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)
--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
D.S.D.: CI tip provided RS for probation home search
The PO’s CI provided information which came to the PO through the police. There was no independent verification of the CI’s tale, but there was enough detail to provide reasonable suspicion for a home search under the conditions of the … Continue reading
TN: Scope of probation search can be limited by the terms of the search condition
The probation search here lacked reasonable suspicion because the CI wasn’t adequately corroborated to amount to reasonable suspicion. Also, the probation search here was limited to the areas in the house controlled by the defendant’s under the search condition imposed … Continue reading
CA11: RS justified home search by PO when door opened and MJ could be smelled, plus more, not that it mattered
POs came to defendant’s place for a home visit. When the door was opened, the officer could smell marijuana. He asked for defendant and the man answering the door said defendant didn’t live there. He asked for defendant’s girlfriend who … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Even if there wasn’t PC for a home search, there was RS for a parole search
Even if the officer’s showing was insufficient to show probable cause, the officer could rely on defendant’s parole search waiver for the search because the information clearly provided at least reasonable suspicion. United States v. Ickes, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
LA4: Probation search unreasonable because PO not there; clearly pretext for criminal search
The collection of officers from several law enforcement agencies for a probation “compliance check” shows that it wasn’t a bona fide probation search. “Given the totality of the circumstances, the compliance check was unreasonably pretextual. Agents Bertrand and Hardy should … Continue reading
ND: Even a frequent visitor isn’t sufficiently connected to a probationer’s property to be subject to his probation search waiver
A mere visitor, albeit a frequent one, is not subject to search as an occupant of the premises under a probation search waiver. He has an insufficient connection to the property to be subject to the occupant’s waiver. State v. … Continue reading
CA9: Omission of 4A probation search waiver from wiretap application didn’t mean anything
Omitting the fact defendant was subject to a search waiver wasn’t material to a wiretap application. It’s omission from the wiretap affidavit didn’t matter. United States v. Rodriguez, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 4429 (9th Cir. March 14, 2017). Defendant couldn’t … Continue reading
CA9: Officer has to be aware of parole or probation search waiver before the search happens
The officer has to be aware of parole or probation search waiver before the search happens, if that’s the justification. United States v. Job, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 4428 (9th Cir. March 14, 2017):
SD: Living with a parolee reduces your expectation of privacy in premises as to nonparolee
Defendant lived with a parolee, so she had a diminished expectation of privacy in their home (here a motel room) from parole searches. In a spot UA check, he tested positive at the home for methamphetamine, and then police asked … Continue reading
ND: Cell phone subject to probation search of house where CP suspected to be on it
Defendant was on supervised probation, and his PO received information from his girlfriend that he had “provocative” pictures of clothed young girls he was uploading to a cell phone that had no service. It was reasonable to seize and search … Continue reading
ID: 4A waiver not mentioned at sentencing couldn’t later be imposed by PO
When defendant was sentenced, there was no Fourth Amendment waiver mentioned by the court, and the sentencing and probation order didn’t mention it. Six weeks later, he was forced to sign a Fourth Amendment waiver by his PO. That waiver … Continue reading
CA8: Adding search condition to supervised release after serving 26 years didn’t violate ex post facto clause
Defendant served about 26 years of a 30½ year sentence, and, after release, a search condition was added, and it did not violate the ex post facto clause. United States v. Winston, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 3685 (8th Cir. March … Continue reading
AR: Knock-and-announce applies to parole searches, but Hudson adopted and exclusionary rule doesn’t apply
The knock-and-announce rule applies to parole searches, and violation of the rule is a substantial violation of the Fourth Amendment and the state constitution. The court adopts Hudson, however, and finds that the exclusionary rule should not be applied. Lane … Continue reading
NY4: Search of cell phone for texts led to SW; not inevitable discovery because SW sought because of illegal search
Defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights in his cell phone text messages were violated by the police searching them without a warrant. The fact they got a warrant later didn’t help them because that was the only reason to search the phone, … Continue reading
WI: Probation condition against possession of a computer gives the PO power to search one found
Defendant had arson and sex offender convictions, and a term of probation was no computers without approval. They found a computer with live modems at his house, and he denied that the big computer worked, but he had a laptop. … Continue reading
NY1: Pawnbrokers have been heavily regulated for a century; rules for information storage are reasonable
Pawnbrokers have been a heavily regulated industry for over a century. NYC’s requirement of provision of certain information in digital format is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment (compare California Bankers Assn. v. Schultz) and the limited administrative searches are reasonable. … Continue reading
CA4: Drugs on an occupant of a vehicle supports a search of the trunk and other compartments
Drugs on an occupant of a vehicle supports a search of the trunk and other compartments. United States v. Brown, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 1720 (4th Cir. Jan. 31, 2017). Defendant appeals a supervised release search term that does not … Continue reading
Law Review: Fourth Amendment Rights of Probationers: The Lack of Explicit Probation Conditions and Warrantless Searches
Fourth Amendment Rights of Probationers: The Lack of Explicit Probation Conditions and Warrantless Searches by Taylor S. Rothman at University of Chicago Legal Forum.
CA8: Supervised release term of “random inspections of his computer’s internet and email usage history” reasonably justified search of def’s computer
Supervised release term of “random inspections of his computer’s internet and email usage history” reasonably justified search of defendant’s computer. United States v. McCoy, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 1695 (8th Cir. Jan. 31, 2017):
Cal.6th: Broad electronic search probation condition was justified by the crime
The defendant juvenile took pictures of his having sex with a girl he was in school with and then he blackmailed her. He was found delinquent under the juvenile law for possession of child pornography and extortion. The broad probation … Continue reading