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- MD: While protective sweep information made it into SW affidavit, there was PC without it
- N.D.Ga.: A Customs forensic search of a cell phone away from the border was still a border search
- 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
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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
NYTimes: Judges Replacing Conjecture With Formula for Bail
NYTimes: Judges Replacing Conjecture With Formula for Bail by Shaila Dewan: Setting bail is a difficult task for judges. They must try to foretell whether the defendant is likely to commit another crime, hurt someone or skip out on the … Continue reading
SF Chronicle: S.F. study finds big disparity in arrest rates between races
SF Chronicle: S.F. study finds big disparity in arrest rates between races by Kale Williams and Vivian Ho: Black people are disproportionately represented throughout the criminal justice system in San Francisco, from arrest to booking in jail to conviction and … Continue reading
IN: Smell of burnt MJ from car allows officer essentially to detain all
Defendant juvenile was a passenger in the back of a car stopped at 1:30 am, and there was a smell of burnt marijuana coming from the car. Under Pringle, that gave the officer cause to get everybody out of the … Continue reading
AZ: 911 hang up call justified entry onto curtilage and look in windows when no one answered door
Police received a 911 hang up call, and the call back was unanswered. They are treated as emergencies, and two officers responded. No one answered the door, so they went to a window to look in, and a marijuana plant … Continue reading
ND: Entry on a misdemeanor warrant was not unreasonable where an occupant said defendant was inside
Entry on a misdemeanor warrant was not unreasonable where an occupant said defendant was inside, following other authorities. State v. Schmidt, 2015 ND 134, 2015 N.D. LEXIS 132 (May 27, 2015):
CA6: Indictment not founded on false facts precludes Bivens action
Michigan Hutaree militia members were indicted, tried, and acquitted. Their Bivens action for malicious prosecution fails. The indictment was not based on provably false testimony, and there was thus probable cause for the case to go forward. “The indictment in … Continue reading
TX4: Private security guards’ detention for police was based on reasonable suspicion
The Texas exclusionary rule applies to private actors. The club security guards here had at least reasonable suspicion to detain and handcuff defendant for attempting to sell cocaine in the club as a citizen’s detention, akin to a citizen’s arrest. … Continue reading
CBS News: Innocent man arrested, jailed twice because of name
CBS News: Innocent man arrested, jailed twice because of name OLIVEHURST, Calif. — Two times, Gilberto Hernandez has been arrested and thrown in jail for crimes he didn’t commit — crimes that were allegedly committed by another man, who, to … Continue reading
KS declines to apply exclusionary rule to city officer’s extraterritorial arrest
The Kansas Supreme Court refuses in this case to apply the exclusionary rule to an extraterritorial police operation that resulted in defendant’s arrest, understanding why the trial court suppressed. The legislature modified the common law rule of territoriality somewhat, but … Continue reading
PA: Hot pursuit of a drug dealer to his door permitted warrantless entry when door answered
Officers observed defendant involved in a drug deal and then pursued him to his house and knocked and then entered on answer. This was not a police created exigency. The court engages in a lengthy state constitutional and historical review … Continue reading
TX2: Defense argument at “Catch-22”: If he lived there, arrest warrant good enough to enter; if not, other person consented
Defendant’s argument about the place entered being his home was a “Catch-22” for him. If he lived there, the arrest warrant authorized entry to get him, and the plain view was valid. If he didn’t, the other occupant had authority … Continue reading
PA: Fourth Amendment applies to mental commitment proceedings
The Fourth Amendment applies in mental commitment proceedings, and there must be probable cause for the seizure of the person the state seeks to commit. The fact that the criminal rules don’t apply to these proceedings does not mean that … Continue reading
CA3: Use of a police baton on legs to subdue struggling suspect was reasonable; SI of fleeing suspect reasonable and based on fact
Defendant was pulled over for possible speeding in a 25 mph zone, and he fled the car, tugging at his pants as he was running, strongly suggesting a gun in his pocket or waistband. One officer tackled him and had … Continue reading
D.R.I.: It was reasonable to believe defendant in house entered on arrest warrant when his car had been there and his cell phone ping put him there
Police had reason to believe defendant was in the apartment they entered with an arrest warrant for a Hobbs Act home invasion robbery: “The Court finds that the police reasonably believed prior to entry that Mr. Stewart resided at the … Continue reading
OR: No exigency for entry into home to arrest a DUI suspect; at minimum a telephonic warrant could have been obtained
Police had no exigency to enter defendant’s house and arrest him for suspicion of DUII. He was seen on the street last at 11:01 am, and they had his address from his LPN. They went to his house and saw … Continue reading
D.Utah: A commercial vehicle inspector without state arrest authority could still detain under the Fourth Amendment
Defendant stopped his truck at a weigh station, and a computer check was run on him. It turned out there was an order of protection between him and his passenger, a minor. The commercial vehicle inspector could detain him under … Continue reading
OH11: Officer’s delay in investigation of defendant made pursuit no longer “hot pursuit”
The officer had probable cause for defendant’s arrest, but it wasn’t any longer hot pursuit because the officer directed his attention elsewhere. The entry into defendant’s house could not be justified by hot pursuit. State v. Lowe, 2015-Ohio-1064, 2015 Ohio … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Telling employees they couldn’t leave during a regulatory inspection was a seizure of their person
In a regulatory inspection, “An order not to leave the business premises for two hours can reasonably be understood to constitute a detention as well as a seizure. Although the inspection was conducted according to regulatory authority, the statutory provision … Continue reading
A.F. Ct.Crim.App.: After defendant lawyered up, asking him for his cell phone password violated the Sixth Amendment
After defendant lawyered up, asking him for his cell phone password violated the Sixth Amendment, and the statement giving the password must be suppressed. United States v. Bondo, 2015 CCA LEXIS 89 (A.F. Ct. Crim. App. March 18, 2015) (unpublished):