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- USA Today: Cell phone SW for cause of crash
- Treatise on sale to 11/1
- 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
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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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General (many free):
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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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"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: Plain view, feel, smell
TN: That officer can’t tell difference between hemp and marijuana doesn’t mean there wasn’t PC from plain smell
The fact the officer can’t tell the difference between hemp and marijuana doesn’t mean there wasn’t probable cause by plain smell. The stop was justified by the community caretaking function because he was asleep at an intersection. State v. Jones, … Continue reading
OR: Officer’s use of a flashlight to facilitate a plan view at night was reasonable
The officer’s use of a flashlight to facilitate a plan view at night was reasonable. State v. Starr, 337 Or. App. 682 (Feb. 12, 2025).* There was probable cause to believe blood on the cell phone was defendant’s justifying the … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Fact def was armed when SW for firearms was executed didn’t preclude further search for firearms
The affidavit for search warrant was particular for firearms based on threatening social media posts. When the search occurred, defendant was armed, but there was probable cause there could be other firearms on the premises. United States v. Rui Jiang, … Continue reading
CA9: Knock-and-announce failure doesn’t lead to suppression
Knock-and-announce failure doesn’t lead to suppression. United States v. Benlevi, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 2452 (9th Cir. Feb. 4, 2025). Police were called to a motel where a vehicle was illegally parked in a handicapped zone for an hour allegedly … Continue reading
CA3: There is no REP in the exterior of a package in transit
The initial detention and exterior inspection of the parcel sent to defendant did not implicate his Fourth Amendment rights because it occurred within the guaranteed delivery window. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the exterior of the parcel … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Putting def’s cell phone into airplane mode wasn’t a search
Putting defendant’s cell phone into airplane mode wasn’t a search. The name “Red” was seen on the screen. There was independent probable cause for the cell phone warrant. United States v. Hudson, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14952 (E.D. Mo. Jan. … Continue reading
AR: “[T]he exclusionary rule—absent a showing of bad faith—does not apply in a revocation hearing.”
“[T]he exclusionary rule—absent a showing of bad faith—does not apply in a revocation hearing.” Wallace v. State, 2025 Ark. App. 19 (Jan. 15, 2025). An officer on patrol in a motel parking lot saw defendant’s car. They drove past each … Continue reading
CA1: Report of a dead body in a house for a day didn’t justify warrantless entry
The police entered defendant’s home on a report of a dead body inside. They knew, however, the person was dead at least a day and likely wasn’t inside the home by then. The emergency exception did not apply. United States … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Despite state MMJ, smell of MJ still PC under federal law
Despite medical marijuana being legal in this state, the smell of marijuana from a car is still probable cause under federal law. United States v. Skouras, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10 (M.D. Pa. Jan. 2, 2025):
CA5: Where 4A claim undecided below, it doesn’t form basis for stay
In the appeal of Texas Top Cop Shop, Inc. v. Garland, posted here, the Fifth Circuit doesn’t rely on the undecided Fourth Amendment claim in deciding on a stay. 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 32565 (5th Cir. Dec. 23, 2024).* The … Continue reading
NC: Knock-and-talk led to smell of MJ and attempt to bar the door, and that was exigency
The officer came to defendant’s door for a knock-and-talk about marijuana sales, and, when the door was opened, he could smell marijuana. Defendant shut the door and attempted to put a bar up to block access, and that was all … Continue reading
CA2: Plain view seizure of cell phone established by officers’ knowledge of role of cell phones in crime
The evidentiary value of a cell phone for plain view was established here because, when officers saw the phone, they’d been investigating a conspiracy involving cell phone for months. United States v. Kurland, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 32177 (2d Cir. … Continue reading
IL: Smell of raw cannabis from car in a recreational state is still PC
“In sum, we hold that the odor of raw cannabis coming from a vehicle being operated on an Illinois highway, alone, is sufficient to provide police officers, who are trained and experienced in distinguishing between burnt and raw cannabis, with … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Ptf’s claim judge’s signature on SW was forged fails for not even alleging there was a search
“The plaintiff similarly alleges that Miller forged a judge’s signature on a search warrant. But he does not say anything else about this search warrant. Did law enforcement execute the search warrant? What, or where, did they search? Did they … Continue reading
MO: Plain error doesn’t revive a waived search claim
Defendant didn’t object pretrial or at trial to the search, and he can’t argue plain error now. State v. Lane, 2024 Mo. App. LEXIS 837 (Nov. 19, 2024). The finding defendant was stopped because of a seatbelt violation is not … Continue reading
PA: Merely reaching in car to secure gun in plain view was reasonable under state’s more stringent automobile exception
It was reasonable for the officer to reach in an open door and secure a gun seen in plain view under Pennsylvania’s more stringent automobile exception. Commonwealth v. Saunders, 2024 Pa. LEXIS 1734 (Nov. 20, 2024) (and there’s three opinions; … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Off-roading during fire restriction was RS
Reasonable suspicion and a park violation: “Accordingly, Sergeant Call’s 11 years of experience in Park County coupled with his knowledge of state and county law gave him reason to suspect that Mitchell was potentially engaged in criminal conduct—namely, trespassing and … Continue reading
Reason: Dallas Voters Nix an All-Purpose Excuse for Police Harassment: ‘I Smelled Marijuana’
Reason: Dallas Voters Nix an All-Purpose Excuse for Police Harassment: ‘I Smelled Marijuana’ by Jacob Sullum (“The ballot initiative says a whiff of weed does not establish probable cause for a search or seizure, which was already doubtful in light … Continue reading
FL1: Lack of candor in appeal brief earns admonition
Affirmed per curiam. The concurring opinion: The facts concerning the stop and search in the appeal brief demonstrate a serious lack of candor which the state didn’t even challenge. All counsel included was his cross-examination and omitted the state’s direct … Continue reading