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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
OH12: Plain smell came from patdown that squeezed bag of MJ that gave off odor
Plain feel supported seizure of marijuana baggie which gave off an odor when pressed during defendant’s otherwise valid patdown. Plain feel did not support seizure of cash in another pocket. However, it was not suppressed because discovery was inevitable by … Continue reading
AR: Anonymous tip def was in a hotel room was insufficient under Payton for entry on arrest warrant
Defendant was wanted for bank robbery, and the police had an arrest warrant. In a case of first impression, an anonymous tip that defendant was in a hotel room was not enough to base an entry on the arrest warrant … Continue reading
MO: PC lacking and SW was stale, but GFE exception saves it anyway
The affidavit for the search warrant here failed for two reasons. First, it failed to show a substantial basis for finding probable cause from two informants’ information that was not properly corroborated [although later court says they kind of corroborate … Continue reading
OH: Single trash pull that corroborated CI’s story was PC
“Using the totality-of-the-circumstances test in this case, we hold that the evidence seized from a single trash pull that corroborates tips and background information involving drug activity is sufficient to establish probable cause for a warrant.” State v. Jones, 2015-Ohio-483, … Continue reading
CA8: Stop of the wrong person on reasonable but mistaken belief not suppressed
Based on an informant’s story, the police were looking for Barefield in a particular car. They happened upon defendant Patrick at the appointed time and place near the informant in a car matching the description. A reasonable but mistaken belief … Continue reading
DE: Failure to corroborate the CI’s tale was fatal to showing of probable cause; corroborating obvious no help
Failure to corroborate the CI’s tale was fatal to the attempted showing of probable cause. Verifying the obvious isn’t much help. McKinney v. State, 2014 Del. LEXIS 601 (December 18, 2014):
CA5: Independent source doctrine saved SW from findings during protective sweep
The government satisfied its burden on the independent source doctrine without a remand being necessary. The entry was a protective sweep for weapons and the search warrant affidavit didn’t contain anything from that entry. Also, the district court’s order found … Continue reading
NC: Anonymous informant hearsay and officer’s conclusions not PC
The CI in this case provided information that defendant had a grow operation, and the police did little to corroborate any of that. Accordingly, the CI was treated as an anonymous informant, and his information was unsubstantiated. Sure the defendant … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: No GFE where SW issued on bare conclusion of officer and CI
Here, the approval of the search warrant was mere ratification of the conclusion of the officer, so there was no probable cause and no good faith exception. United States v. Rutherford, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166917 (S.D. N.Y. December 2, … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: IAC claim for illegal search denied because it lacked specifics
“‘Ellis submits that some of the evidence seized were [sic] so done in violation of his Fourth Amendment right[s] against unreasonable search and seizure.’ (Mem. Supp. § 2255 Mot. 6-7.) Ellis supplies no basis upon which counsel could have filed … Continue reading
AR: Locked safe in car could be searched without warrant under automobile exception
Where the automobile exception applies to a car, the state does not need a search warrant to search a locked safe found in it. State v. Crane, 2014 Ark. 443, 2014 Ark. LEXIS 586 (October 30, 2014). The government did … Continue reading
Cal.1st: Davis good faith exception applied to a pre-McNeely DUI warrantless blood draw
Davis good faith exception applied to a pre-McNeely DUI warrantless blood draw. People v. Rossetti, 2014 Cal. App. LEXIS 950 (1st Dist. October 22, 2014). 911 call from a name eyewitness to shots fired did not need corroboration. “In general, … Continue reading
MS implicitly rejects Navarette: uncorroborated anonymous tip is not enough to support a stop
An uncorroborated anonymous tip is not enough to support a stop, and defendant’s DUI conviction is reversed and dismissed. (The majority does not cite or explain away Navarette but the dissent does address it. The opinion attempts to rely on … Continue reading
HuffPo: “SWAT Team Shot David Hooks At Home After Tip From Meth Addict”; no drugs
Why do we have an informant hearsay rule? Because of things like this: HuffPo: SWAT Team Shot David Hooks At Home After Tip From Meth Addict by Michael McLaughlin:
TN: One controlled buy 3 days ago without ID’g source person was not PC to search; could have been a visitor
A CI’s statement that a controlled buy occurred out of defendant’s apartment failed to show probable cause where there was no connection to the sale and the owner or tenant shown. It could have been a mere visitor. State v. … Continue reading
TN: Named eyewitness to shooting was not a “CI” needing corroboration
The “CI” in this homicide case was a known eyewitness who knew the defendant. He was a citizen informant, not a mere snitch, and his version had a presumption of reliability. State v. Dotson, 2014 Tenn. LEXIS 694 (September 30, … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: “Courts have been clear that police need not corroborate information given by known informants.”
“Courts have been clear that police need not corroborate information given by known informants. Like the CI in Harris, the CI in this case was known to provide reliable information that led to arrests. Thus, police corroboration was unnecessary. But … Continue reading
GA: The mere presence of some papers of the defendant in the place searched doesn’t confer standing
The mere presence of some papers of the defendant in the place searched doesn’t confer standing. There was no testimony that he was otherwise connected to the property as owner, lessee, or guest. “The mere presence of miscellaneous papers bearing … Continue reading