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- D.Utah: Minor time detours to writing up a traffic ticket didn’t unreasonable extend this stop; the dog was quickly on its way
- KY: Despite lack of nexus, SW sustained under GFE
- CO: DNA could be seized from trash
- CA8: Nebraska statute allowing SWs to cross state lines doesn’t violate 4A
- WA: Sweat patch as condition of release violated state constitution’s privacy provision
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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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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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: Drug or alcohol testing
NM follows Birchfield and holds state can prosecute refusal on implied consent
“P2 We conclude that sufficient evidence supported the trial court’s finding that Defendant was driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor and was impaired to the slightest degree. However, in light of the United States Supreme Court’s recent holding in … Continue reading
TX10: State showed exigency for warrantless blood draw by necessary delay
The state showed exigency for a warrantless blood draw. Defendant was in a crash, and the trooper (the only one in the county) arrived an hour after the wreck, and defendant was already at the hospital. After investigating the scene, … Continue reading
OH2: Warrantless blood draw from unconscious def being treated in hospital was reasonable because of exigency
Defendant ran into construction equipment killing his passenger and severely injuring himself. At the hospital, he was being treated and unconscious. He smelled of alcohol. The warrantless blood test was based on exigency. State v. Hayes, 2016-Ohio-7241, 2016 Ohio App. … Continue reading
AZ: Search incident of def’s backpack in next room when he was handcuffed was unreasonable
“The state argues Snyder’s backpack was within his immediate control because it was next to the entrance of the room in the security office where Snyder was detained. According to the state, Snyder could have ‘quickly reached the backpack (notwithstanding … Continue reading
NE: A DRE expert isn’t required to make stop have PC for a DWI arrest
It isn’t required that the state have a DRE specialist make an arrest to determine whether there is probable cause for defendant’s arrest. It is required that the officers exclude other possibilities for the appearance of intoxication. State v. Rothenberger, … Continue reading
ND: Birchfield vacated and dismissed on remand
Birchfield on remand: “We vacate our opinion affirming Birchfield’s conviction for refusal to submit to a chemical blood test to the extent it is inconsistent with Birchfield v. North Dakota. We remand to the district court with directions to allow … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: Teachers Fight DC’s Random Drug Tests
Courthouse News Service: Teachers Fight DC’s Random Drug Tests by Tim Ryan: WASHINGTON (CN) — An association of 75 private schools sued the District of Columbia for threatening to pull their licenses if they do not subject teachers to “random … Continue reading
AK: Implied consent law doesn’t prohibit blood test SW
“[T]he district court erred when it interpreted Alaska’s implied consent law as restricting the court’s authority to issue a search warrant for a chemical test of a person’s blood upon a proper showing of probable cause. We therefore reverse the … Continue reading
D.Ore.: Driver doesn’t have standing to challenge search of passenger’s person
Although the stop of defendant’s car was unreasonable, defendant still doesn’t have standing to question the search of his passenger. United States v. Kuespert, 773 F.2d 1066 (9th Cir. 1985). United States v. Abarza, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103035 (D.Ore. … Continue reading
ID: Without an attempt to get a blood draw SW at night, state can’t claim exigency for not
Defendant was subjected to a warrantless blood draw that should have been suppressed. The officer testified it would have taken 90 minutes to get a warrant then, but he never even attempted to. To claim that as exigency, there essentially … Continue reading
MD statute permitting warrantless breath tests after an accident on PC is constitutional
“The sole question in this case is the constitutionality of §16-205.1(c) of the Transportation (‘TR’) Article of the Maryland Code, which allows a warrantless breath or blood alcohol test of a driver who is (1) ‘involved in a motor vehicle … Continue reading
CA11: Breath test to enter HS prom was reasonable as school search, but unnecessary detention of those who passed was not
Plaintiffs rode a party bus to their high school prom. The prom had a strict no alcohol, drug, or tobacco policy. A champagne bottle was found on the bus, and that led the school district to detain everybody on the … Continue reading
DE: Subpoena for blood test results from hospital records reasonable
Defendant was involved in an auto accident and treated at a hospital where his blood was drawn. The state’s attorney sought the test results by subpoena not search warrant, and the court finds this reasonable. This is not a case … Continue reading
Houston Chronicle: 298 wrongful drug convictions identified in ongoing audit
Houston Chronicle: 298 wrongful drug convictions identified in ongoing audit by Lise Olsen and Anita Hassan: In all 298 cases, prosecutors accepted both felony and misdemeanor plea deals before lab tests were performed. The $2 roadside tests, which officers use … Continue reading
GA: Unconscious defendant doesn’t get the implied consent notice
Unconscious defendant doesn’t get the implied consent notice. Bailey v. State, 2016 Ga. App. LEXIS 433 (July 13, 2016).* The officer here had reasonable suspicion to stop defendant’s car after it left a motel with a man and woman inside, … Continue reading
New American: South Dakota Forcibly Catheterizes Suspects Refusing to Submit to Urine Test
New American: South Dakota Forcibly Catheterizes Suspects Refusing to Submit to Urine Test by Joe Wolverton, II: South Dakota Forcibly Catheterizes Suspects Refusing to Submit to Urine Test The state of South Dakota is forcibly catheterizing people who refuse to … Continue reading