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- IN: Overdose call led to EMS telling police what they saw and that led to SW
- NY1: A mental health defense waives REP in the medical records about it
- MA: When a likely Franks violation comes out at trial, def gets to reopen the suppression issue
- RI: Challenge to one sentence of 8-page cell phone records SW fails; totality has to be considered
- WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics
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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)
--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: Community caretaking function
IN discusses three different state rationales for community caretaking function stops
Police received a call that a woman was stuck underneath a car at a gas station. When the officer arrived, the car had left. The officer found the car and stopped it. Defendant explained that the car was left without … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Just because def ran away from the car, it was still “readily mobile” for the automobile exception
“His argument is that because the car was parked and defendant had run away from the car, it was ‘not mobile within the meaning of the Carroll/Chambers exception.’ Not surprisingly, defendant cites no case law to support this argument; and … Continue reading
TN: Driver slumped over wheel of running car justified opening the door
Defendant was seen parked in front of a store slumped over the steering wheel. The community caretaking function permitted officers to open the door to check on him. The community caretaking function isn’t limited to consensual encounters. State v. McCormick, … Continue reading
CA8: Entry was justified by the community caretaking function because of possibility person inside was in danger
The police entry was here was justified because of the possibility that the person inside was unable to communicate and potentially held against her will or otherwise in danger. United States v. Smith, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 6749 (8th Cir. … Continue reading
KY: Strip search was reasonable because of def’s sagging pants and exposed underwear
Defendant’s “strip search” was reasonable in part because his pants were already sagging and his underwear was showing. Jackson v. Commonwealth, 2016 Ky. App. LEXIS 31 (March 4, 2016). Defendant was not in custody when he told police in a … Continue reading
NJ: Reentry of a house looking for a missing dementia patient was valid under community caretaking doctrine
Defendant called the police to tell them that his mother with dementia had wandered off again, as she had six months earlier. One of the officers who looked for her returned to the house to look there again because, three … Continue reading
WV: State failed to show factual basis for community caretaking function stop
“In other words, there is simply no evidence from the suppression hearing that would lead us to conclude that ‘citizens [might have been] in peril’ or that the petitioner himself might have been ‘in need of some form of assistance’ … Continue reading
WI: Where there was a bona fide community caretaking entry because of blood outside and inside a house, the smell of marijuana didn’t negate the exigency
The warrantless search of defendant’s home including a room with a locked, blood-spattered door, was reasonable under the community caretaking function. In light of all the facts that an officer had to consider, the blood outside the house, inside the … Continue reading
AR: Passenger puking out the car door was not shown to be a medical emergency
Passenger puking out the door on a parking lot was not reasonable suspicion for a stop, and the community caretaking function does not apply because there was no medical emergency. Meeks v. State, 2016 Ark. App. 9 (Jan. 13, 2016):
MA: Police remaining in def’s house after he went to hospital after a well-being check led to an unreasonable search
“In this appeal, the defendant challenges the denial of a motion to suppress the two tequila bottles seized during the well-being check. We conclude that the police had objectively reasonable grounds to believe that the defendant may have been injured … Continue reading
IL: Cell phone search was not subject to community caretaking function where purpose was to call his relatives, but they looked at texts
Defendant’s cell phone was searched four years before Riley, and the state conceded that it applied. So, it argued that the community caretaking function or consent applied, and the court found neither applied. The state argued that the officers searched … Continue reading
Techdirt: Fourth Amendment Update: ‘Community Caretaking’ Narrowly Defined; ‘Inevitable’ Discovery No Excuse For Illegal Discovery
Techdirt: Fourth Amendment Update: ‘Community Caretaking’ Narrowly Defined; ‘Inevitable’ Discovery No Excuse For Illegal Discovery by Tim Cushing:
CT: Keeping def’s knife because he was too drunk to be safe with it was reasonable; later he was discovered to have been in an assault with it
Defendant was first thought to be an assault victim, and the police took him home because he was intoxicated. He was asked about weapons on him, and he admitted to a knife, which he was relieved of, and it was … Continue reading
KS: Stop of car pulled off of rural road in early morning hours was without RS and could not be justified under community caretaking function
A KSP officer was driving on a rural road and saw a car on the side of the road with its lights off in the early morning hours. He slowed and pulled in behind it, calling in the LPN for … Continue reading
CA1: No QI for entry into wrong home chasing burglar; officer should have known this was unjustified
Officers pursuing a burglar down streets and into backyards was directed to a house by an unidentified person, and they entered it with a dog after allegedly announcing. No burglar, but the homeowner who was not pleased, and he got … Continue reading
UT: Police car’s overhead lights usually mean seizure to the motorist the police car is behind
A police car’s overhead lights can be ambiguous, but, to the motorist, they mean you are stopped and should not attempt to leave. It’s common knowledge the consequences of not staying stopped could be severe. Defendant was thus stopped, but … Continue reading
WY: Reaching in pocket of detained motorist having seizure was reasonable under community caretaking function
Defendant was stopped for a traffic offense and had a seizure. The officer reached into his pocket to look for medication and discovered marijuana. The search was valid under the community caretaking function. Allgier v. State, 2015 WY 137, 2015 … Continue reading
WA: One who cohabitates with a probationer can object to search of shared bedroom
Defendant cohabitated with a probationer. He was present and objected to the search of their bedroom, which he had the right to do. What was found was inadmissible against him. State v. Rooney, 2015 Wash. App. LEXIS 2462 (Oct. 13, … Continue reading
AR: Community caretaking function justified opening car door of driver asleep in a parking lot at 4:30 am with engine running
Defendant was found in a parking lot at 4:30 am with his lights on and engine running, but asleep. Opening the door was within the community caretaking function. Szabo v. State, 2015 Ark. App. 512, 2015 Ark. App. LEXIS 591 … Continue reading