from an untested informant is not enough to make probable cause
With an untested and unknown informant, detail alone is not enough because detail can be made up, too. Thus, this affidavit lacks probable cause. Nevertheless, the good faith exception will sustain it. United States v. Martin, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Def’s failure to respond to gov’t’s questioning his standing was waiver
Defendant has the burden of establishing standing. At the hearing, the government contested standing, and defendant didn’t respond or brief it. Therefore, standing was waived. United States v. Tolbert, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71047 (N.D.Ga. April 30, 2015).* Probable cause … Continue reading
MS: Uncorroborated informant hearsay was so clearly deficient that the good faith exception did not apply
The informant hearsay in this was a mere uncorroborated statement with no basis of knowledge that the defendant was involved in creating a bogus Facebook account for another person as identity theft. A judge went ahead and signed off on … Continue reading
KY: Defendant who refused consent for blood test and got no breath test has no Fourth Amendment claim that he wasn’t breath tested
Defendant was stopped for traffic offenses and smelled of alcohol. He refused consent to search his blood for his BAC, and the officer did not offer him a breath test. Thus, he had no “standing” because of no injury in … Continue reading
OH10: Emergency or hot pursuit didn’t justify entry during knock-and-talk
Bike patrol officers smelled burning marijuana, and that led to them to a hotel room. When they knocked, defendant opened the door and they barged in. The entry was unlawful and couldn’t be sustained under any emergency or hot pursuit … Continue reading
KS: Controlled delivery doesn’t have to be hand-to-hand; picking up package from porch and taking it inside is enough
Defendant didn’t raise probable cause from the triggering event in an anticipatory warrant, but the suppression judge did. He directed the parties to litigate and brief it, so the issue was properly before the court. The triggering condition was acceptance … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: CI actually questioned by judge issuing SW was entitled to more credit
There was good reason to credit the CI here: he was actually questioned by the issuing judge and the information clearly added up to probable cause. The court credits the officers that the search did not start until one hour … Continue reading
SC: When responding to a tip of drug activity in the back yard for a knock-and-talk, it’s reasonable to go to the backyard where all the people seemed to be [Update: Rev’d 12/21/16]
Officers got an anonymous tip of drug activity in the backyard at a particular house. They could drive on the street near the house and see people in the backyard. They went to do a knock-and-talk and went to the … Continue reading
TX7: Riley applied to cell phone search incident where it came down between trial and appeal
Search incident cannot support a cell phone search under Riley. Riley came down between trial and appeal, so it applies here because the issue was preserved. Carter v. State, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS 4271 (Tex. App. – Amarillo April 27, … Continue reading
E.D.La.: A power co. had standing to challenge overbroad subpoenas at a gov’t audit
A power company stated an injury-in-fact for standing to contest the agency’s action on, inter alia, Fourth Amendment grounds that its request for production of records in an audit constituted a likely Fourth Amendment violation for an overbroad or oppressive … Continue reading
OH2: Anonymous tip of shooting was corroborated enough by witnesses at scene
The anonymous tip defendant was involved in a shooting was corroborated by people at the scene who pointed to defendant’s house and blood drops outside, and it led to a fair inference that the shooter or a victim was inside. … Continue reading
GA: Anonymous informant not corroborated by misd possession of small amount of pot and a gun
“On appeal, Wiggins contends that the search warrant was invalid because the supporting affidavit—which relied solely on an uncorroborated tip from an anonymous informant [he was moving 50 pds a week], Wiggins’s possession of a personal-use amount of marijuana, and … Continue reading
MS: Anonymous tip for a DUI stop was insufficient without corroboration
Anonymous tip for a DUI stop was insufficient without corroboration. Cook v. State, 2015 Miss. LEXIS 130 (March 12, 2015), revg Cook v. Rankin County, 140 So. 3d 940 (Miss. App. Dec. 3, 2013) (unpublished):
E.D.Mich.: Where parole search required RS, anonymous tip consistent with other violation information was enough
A parole search under Michigan law only requires reasonable suspicion. An anonymous tip in the past has been held not enough. Here, however, the anonymous telephone tip was consistent with some of defendant’s parole violations, so here it’s enough. United … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Just arrested snitch was corroborated enough to be believable for PC purposes
The CI was recently arrested in this investigation, and, while he had no track record, his tale was sufficiently corroborated by other information that had been developed to make him believable enough for probable cause. United States v. Arballo, 2015 … Continue reading
Word Salad for Law Enforcement: Confidential Human Source (“CHS”), adopted by some courts
Confidential Human Source (“CHS”) v. Confidential Informant (“CI”) v. Citizen Informant (Citizen Informant) v. Snitch (Snitch) “Confidential Human Source (CHS)” appears to have started about 2003, but it’s been more popular of late in the federal system. I’ve seen it … Continue reading
IN: CI was uncorroborated and his information old; no PC or GFE
The CI’s statement here was uncorroborated and 3-4 months old. Thus, the search warrant lacked probable cause and it was so lacking in probable cause, that the good faith exception cannot apply. Cartwright v. State, 2015 Ind. App. LEXIS 107 … Continue reading