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- CA6: State officer’s arrest for violation of federal MJ law likely wouldn’t violate 4A
- D.N.M.: Shared driveway outside of fence and gate was not curtilage
- 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
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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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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
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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)
--Federal Statutes Governing Wiretapping and Electronic Eavesdropping (2012)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (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)
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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
TX13: Search incident can occur before formal arrest as long as both are justified
Search incident can occur before formal arrest as long as both are justified. Hill v. State, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 10749 (Tex. App. – Corpus Christi – Edinburg, Nov. 16, 2017) (memorandum).* Appellant’s claims that VA attorneys hacked her computer … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Officers did not have reason to believe defendant was the person named in his arrest warrant when they detained him; arrest suppressed
The US Marshals did not have a reasonable articulable basis that defendant was the person named in their arrest warrant at the time they detained him on it, and the product of the arrest is suppressed. United States v. Morales, … Continue reading
LA: Search incident can occur before formal arrest
The trial court denied the motion to suppress and the court of appeals reversed. When defendant’s name came back as having a warrant, the fact the search occurred before the formal arrest doesn’t matter. State v. Owens, 2017 La. LEXIS … Continue reading
Cert. granted: Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, Florida: Whether the existence of probable cause defeats a First Amendment retaliatory-arrest claim as a matter of law.
Cert. granted: Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, Florida (ScotusBlog) Issue: Whether the existence of probable cause defeats a First Amendment retaliatory-arrest claim as a matter of law. See Miami Herald: First the city sunk his houseboat. Now, he’s at … Continue reading
IA: Dad can’t raise son’s rights when son was arrested and gave dad up as his source of drugs
Defendant’s juvenile son was selling from his dad’s stash. After the son’s arrest, he gave up his source. Defendant can’t raise violations of his son’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment or statutory rights as a juvenile to challenge the probable cause … Continue reading
N.D.Fla.: Entry into motel room was valid with arrest warrant when officers reasonably believed he would be there
The U.S. Marshal’s fugitive task force, with arrest warrant in hand, was looking for defendant. They were watching his motel room and saw him outside and gave chase. They lost sight of him and circled back to his hotel room … Continue reading
CA7: Hot pursuit of a purported drug dealer into ptf’s house was valid under Santana
The police approached a young man on the street in an area known for drug trade to talk to him. He “turned on his heels” and fled, with the police in pursuit, right to plaintiffs’ house, past one plaintiff out … Continue reading
OR: Def’s motion to suppress that he was subjected to an “unlawful warrantless arrest” sufficiently put the state on notice that it had to show PC
Defendant was walking four blocks from the area of a disturbance talking on a cell phone. When officers confronted him and commanded he stop, he “bladed up” and reached for a back pocket, making the officers fear he was armed. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Seeing def in house of another permitted entry to arrest on an arrest warrant
Seeing defendant in the house of another was justification for entry into the home to arrest him on a warrant under Steagald. United States v. Terrell, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 175483 (E.D. Mich. Oct. 24, 2017). Defendant was stopped for … Continue reading
NY: Threshold arrests remain valid in NYS
Defendant’s arrest at his threshold when he answered his door was valid. The court declines to overturn its “longstanding rule.” People v. Garvin, 2017 NY Slip Op 07382, 2017 N.Y. LEXIS 3201 (Oct. 24, 2017). There was reasonable suspicion defendant … Continue reading
DE: Warrantless entry into def’s home seeking a man for questioning in a week old murder violated 4A
Police had no warrant to enter defendant’s house looking for another person for questioning in a robbery-homicide, not to arrest him. The alleged need for a security sweep violated the Fourth Amendment because the police were searching for a third … Continue reading
WaPo: Editorial: A man was wrongly incarcerated for 77 days. D.C. needs to find out why [he never saw a judge]
WaPo: Editorial: A man was wrongly incarcerated for 77 days. D.C. needs to find out why. INSTANCES OF people illegally imprisoned – without legitimate cause and denied the chance to see a judge or lawyer – may be commonplace in … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Arrest warrant for another in def’s home didn’t authorize entry without exigency
An arrest warrant for Tyler in defendant’s home didn’t justify entry here because officers didn’t show any exception to the warrant requirement. “The government has provided no authority for the proposition that the arrest warrant for Tyler, Tyler’s status as … Continue reading
MA: Trial court suppression of confession on tape was clearly erroneous; with PC to arrest, def’s clothing could be seized and forensically tested
The trial court’s order suppressing defendant’s confession and the subsequent search of his clothing is reversed as clearly erroneous. Defendant’s arrest was with probable cause, and that allowed seizure and forensic testing of his clothing. Commonwealth v. Tremblay, 2017 Mass. … Continue reading
MI: If the arrest is invalid, the inventory that follows it is invalid
If the arrest is invalid, the inventory that follows it is invalid. People v. Wood, 2017 Mich. App. LEXIS 1482 (Sept. 19, 2017). Defendant’s admission he had open containers in the vehicle justified a search for them, and, after they … Continue reading
CA9: Arrest on mistaken identity gets QI, but continuing the arrest after learning mistake doesn’t; Summers doesn’t apply to arrest warrants
Plaintiff’s initial arrest on mistaken identity was not in violation of clearly established law, and, thus, the officers had qualified immunity. After learning, however, that plaintiff was not the person sought, officers did violate the Fourth Amendment by keeping him … Continue reading
OH: Def has no standing in place of another that he was arrested in, so Steagald provides him no relief
Defendant could not show he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the premises of a third person, although he was the person being looked for. The court discusses Steagald and the Ninth Circuit’s en banc Underwood (1983, Treatise §§ … Continue reading
CA1: There was no “doorway arrest” under Santana when ptf was behind a locked door the entire time
Police entered plaintiff’s house without a warrant to arrest him. An hour had passed, and any exigency was long gone. As for whether this could be a “doorway arrest” under Santana, that too is rejected because plaintiff was behind a … Continue reading