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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)
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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: Drug or alcohol testing
IL: Hospital drawing blood was not acting as an agent of the state
A hospital drawing blood was not acting as an agent of the state. People v. Deroo, 2020 IL App (3d) 170163, 2020 Ill. App. LEXIS 313 (May 20, 2020). Defendant’s motion to dismiss his indictment for seizure of a sheep … Continue reading
SC: Def gets to litigate possible Mitchell exceptions on remand
Defendant is entitled to a remand to litigate whether a Mitchell warrantless BAC exception applies. State v. Key, 2020 S.C. LEXIS 71 (May 13, 2020). Defendant’s motion to suppress was properly denied by the good faith exception where obtaining of … Continue reading
CA11: Shooting passenger in a car used as a weapon unreasonable
Shooting a passenger in a car that was allegedly used as a weapon was unreasonable because the passenger had no control over the car and his shooting wouldn’t stop the car. Robinson v. Rankin, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 15297 (11th … Continue reading
D.Colo.: DEA subpoena for records of two pharmacies is enforced
The DEA’s subpoena to the Board of Pharmacy for controlled substances prescriptions for two pharmacies was reasonable and within the DEA’s jurisdiction. It is enforced. United States DOJ v. Colorado Bd. of Pharmacy, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69726 (D. Colo. … Continue reading
AR: Error in officers’ testimony as to place actually searched was properly excluded at trial as potentially confusing where it was clearly def’s place
Police confusion at trial as to the address actually searched wasn’t relevant, and the trial court didn’t abuse its discretion in foreclosing questions about that for confusion of the issues. “But his argument ignores the undisputed proof that the drugs … Continue reading
TN: Hair follicle test of parents in juvenile court on less than PC was justified by special needs doctrine
The juvenile court here had justification to order a hair follicle test on defendant for drug use because of the high interest in protecting the children. The search was justified under special needs. That ultimately led to his prosecution. State … Continue reading
NYDN: Mother sues Pittsburgh hospital for false-positive drug test during labor that led to child abuse probe
NYDN: Mother sues Pittsburgh hospital for false-positive drug test during labor that led to child abuse probe by Theresa Braine (“A western Pennsylvania mother is suing the hospital where she gave birth after it ran a drug test without her … Continue reading
WY: Refusing to permit execution of SW for blood BAC supported obstruction conviction
Defendant was properly convicted of obstruction of a peace officer for refusing to permit a search of his blood under a search warrant. Garza v. State, 2020 WY 32, 2020 Wyo. LEXIS 34 (Mar. 4, 2020). “Bennett-Martin cannot recover compensatory … Continue reading
Policeone.com: The constitutionality of blood draws in DWI cases: 3 recent SCOTUS opinions
Policeone.com: The constitutionality of blood draws in DWI cases: 3 recent SCOTUS opinions by Mike Callahan (the lede is about arresting a nurse for refusing a blood draw: “This incident was certainly a bad day for Nurse Wubbels, but it … Continue reading
WaPo: A mother briefly lost her newborn after failing a drug test. Her doctor suspects poppy seeds.
WaPo: A mother briefly lost her newborn after failing a drug test. Her doctor suspects poppy seeds. By Michael Brice-Saddler (“Rebecca Hernandez was forced to spend three days apart from her newborn boy as she awaited a confirmatory test, which … Continue reading
ME: Statute requiring blood draw in fatal accident without PC violates 4A; but GFE applied here
Maine’s statute that requires a blood draw of the driver in a fatal or near fatal accident without probable cause violates the Fourth Amendment. Thus, the 2007 case upholding the statute is overruled. It cannot be categorized under the special … Continue reading
NC: Obtaining blood sample by court order without PC or even RS suppressed
Blood draw evidence should have been suppressed because the order obtaining it was based on no showing of probable cause or even reasonable suspicion. Second degree murder conviction reversed. State v. Scott, 2020 N.C. App. LEXIS 69 (Jan. 21, 2020):
NC: Reasonable force can be used for a DUI blood draw under SW when def refuses
Officers had a search warrant for defendant’s blood while he was in the hospital for an accident. Relying on United States v. Bullock, 71 F.3d 171 (5th Cir. 1995), the court concludes that reasonable force can be used to take … Continue reading
FL5: State doesn’t get GFE on Birchfield where it came down day before def’s stop
Birchfield came down day before defendant’s arrest, and good faith exception isn’t applied. “Although it is understandable that a police officer might be unaware of the holding of a controlling court opinion within a day or two of its issuance, … Continue reading
IL: State’s delay in getting blood draw showed no exigency for dispensing with warrant
State’s own delays in attempting to get a blood draw showed lack of exigency for it. People v. Eubanks, 2019 IL 123525, 2019 Ill. LEXIS 1235 (Dec. 5, 2019):
FL follows Mitchell on blood draws from the unconscious
The Florida Supreme Court granted a certified question of public importance on whether a search warrant was required to draw blood from an unconscious motorist in the hospital. In the meantime, SCOTUS decided Mitchell v. Wisconsin. This court applies Mitchell … Continue reading
NYDN: NY prisoner in solitary for nearly 200 days over false positive on drug test: lawsuit
NYDN: NY prisoner in solitary for nearly 200 days over false positive on drug test: lawsuit by Stephen Rex Brown and Chelsie Rose Marcius (“The suit is part of a growing statewide scandal over an avalanche of false positives that … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: False Drug Test Results Blamed for Jailhouse Punishments
Courthouse News Service: False Drug Test Results Blamed for Jailhouse Punishments by Amanda Ottaway (“According to the complaint, DOCCS is currently in the process of overturning all positive results generated by the faulty tests, which it says are the result … Continue reading