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Recent Posts
- VA: 12 second question about drugs didn’t unreasonably prolong the stop that was going to take a while anyway
- E.D.Tenn.: Application for SW was considered in detention ruling
- TN: RS didn’t develop to continue stop; second stop based on first suppressed
- CA4: Traffic stop immediately became firearms investigation; suppressed
- CA10: Disagreement over spelling of street name didn’t make warrant fail particularity; GFE at least would apply
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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) -
“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. 
Monthly Archives: August 2015
NC Policy Blog: The Heien Effect
NC Policy Blog: The Heien Effect by Sharon McCloskey: In her dissenting opinion, state Supreme Court Justice Robin Hudson projected what might follow from a ruling condoning an officer’s subjective interpretation of the law: … Hudson was right.
AK: Drug paraphernalia and meth were found by plain feel
On defendant’s stop, the officer saw a cut off straw in defendant’s shirt pocket, and a frisk was justified because of hands in the pockets. The frisk of his thin material shorts revealed a lighter and more straws and it … Continue reading
VI: Arrest for possession of an unlicensed firearm required knowledge that the defendant had no license, not just that he possessed a firearm
Defendant’s arrest for possession of an unlicensed firearm in the Territory required knowledge that the defendant had no license, not just that he possessed a firearm. Motion to suppress granted. People v. Pryce, 2015 V.I. LEXIS 91 (Super.Ct. July 27, … Continue reading
CA6: Michigan’s state forfeiture law doesn’t deprive due process after an officer seizes money
Officers can issue a notice of forfeiture under Michigan law, and the person subject to the forfeiture has a valid state remedy, and that satisfies due process. “Officer Jones’s testimony is troubling, and municipalities should take care to operate within … Continue reading
OH10: A CODIS hit on defendant’s DNA was probable cause for a confirmatory DNA test
A CODIS hit on defendant’s DNA was probable cause for a confirmatory DNA test. State v. Goins, 2015-Ohio-3121, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 3039 (10th Dist. August 4, 2015). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not pursuing a motion to suppress before … Continue reading
UT: RS not required before a knock-and-talk
Officers do not need reasonable suspicion to conduct a knock-and-talk. Defendant’s consent to enter wasn’t involuntary because he thought he couldn’t refuse because he was on probation. State v. Fretheim, 2015 UT App 197, 2015 Utah App. LEXIS 206 (August … Continue reading
CA7: CI’s prediction of route of travel confirmed by GPS planted with SW was PC
CI’s prediction of defendant’s route of travel with heroin was corroborated by GPS placed on defendant’s car with a warrant. United States v. Reaves, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 13745 (7th Cir. August 6, 2015). A citizen informant called DC Metro … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: Just because something is exculpatory, it isn’t a Franks violation to fail to include it in the affidavit
Just because something is exculpatory, it isn’t a Franks violation to fail to include it in the affidavit for search warrant. Even exculpatory information doesn’t always undermine probable cause. United States v. Awtrey, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103284 (W.D.N.C. July … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Driving in tandem with a load of drugs justified frisk of occupants because of potential for weapons
Defendant was stopped because he was apparently driving in tandem with another vehicle carrying drugs that was stopped, and he ran a red light. Because it was a drug case and defendant was operating countersurveillance, a frisk for weapons was … Continue reading
CA10: Inventory not shown to be justified by standardized criteria and suppressed
The impoundment and inventory in this case were not shown to follow standardized criteria or policy. The vehicle was on a parking lot and not impeding traffic or any kind of risk to safety. No legitimate community caretaking purpose was … Continue reading
M.D.N.C.: Gov’t fails to show sheriff’s office discriminated against Hispanics in law enforcement
The government’s civil case against the Alamance County, N.C. sheriff fails to sufficiently show racial discrimination against Hispanics to justify relief. The court wasn’t kind to the Sheriff because of the use of ethnic slurs by jail deputies, but there … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Riley doesn’t apply retroactively on post-conviction review
Riley does not apply retroactively on post-conviction. Defendant pled guilty without raising a cell phone search question, and text message pictures showed him having sex with a minor who was in his car when it was stopped. Stringer v. United … Continue reading
IA: Merely citing state const doesn’t mean it will be applied; argument required
The state constitution will not be followed over the Fourth Amendment unless defendant makes an explicit argument why the state rule should be different. Just citing it isn’t enough. State v. Myers, 2015 Iowa App. LEXIS 695 (August 5, 2015):
N.D.Ga.: Govt’s email search protocol satisfied particularity despite large initial seizure
The government’s protocol for searching defendant’s emails satisfied the particularity requirement. All the emails were produced, but the government searched within them only for emails relating to copyright infringement, the crime under investigation. Other cases are in accord. United States … Continue reading
TPM: How New York Ended Up With 1.2 Million Open Arrest Warrants
TPM: How New York Ended Up With 1.2 Million Open Arrest Warrants by Allegra Kirkland:
DC: Entry on a domestic dispute unjustified by exigency; everybody involved was outside the house
The entry into defendant’s house was not supported by exigency. The police interviewed the participants in a domestic dispute outside, and there was no reason at all to believe that there was someone in the house in need of aid. … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Mere possession of a small amount of marijuana is not a serious offense to justify an exigent circumstances entry
Police lacked exigency for an entry into defendant’s home. They were called and didn’t go right away, and the best that could be said for the government’s position was that the occupants possessed marijuana, which the court distinguishes from the … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: A blood trail at a house 2½ hours after a shooting with missing participants was exigency
The previous night there was a shootout in East St. Louis in defendant’s neighborhood, some shots a block from defendant. Two people ended up in the hospital, neither associated with defendant’s address. In investigating at defendant’s house 2½ hours later, … Continue reading