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- N.D.Tex.: Room searches in center for sexually violent predators same as a prison cell search
- D.Ariz.: PC for forfeiture is similar to PC for a warrant
- Cal.2: Officers didn’t need to periodically reassess exigency
- DE: Second warrant after first general warrant was independent source for search
- CT: Exclusionary rule does not apply in animal welfare cases which are civil
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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,
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--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
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Section 1983 Blog -
"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) -
“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: § 1983 / Bivens
D.Kan.: Ptf’s § 1983 case stayed where filed while underlying criminal case was ongoing
Plaintiff sued while his criminal trespass case was pending in state municipal court. The action is stayed because plaintiff can raise his constitutional claims there. Younger also counsels that. Spiehs v. Allen, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35038 (D. Kan. Feb. … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Warrant not required to be shown at time of arrest
The Fourth Amendment does not require a warrant be provided at the time of arrest, and an arrest can occur with probable cause and without a warrant in felony cases. Mister v. Marino, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33508 (E.D. Pa. … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Suit over seizure of guns on mental health order dismissed
Officers had a court order under Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code § 8100 for taking plaintiff’s guns because of a mental health hold. They came to his house but he was gone. They talked to him through his Ring doorbell. … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Automobile exception search fails for lack of PC
The search of defendant’s car was unreasonable under the automobile exception because there was no probable cause to believe drugs or other evidence would be found there. Also, the inventory was invalid. United States v. Lujan, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
D.Colo.: Prospective relief against judge-authorized administrative warrants denied
Plaintiff was the subject of an administrative warrant issued by a neutral and detached magistrate. The request for prospective relief is denied, and the complaint is dismissed. Waldrop v. Colo. Dep’t of Agric., 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27532 (D. Colo. … Continue reading
NC: Temporary immobility of a car doesn’t prevent the automobile exception from applying
Temporary immobility of a car doesn’t prevent the automobile exception from applying. (This is after a remand for a probable cause finding. The court also discusses the good faith exception and the court must guard against the exception swallowing the … Continue reading
D.Md.: Premature filing of FTCA case over a search denies jurisdiction
Because plaintiff filed his FTCA case before the six-month window was up, the court lacks jurisdiction over it. There is also a Bivens claim for execution of a search warrant which the court finds different than Bivens. Wood v. United … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Alleged sexual assault during citizen ride along stated 4A claim
Alleged sexual assault during a citizen ride along in a police car stated a Fourth Amendment claim. Hess v. Garcia, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22018 (N.D. Ind. Feb. 3, 2026). “Based on our precedent involving the use of pepper spray, … Continue reading
CA4: Def’s pants transported from hospital to jail were searched, and inevitable discovery applies
Defendant’s pants were transported from the hospital to the jail, and inevitable discovery covers their search. United States v. Gibbins, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 1432 (4th Cir. Jan. 21, 2026). The warrant for five cell phones was executed within the … Continue reading
ME: No REP in the shower area of a day homeless resource center
Defendant used a homeless resource center by day for taking showers. He was not an overnight guest and had no standing in the shower dressing area. State v. Zackaria, 2026 ME 2, 2026 Me. LEXIS 2 (Jan. 13, 2026). Officers … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Defense can’t use SCA to get emails, even if they’re exculpatory
Only a governmental entity gets to use the Stored Communications Act to get emails. The defense can’t do it seeking even alleged exculpatory emails. Perry v. Silverthon, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 828 (E.D. Mich. Jan. 5, 2026). “Single-incident liability ‘is … Continue reading
D.D.C.: 1/6 pardonee doesn’t state claim under FTCA for having to go to trial
Plaintiff has a 1/6 pardon. She sued over things the government did to obtain her conviction. She fails to state a claim under the FTCA for alleged disclosure of private information during the trial. “Although the FTCA waives the United … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: There is no 4A claim by a dead person
There is no Fourth Amendment claim by a dead person. “Because the investigation failures and denial of access to the Courts are based on facts alleged to have occurred entirely after decedent’s death, Plaintiff cannot assert these claims either on … Continue reading
CA7: No property damage claim from executing SW
Relying on Johnson v. Manitowoc County, 635 F.3d 331 (7th Cir. 2011), plaintiff’s claim for property damage from executing a search warrant is foreclosed. Hadley v. City of South Bend, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 26040 (7th Cir. Oct. 7, 2025). … Continue reading
CO: In a civil case, legal justification for a warrantless search is an affirmative defense
“In a case of first impression, a division of the court of appeals holds that legal justification for a warrantless search is an affirmative defense that the defendant must prove in a civil action under section 13-21-131, C.R.S. 2025. The … Continue reading
OH5: SW saved by GFE even if issuing court lacked jurisdiction
The good faith exception applies even if the Common Pleas court lacked jurisdiction to issue a warrant for a Dropbox account in another jurisdiction. State v. Wharton, 2025-Ohio-4485, 2025 Ohio App. LEXIS 3295 (5th Dist. Sep. 25, 2025). Summary judgment … Continue reading
CA11: Officers reasonably concluded that this was one residence without apartments
“At the time the officers swore out and executed the warrant, the officers believed 4279 Violet Circle was a single-family home that Schmitz occupied.” The officers’ investigation for months never indicated that the premises included three efficiency apartments. “In sum, … Continue reading
W.D.Wis.: § 1983 search claim producing $4,000 damages verdict supported $84,690 in attorneys fees
Plaintiff’s § 1983 search claim produced a damages verdict for $500 compensatory and $3500 punitive. The attorney’s fees award of $84,690.00 is granted. Pfalzgraf v. Reisner, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 168405 (W.D. Wis. Aug. 28, 2025). Cracked windshield and tinted … Continue reading
CA6: No REP in LPN
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in license plate information. Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not raising that. Williams v. United States, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 21583 (6th Cir. Aug. 22, 2025). While a sexual assault examination of a … Continue reading