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Recent Posts
- CA2: No 4A requirement for SWs being issued with notice to target
- CA6: Denying ptf access to his own bathroom during a search of his house stated 4A claim
- W.D.Mo.: Not exactly following the inventory policy doesn’t make it unreasonable under 4A
- GA: No IAC for not challenging complete cell phone download before search
- DNYUZ: CBP Workers Allegedly Used Government Databases to Spy on Exes, Crushes, and Colleagues
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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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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: Probation / Parole search
E.D.Mich.: A place probationer spent some nights wasn’t his official residence for probation search
Probation staff and the government failed to prove that the place searched under a probation search condition was defendant’s place. He was permitted to stay with relatives on occasion but those were not his residences. The search is suppressed. United … Continue reading
CA8: Pulling off a blanket during a stop on slight RS was unreasonable
Defendant got off a Greyhound bus in Omaha during a driver change. The officers just barely had reasonable suspicion to detain defendant, and pulling his blanket off amounted to a search. That enabled the officer to see he had a … Continue reading
MI: Omission def was a CI was not material where SW was based on possession and sale of drugs
“Agent Merle’s failure to reveal that Brown was a CI for DTF was not a material omission. As discussed previously, the warrant affidavit was based on Brown’s possession and sale of illegal drugs, which did not fall within the scope … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Rodriguez requires separate offense with RS
“Therefore, to extend the stop past this point to deploy his K9 partner, Frizko, even by mere minutes, Trooper Rauenhorst would have needed an additional, separate reasonably articulable factual basis upon which to believe a different offense was in need … Continue reading
OH5: Pickup of visitor parked on street could be searched with SW for premises where it was suspected of drug transactions there
Defendant’s pickup was parked on the street in front of another man’s house that was searched with a warrant. His truck was searched too, but wasn’t mentioned in the warrant. “We find the search of the truck was authorized by … Continue reading
CA9: Officers must have PC defendant had a parole search condition before the search
Officers must have probable cause to know defendant had a parole search condition before searching, and here they had that. United States v. Estrella, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 13994 (9th Cir. June 6, 2023). (In my state, it comes up … Continue reading
W.D.Mich.: When the question of PC for a warrant is close, there’s still a substantial basis for finding PC and GFE
The question of probable cause to search these packages was a close call. There clearly was at least reasonable suspicion and some of the same facts support probable cause. On the totality, there was at least a substantial basis for … Continue reading
OH5, D.Minn.: Not calling additional witnesses at suppression hearing didn’t change outcome
There was reasonable suspicion for the stop here, and defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not calling another witness that wouldn’t have changed the outcome. State v. Ware, 2023-Ohio-1807 (5th Dist. May 30, 2023).* In a tax warrant case, defense counsel … Continue reading
GA: Not objecting to mention of “probation” search at trial was not IAC
Not objecting to defendant’s probation status where it came up as a probation search was not unreasonable. Plus, it would have otherwise come in. “Hutcheson’s probation status was thus necessary to complete the State’s story of the crime. Trial counsel’s … Continue reading
CA4: Def gets remand of unexplained warrantless search condition on supervised release
The condition of supervised release that defendant submit to warrantless searches wasn’t explained to him or justified. Remanded. United States v. Davila, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 12714 (4th Cir. May 23, 2023). Plaintiff’s driving, observed by an officer and caught … Continue reading
CA7: Home confinement sentence included a valid search waiver
Defendant was serving a home confinement sentence that included a search waiver. Officers developed reasonable suspicion of another crime and a violation of living conditions. The search was reasonable. United States v. Beechler, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 12312 (7th Cir. … Continue reading
OH3: Def’s motion to determine legality of arrest never sought to suppress anything and wasn’t appealable
Defendant’s motion to determine the legality of his arrest was not even called a motion to suppress. It was not even appealable as it was framed. “[T]he motion filed by Sanchez on October 28, 2020, was not captioned a ‘motion … Continue reading
CO: Typo in date (9/9 v. 9/30) in SW affidavit could be overlooked by other contents referring to previous few hours; GFE also applies
The typographical error in the affidavit showing the date as September 9th when it should have been September 30th could be overlooked because the affidavit as a whole referred to the previous few hours, and the good faith exception applies. … Continue reading
D.Kan.: “The opening of the driver’s door had no effect or impact on the dog’s alert.”
“The opening of the driver’s door had no effect or impact on the dog’s alert.” United States v. Anderson, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73033 (D. Kan. Apr. 26, 2023). The facts in the record support the automobile exception as the … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Mere presence of FBI at USPO search didn’t make PO ‘stalking horse’
Mere presence of FBI and other law enforcement officers at USPO’s search based on reasonable suspicion did not make the PO a “stalking horse” for the police. United States v. Borges-Sánchez, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66017 (D.P.R. Apr. 14, 2023). … Continue reading
NV: A-C privilege reason for return of documents
Attorney-client privilege is reason for return of documents under F.R.Crim.P. 41(g), and Nevada recognizes that, too, regardless of whether there is an open investigation. In re Search Warrants Regarding Seizure of Documents, 2023 Nev. App. Unpub. LEXIS 131 (Apr. 7, … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Seizing def as he was opening his door was an invasion of the curtilage without exigency
After an attempted traffic stop, following defendant to his front door and stopping him after the screen door was opened in between it and the front door was curtilage, even in an apartment building. There was no exigency justifying the … Continue reading