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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (discontinued 2018)
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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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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) -
“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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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)
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Category Archives: Knock and announce
M.D.Fla.: Not IAC to not call private searcher at suppression hearing where it wouldn’t have changed the outcome
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not calling a “hotel maid” who found defendant’s gun at the suppression hearing that led to his ACCA sentence. He doesn’t show that she would have changed the outcome. The private search issue was litigated … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Inevitable discovery overcomes knock-and-announce failure
Officers arguably violated the knock-and-announce requirement by entering seconds after announcing, giving the occupants no time to respond. Still inevitable discovery applies. United States v. Baez, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21781 (W.D. Pa. Feb. 6, 2025):
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
E.D.Tex.: Suppression not remedy for knock-and-announce violation
Suppression is not the remedy for a knock-and-announce violation. United States v. Bello, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 236255 (E.D. Tex. Dec. 19, 2024),* adopted, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2332 (E.D. Tex. Jan. 7, 2025).* Defendant had no standing to question … Continue reading
NJ: Search not suppressed because bodycam wasn’t turned on
New Jersey has a bodycam directive that was apparently violated by the officers not turning theirs on before a search. Failure to turn on the bodycams was not a constitutional violation, and the court refuses to suppress. In addition, “the … Continue reading
CA8: Use of SWAT team for no-knock drug warrant not clearly established as unreasonable
The use of the SWAT team to execute a no-knock drug warrant was not clearly established to be unreasonable in 2017 when this happened. Davis v. City of Little Rock, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 30415 (8th Cir. Dec. 3, 2024):
OK: Exclusion not the remedy for knock-and-announce violation under state constitution either
Exclusion is not the remedy for a knock-and-announce violation, following Hudson under state constitution, too. State v. Velasquez, 2024 OK CR 29, 2024 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 28 (Oct. 24, 2024). Officers had a warrant for defendant’s arrest, and when … Continue reading
NY: Not IAC to not raise a novel knock-and-announce argument
Defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel argument that defense counsel was deficient in not raising a novel argument about not following SCOTUS’s Hudson knock-and-announce case fails. No reasonable defense lawyer would have seen the need to raise it, and the merits … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: State knock-and-announce statute, if it applies at all, doesn’t confer standing on an alleged guest
Plaintiff said she was an overnight guest at the house searched and thus had standing, except that was never proved. “None of those facts are present here, as there is no record evidence showing that James had personal belongings in … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Failure to challenge lack of announcement in federal court was futile and not ineffective assistance
“First, Mr. Smith cannot establish prejudice from his attorney failing to raise the alleged violation of the knock-and-announce requirement as ‘the exclusionary rule does not apply to evidence discovered in the ensuing search.’ United States v. Acosta, 502 F.3d 54, … Continue reading
CA9: Boat moored near an open waterway is a “vehicle” not subject to the knock-and-announce
A boat moored near an open waterway is a “vehicle” not subject to the knock-and-announce rule. United States v. Jones, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 14481 (9th Cir. June 12, 2024). The government satisfied the independent source doctrine showing that it … Continue reading
FL1: Violation of state knock-and-announce statute requires suppression; Hudson not followed
Violation of the state knock-and-announce statute required suppression. Officers entered with haste and didn’t give defendant the chance to surrender peaceably to the search. The statute is a century old, and it serves important privacy interests. The state’s claim that … Continue reading
CA2: District court erred in suppressing a SW executed at 6 am where SW and Rule 41 say 6 am to 10 pm
This search warrant was executed at 6 am, and the district court erred in granting the motion to suppress. “While 6:00 a.m. is the earliest time provided, it cannot be said that executing a warrant in accordance with its text–which … Continue reading
Marshall Project: I ‘Stood My Ground’ — but It Was the Police Raiding My House
The Marshall Project: I ‘Stood My Ground’ — but It Was the Police Raiding My House (“Diamonds Ford thought she was shooting at an intruder when Florida cops raided her home without knocking. Then she was charged with attempted murder.”)
Reason: Marvin Guy, Who Shot a Cop During a No-Knock Raid, Is Found Guilty of Murder
Reason: Marvin Guy, Who Shot a Cop During a No-Knock Raid, Is Found Guilty of Murder by Billy Binion (“He is not the first defendant that has struggled to reconcile the controversial raids with self-defense.”)
FL2: Knock-and-announce not violated by “peaceably” entering through open door
“The record establishes that the doors to Mr. Wallin’s room were ‘completely wide open’ and the officers entered without force to execute a valid arrest warrant. The knock-and-announce requirement in section 901.19(1) did not apply based on the statute’s plain … Continue reading
NJ: <6 second delay between 5 am announcement and entry violated state constitution
Less than six seconds between announcement and entry at 5 am violated the state constitutional guarantee for announcement before entry. Defendant was not known to ever be violent. State v. Nieves, 2023 N.J. Super. LEXIS 84 (Aug. 9, 2023):
PA: Officers knocked before entry and defendant acknowledged their presence
Failure to comply with the knock and announce requirement could result in exclusion under state law. Here, however, the trial court’s findings of fact justified dispensing with the knock-and-announce requirement. Officers heard defendant acknowledge their presence, and then they entered … Continue reading
CA11: Mental health seizures require objective reasonableness of danger
Mental health seizures under Florida’s Baker Act comply with the Fourth Amendment when it’s objectively reasonable to believe that the person is a danger to himself or others. Here the officers had that from defendant’s threats to shoot people. United … Continue reading
IA: Violation of knock-and-announce statute requires suppression
When the target of an arrest warrant opens the door, state statute requires announcement and not just barging in. Here, defendant was compliant and opened the door. The officers needed to announce their purpose. The alleged plain view inside is … Continue reading