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- N.D.Ohio: Not detailed enough inventory is not unreasonable
- VA: Stop at night in high-crime area with furtive movements made sweep of car reasonable after learning of def’s criminal history
- CA3: Exclusionary rule only applies to blameworthy conduct, not isolated mistakes
- D.P.R.: 4A violation doesn’t lead to dismissal of indictment
- E.D.Mich.: ER nurse’s finding shell casing in def’s pants was private search
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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Congressional Research Service:
--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: Staleness
D.Utah: Younger abstention applies to a person with common interest
Younger abstention applies to a person with common interest with a person who had their case adjudicated adversely in state court. Valdez v. City of Provo, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 204752 (D. Utah Sep. 9, 2026). Information that defendant has … Continue reading
CAAF: Information on computer stored in evidence room wasn’t stale
The military judge erred in concluding that a search warrant for computer information became stale. It was essentially frozen without change while in the government’s custody. United States v. Armour, 2026 CAAF LEXIS 712 (C.A.A.F. Aug. 24, 2026). There was … Continue reading
CA4: Affidavit for SW provided neither nexus nor timing and even failed GFE
The affidavit for warrant here provided neither nexus nor timing to address 6740. As to all around it, yes, but not there. As to timing, as to the others, yes, but all the police had as to 6740 was 13-year-old … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: SW for firearm didn’t go stale
This search warrant for a firearm wasn’t stale because firearms are kept. In any event, the good faith exception applies. United States v. Cherry, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178900 (D. Ariz. Aug. 11, 2026).* Defendant’s failure to file a post-trial … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: SW for phone 19 months after alleged crimes showed PC
The search warrant for defendant’s cell phone was issued in December 2024 for alleged crimes in April and May 2023. There was still probable cause despite the possibility that defendant had a different phone by then. The search was based … Continue reading
D.D.C.: PO’s alleged violation of probation regulations doesn’t warrant suppression if a reasonable mistake
Even if GPS monitoring by a Community Supervision Officer under D.C. law violated regulations, a reasonable mistake of law (Heien) overcomes the violation, and it is not suppressed. United States v. White, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92214 (D.D.C. Apr. 27, … Continue reading
MA: Two isolated controlled buys 20 days before SW issued were stale
The officer’s false statement he was present for a third controlled buy satisfied Franks and was excised. Defense counsel showed that it couldn’t have happened. The remainder says two controlled buys, and these were found to be isolated transactions, the … Continue reading
CA10: SW for gun three weeks after road rage incident wasn’t stale
Search warrant for a gun in defendant’s house allegedly involved in a road rage incident three weeks earlier was not stale. United States v. Becker, 168 F.4th 1337 (10th Cir. Mar. 9, 2026). Defendant’s December 2019 conviction is affirmed. Reviewing … Continue reading
CA6: 3 days between controlled buy and SW execution not stale
This search warrant didn’t go stale in the three days between the controlled buy and its execution. United States v. Lawrence, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 9780 (6th Cir. Apr. 3, 2026).* The BAC blood draw statute includes drawing and testing, … Continue reading
CT: Exclusionary rule does not apply in animal welfare cases which are civil
The animal control officer did a welfare check on animals at a house and entered the curtilage to look in a window. The exclusionary rule does not apply in animal welfare cases. NE Conn. Council of Gov’ts Animal Servs. ex … Continue reading
NJ: Alleged mistaken year in SW affidavit not a mere typo that can be overlooked
The mistaken year here was no mere typo that can be overlooked. It was repeated three times, and it made the probable cause showing stale. State v. Harris, 2026 N.J. Super. LEXIS 35 (Mar. 5, 2026):
N.D.Iowa: When an officer has PC for a stop and search, the 4A doesn’t require that it happen at the earliest possible time
When an officer has probable cause for a stop and search, the Fourth Amendment doesn’t require that it happen at the earliest possible time. It doesn’t become “stale” that fast, and here it was ongoing: driving on a suspended DL. … Continue reading
N.Y.Co.: Installing software on a cell phone to protect its data before search wasn’t unreasonable
“The Court is further unpersuaded by the Defendant’s assertion that the installation of software, aimed at preserving evidence rather than conducting a search, on the Defendant’s cellphone was an improper or unconstitutional intrusion. The manner in which law enforcement handled … Continue reading
D.S.D.: “Dismissal of an indictment is not an appropriate remedy for a Fourth Amendment violation.”
“Dismissal of an indictment is not an appropriate remedy for a Fourth Amendment violation. United States v. Chavez, 705 F.3d 381, 386 (8th Cir. 2013).” It may be for a due process violation. United States v. Pryor, 2026 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: SW for gun 11 days after a shooting wasn’t stale
The search warrant for a gun involved in shooting was not stale 11 days after the shooting. Firearms are durable and not consumables. United States v. Williams, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4950 (W.D. Pa. Jan. 12, 2026). The warrant for … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Ping information not stale
The ping information warrant here was not stale. United States v. Torres, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4593 (D. Idaho Jan. 9, 2026). [It also seems like it would never get stale. It is information not subject to change; if anything, … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: DTF stop on interstate wasn’t pretextual when it was objectively reasonable for overtinting
It doesn’t matter that DTF officers were on the interstate and ordered defendant’s stop for a window tint violation because there was objective justification for it. The rest of the stop was with reasonable suspicion for the drug dog. United … Continue reading
CA6: 4A doesn’t impose a “shot clock” on staleness
A three-week-old controlled buy was part of the probable cause. The Fourth Amendment doesn’t impose a “shot clock” on staleness. Nexus was clear: “The nexus in this case, by contrast, left nothing to the imagination.” Police used pole camera surveillance … Continue reading