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- CA6: Knowing passcode to cell phone shows common authority over it to consent
- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
- Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
- E.D.Mich.: Second SW for cell phone data retained by govt was valid
- S.D.W.Va.: “Shocking” nature of immigration raid on a Mexican restaurant at lunchtime didn’t warrant suppression
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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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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, citations, and links -
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Outline of Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (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: Arrest or entry on arrest
Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People by Josh Pauzé (“Three Charlotte cops have resigned and three more are facing termination after a Flock probe uncovered a text chain littered with … Continue reading
CA8: Stop for warrant on driver made passenger’s stop reasonable
Defendant passenger’s detention was lawful when the car was stopped because of a warrant on the owner-driver. Being ordered into the car was also reasonable for officer safety. United States v. Negrete, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 30736 (8th Cir. Oct. … Continue reading
VA: NC tracking warrant validly led to conviction in VA
North Carolina officers put a warrant approved tracker on defendant’s vehicle. That out-of-state warrant led to defendant’s conviction in Virginia. The out-of-state warrant was issued on probable cause, and it didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment tracking him in Virginia. A … Continue reading
GA: Raising particularity in half of one sentence of argument isn’t a presentation of the issue
Raising particularity in half of one sentence of argument isn’t a presentation of the issue. Walker v. State, 2026 Ga. LEXIS 301 (Sep. 22, 2026). Defendant admitted that marijuana might be in the car, so the smell of marijuana which … Continue reading
VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would not be suppressed
Defendant doesn’t get to suppress the body cam of her detention where the officer told her to stand in one place and then she later assaulted the officer. It was not a Fourth Amendment violation. Ross v. Commonwealth, 2026 Va. … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Warrantless arrest at door for CSAM didn’t support plain view seizure of cell phone
Officers came to defendant’s house without an arrest or search warrant to arrest him for a CSAM offense. He answered the door in his underwear. They asked about cell phone and saw it and seized it. Payton applies, and the … Continue reading
OH1: Statute says ID can’t be sought when def in back of police car because it’s not a “public place”
While identification can be sought during a stop on reasonable suspicion under Hiibel under the Fourth Amendment, state statute says “public place,” and the back of a police car isn’t. State v. Bell, 2026-Ohio-3614 (1st Dist. Sep. 16, 2026). 2254 … Continue reading
NC: Standing to contest search of hotel room doesn’t include other guest’s cell phone
As a guest of a guest, defendant had standing to contest the search of the hotel room, but he didn’t have standing to contest the search of the other tenant’s cell phone. State v. Miller, 2026 N.C. App. LEXIS 763 … Continue reading
KS: Running warrants on a passed out person is reasonable
Defendant was passed out under a bridge, and the fire department and police were called. Firemen got her name and police ran a warrants check, finding one, and they arrested her. That was reasonable. State v. Willard, 2026 Kan. LEXIS … Continue reading
KY: Despite lack of nexus, SW sustained under GFE
A search warrant for defendant’s place was because Customs had flagged a child sex doll coming to his house. While the state supreme court held that while nexus was lacking, it remanded for determination of the good faith exception. Looking … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: ALPR hit on stolen vehicle was RS for stop
A U-Haul van was reported stolen by them, and the LPN was entered into the ALPR database. It showed up near Pittsburgh, and that was reasonable suspicion to pull it over. United States v. Lewis, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 177108 … Continue reading
NY4: Payton does not apply to an arrest in a common area of an apartment building
Payton v. New York does not apply to an arrest in a common area of an apartment building. People v. Kadenhead, 2026 NY Slip Op 04680 (4th Dept. July 24, 2026). There was probable cause for defendant’s arrest on a … Continue reading
PA: For resisting arrest on a warrant, the state has to prove the warrant valid
“To prove the lawful arrest element of resisting arrest where the resisted arrest is premised on an arrest or bench warrant, the Commonwealth must produce evidence of the validity of a warrant beyond its mere existence. Because the Commonwealth failed … Continue reading
Vanguard: SF Court Dismisses Felony Charges after Judge Finds Racial Bias Tainted SFPD Stop and Arrest
Vangard: SF Court Dismisses Felony Charges after Judge Finds Racial Bias Tainted SFPD Stop and Arrest by David M. Greenwald (“A San Francisco Superior Court judge has dismissed all felony drug charges against Kenneth McCurry after finding that two San … Continue reading
OH2: Stop outside the officer’s jurisdiction doesn’t violate 4A
A traffic stop outside the officer’s jurisdiction doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. State v. Sexton, 2026-Ohio-2636, 2026 Ohio App. LEXIS 2551 (2d Dist. July 10, 2026). A habeas petitioner has no right to discovery of search warrant affidavits. Moreover, he … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Flight out a window is exigency for police to enter
Defendant was wanted for a shooting incident in Flatbush, Brooklyn caught on video. When they came to where they suspected he was, he attempted to flee out a window. That gave exigency to enter. United States v. Richard, 2026 U.S. … Continue reading
FL: Violation of knock-and-announce statute doesn’t require exclusion
A violation of the knock-and-announce statute for serving search warrants doesn’t require exclusion of the evidence under Hudson, which is followed. State v. Times, 2026 Fla. LEXIS 982 (June 25, 2026). “Idling” is not a crime for a passenger vehicle … Continue reading
OH1: SW for residence justified seizure of text messages about drug transactions received during execution of warrant
The warrant for defendant’s residence was based on an affidavit that provided a minimally sufficient nexus between the offenses under investigation and the need to search the home, and the officers acted in good-faith reliance on the warrant. Also, two … Continue reading
Cal.1: Entry by robot, drone, tear gas, and flash bang was with PC after def refused to come out on a SW and AW
To arrest the defendant on a warrant and with a search warrant, the SWAT team surrounded his house. They used a robot, drone, tear gas, and a flash bang sent into the apartment. He finally came out and surrendered. Despite … Continue reading