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Recent Posts
- CAAF: Information on computer stored in evidence room wasn’t stale
- CAAF: SW’s incorporated affidavit satisfied particularity, reliance on CA10 case not CAAF case was error
- CA10: Def’s BO suggesting heroin abuse added to RS
- WaPo: They confided in ChatGPT. Their secrets ended up in court.
- CA6: No interlocutory appeal of denial of motion to suppress
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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. 
Monthly Archives: March 2016
CA1: Def’s answer to book-in as to employment that he was “a drug dealer” was admissible at trial
The CI said defendant had a gun and crack. Surveilling the defendant, officers noticed him reaching for his waistband, indicating he was likely armed. The stop and frisk was based on reasonable suspicion from the surveillance corroborating the gun. At … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: One month old information about a gun is not stale
The CI’s seeing a gun in defendant’s house a month before the warrant issued is not stale at all. “The Affidavit established a fair probability that firearms would be found.” Also, the detail of the affidavit provided cross–corroboration. Finally, defendant’s … Continue reading
Harper’s: John Ehrlichman admitting the racist origin of Nixon’s “war on drugs” in 1993
Harper’s: John Ehrlichman admitting the racist origin of Nixon’s “war on drugs” in 1993 Legalize It All | How to win the war on drugs by Dan Baum:
N.D.Ga.: No REP in records of company in receivership
The owner of a company put into receivership has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the business records, and the receiver can give them all to the government without violating the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Avery, 2016 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
CA7: Dog sniff by second officer while first officer wrote ticket didn’t extend stop
The officer with the dog doing the sniff happened while the first officer was writing the ticket, and that made it valid. Even if not, there was reasonable suspicion extending the stop for the dog sniff. United States v. Guidry, … Continue reading
MN: Arrest warrant permitted entry to arrest short term guest known to be in house
When police have probable cause to believe that the subject of a valid arrest warrant is present as a short-term social guest at another person’s residence, police may enter that residence to effectuate the arrest pursuant to the warrant without … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Seizing flash drives outside of the warrant requires suppression
Seizing flash drives which were outside of the warrant requires their suppression. Failure to include the attachment in a warrant left on the premises is only a rule violation, not a constitutional one. United States v. Rojas-Camilo, 2016 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Burden on motion to reconsider high because it leads to endless litigation; even so, def would lose on merits [just to avoid an IAC claim]
Defendant doesn’t show “new evidence, no change of law, and nothing the Court overlooked in denying the prior motion for suppression.” On the off chance that this could lead to a potential ineffectiveness challenge against former defense counsel, the court … Continue reading
NYTimes: F.B.I. Clash With Apple Loosed a Torrent of Possible Ways to Hack an iPhone
NYTimes: F.B.I. Clash With Apple Loosed a Torrent of Possible Ways to Hack an iPhone by Katies Benner: SAN FRANCISCO — For weeks, the United States government has said that the only way to open an iPhone used by a … Continue reading
NYTimes: Apple Policy on Bugs May Explain Why Hackers Would Help F.B.I.
NYTimes: Apple Policy on Bugs May Explain Why Hackers Would Help F.B.I. by Nicole Perlroth and Katie Benner: For all the steps Apple has taken to encrypt customers’ communications and its rhetoric around customer privacy, security experts said the company … Continue reading
Ars Technica: Representatives say NSA must end plans to expand domestic spying
Ars Technica: Representatives say NSA must end plans to expand domestic spying by Megan Geuss: Americans “deserve a public debate” on 4th amendment encroachments, reps say. Today, two representatives from the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee sent a letter … Continue reading
CA9: 4 am knock-and-talk violated implied license of Jardines
Officers came to defendant’s house at 4 am for a knock-and-talk to arrest him. They heard a crashing noise in the backyard and found defendant there. The subsequent search of defendant’s house was presumptively unreasonable and without any lawful justification. … Continue reading
AZ: Def’s past drug conviction wasn’t RS to extend stop for a dog sniff
Officers had no reasonable suspicion from defendants’ stop to conduct a dog sniff. The officer asked for consent and was denied. “I know my rights. I don’t have to let you search. I know what my fiancé is going to … Continue reading
KY: Use of drug dog during stop unjustified and suppressed
Defendant was stopped for weaving. Before the stop, however, other officers and this officer had discussed defendant being involved with drugs. That played a part in following defendant, but he did, in fact, weave. After defendant passed field sobriety tests … Continue reading
KY: Lack of staleness is determined from the totality of circumstances if time not specifically stated
Defendant was snitched off as a drug dealer by his own son as a citizen informant. The specific time of the possession of drugs wasn’t specifically stated, but here it can be ascertained by the totality of circumstances. Stating when … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Police received a tip of sex trafficking a minor; talking to the minor on the phone was PC
In a search of a hotel room and arrest for sex trafficking of a minor, officers talked to the minor by telephone and that was sufficient to provide probable cause without much need for corroboration. Here, there was a tip … Continue reading
WaPo: Court asks: Do police need a warrant to track your cellphone for months at a time?
WaPo: Court asks: Do police need a warrant to track your cellphone for months at a time? by Ann E. Marimow: Law enforcement officials have long relied on location details gleaned from cellphone towers as a powerful tool for tracing … Continue reading
NYTimes: FBI may not need Apple to unlock San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone
NYTimes: FBI may not need Apple to unlock San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone by Ellen Nakashima: RIVERSIDE, Calif.— The FBI may have found a way without Apple’s assistance to unlock the iPhone used by one of the shooters in the San … Continue reading
Reason.com: SCOTUS Declines Opportunity to Limit Random Border Patrol Stops
Reason.com: SCOTUS Declines Opportunity to Limit Random Border Patrol Stops by Jacob Sullum: The Court’s decision leaves motorists vulnerable to the whims of armed government agents who can stop them at will.
W.D.La.: That defendant was “staying” at a residence satisfies Payton’s “reason to believe” requirement
That defendant was “staying” at a residence satisfies Payton’s “reason to believe” requirement he’s residing there. United States v. Washington, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176979 (W.D.La. Nov. 18, 2015), adopted 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35051 (W.D. La. Mar. 16, 2016):