Archives
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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)
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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
NY3: No exigency justified this entry; exclusionary rule applies in NY probation revo proceedings
There was no emergency basis for entry into defendant’s apartment, a probationer. The police understood that another person might be there who they were curious about. Still, there was no justification for the warrantless entry with gun drawn at midnight. … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Pole camera surveillance was troubling, but for def being on supervised release with a reduced REP
Pole camera surveillance of defendant may have been intrusive, and the court is sensitive to the ability of a pole camera to invade on privacy, but this case turns on defendant being on supervised release with a lower expectation of … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: No standing in car where permission to borrow had been revoked
Defendant had permission to possess and drive a car for a while, but it had been rescinded by the time of the search. Therefore, he lacked standing in the car. United States v. Leclear, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106550 (N.D. … Continue reading
N.D.Fla.: Email SW didn’t required search protocol be stated in SW
“The officers followed a reasonable protocol in conducting the search. The protocol was not in the warrant, but this did not render the warrant defective. See United States v. Khanani, 502 F.3d 1281, 1290 (11th Cir. 2007). And in any … Continue reading
KS: A field sobriety test is not a search.
A field sobriety test is not a search. Even if it was, this was shown to be by consent. City of Leawood v. Puccinelli, 2018 Kan. App. LEXIS 35 (June 22, 2018). This heading in the too long opinion explains … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Def’s parole search on erroneous dispatch report def was on parole means no exclusion under Herring
Defendant was stopped for a traffic offense, and dispatch said he was on parole which meant he was subject to search. He wasn’t on parole, but the officer’s good faith reliance on the dispatch report under Herring means no suppression. … Continue reading
SC: Failure to register offense didn’t justify electronic monitoring condition under Grady
Defendant was convicted of a sex offense in 1979. In 2011 he was convicted of a sex offender registration offense. An electronic monitoring condition was unreasonable and a violation of the Fourth Amendment on this record under Grady v. North … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Consent irrelevant to a parole search
Defendant was reasonably subjected to a parole search, and withdrawal of his consent was irrelevant. United States v. Perales, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99191 (D. Idaho June 11, 2018). The officer had reasonable suspicion to detain defendant for being a … Continue reading
Cal.1: Electronic search condition on juvenile was unreasonable for possession of a knife and rolling papers at school
The electronic search condition on this juvenile for having a knife, rolling papers, and a lighter in school after a school search was unreasonable. The state says its need to prevent him from procuring more marijuana, but the court disagrees. … Continue reading
LA5: Parole officers were stalking horses for police acting without RS
Defendant’s parole search was without reasonable suspicion. In addition, the parole officers were acting at the request of law enforcement officers acting on an unsubstantiated tip, and that’s unreasonable in this state. State v. Clay, 2018 La. App. LEXIS 1004 … Continue reading
KS: Parole search waiver permitted suspicionless home searches
Defendant’s parole search waiver permitted suspicionless searches of his home, despite the fact the statute didn’t specifically mention it. The court balances the state’s need with the intrusion on privacy, and there is a continuum of much lower privacy expectations … Continue reading
NC: On remand from Grady, realtime satellite based monitoring of a sex offender on release was unreasonable under 4A
On remand from Grady v. North Carolina, 135 S. Ct. 1368, 191 L. Ed. 2d 459 (2015), the state failed to prove that continuous realtime satellite based monitoring of defendant was unreasonable. The lack of a warrant requirement without any … Continue reading
Cal.1st: Cell phone probation search condition not unreasonable; def to rid self of gang affiliations
An electronic search condition of probation is not per se unreasonable under Riley. Here, it was reasonable to show whether defendant ridded himself of his gang affiliations which was a condition of probation. People v. Guzman, 2018 Cal. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Riley‘s cell phone SW requirement doesn’t apply to probation searches of a cell phone
Riley does not require a warrant for a probation search of a probationer’s cell phone. United States v. Fletcher, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65591 (S.D. Ohio Apr. 18, 2018). Officers had probable cause to search the trunk of a car … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Parole search was valid despite def being in jail at time
Defendant was on parole and allegedly shot at somebody. That justified a parole search of his residence. The fact he was in jail at the time didn’t matter. United States v. Jaiman, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64797 (S.D. N.Y. Apr. … Continue reading
CA1: Suppression motion was untimely without a showing of good cause, and it would not be determined on appeal
“Sweeney neither challenged the finding of untimeliness before the district court, nor does he now argue that his delay in filing the motion to suppress was excused by good cause. As such, because of his waiver, we need not address … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: No PC for the warrant, but it wasn’t “so lacking” in PC that the GFE wouldn’t apply
There was no probable cause for issuance of the search warrant, but it wasn’t “so lacking” in probable cause because there was at least something. “The officers, therefore, acted in good faith in executing the warrant because, although the affidavit … Continue reading
Cal.5: Detaining visiting non-probationer during probation search was unreasonable
Defendant was visiting a friend when the friend’s PO showed up for an unannounced search. Defendant was detained, too. His detention was unreasonable. People v. Gutierrez, 2018 Cal. App. LEXIS 282 (5th Dist. Mar. 29, 2018). This defendant challenged the … Continue reading
CA7: State’s use of state’s “John Doe” proceedings was shown to be in good faith
In the court’s second view of Wisconsin’s unique John Doe proceedings, the Seventh Circuit decides only the good faith exception and concludes that the reliance on state law and compliance with the Stored Communications Act was all in good faith. … Continue reading