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- 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: November 2016
WSJ: Cellphone Smudges Yield a Trove of Forensic Data
WSJ: Cellphone Smudges Yield a Trove of Forensic Data by Robert Lee Hotz: Researchers say molecules and microbes left on phone, keys, credit cards can linger for months.
ID: Officer writing ticket providing backup to drug dog abandoned traffic ticket making it a criminal investigation; suppressed
The officer’s delaying of the traffic stop for 2½ minutes while performing a back-up function for a drug dog sweep violated defendant’s rights under the Fourth Amendment, because the seizure, initially valid based on a cracked windshield, became unreasonable after … Continue reading
CA6: Rule 41(g) motion for return of property doesn’t lie in federal court when state officers seized, even in a federal prosecution
Rule 41(g) motion for return of property requires that officers of the federal government have seized it. Where state and local authorities seized the property, a 41(g) motion doesn’t lie in federal court. United States v. Price, 2016 U.S. App. … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Landlord had apparent authority to consent because of writ of possession
Defendant’s landlord had a writ of possession from a state court and had evicted him from the premises. He called the police and the police saw the writ of possession, and they had no reason to question it. The court … Continue reading
MD: Dog sniff two months earlier didn’t justify search incident on arrest
Defendant’s car was subjected to a drug dog sniff in March 2014 finding drugs, but he wasn’t arrested. Arrest warrants were issued later, and two months later he was arrested. A search incident for drugs wasn’t valid two months later, … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Cursory look at cell phone that revealed nothing doesn’t preclude PC for SW
A cursory search of a codefendant’s phone produced nothing and a cursory look at defendant’s phone didn’t either. That does not, however, preclude a finding of probable cause to believe that there was evidence on the phone for a search … Continue reading
NLJ: Ninth Circuit Considers Limits to DEA Access to Oregon Prescription Drug Monitoring Program
NLJ: Ninth Circuit Considers Limits to DEA Access to Oregon Prescription Drug Monitoring Program: On November 7, 2016, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit heard arguments in Oregon Prescription Drug Monitoring Program v. United States DEA, No. … Continue reading
NJ: Protective sweep requires at least some slight justification another person may be present; here, there was none
A woman called police as a victim of domestic violence. When they arrived, she was in her car, and she gave an address of where her assailant was but no name. They go to that address and enter, and then … Continue reading
NY co.ct.: Noting split in case law, slight smell of MJ in the passenger compartment generally doesn’t justify a search of the trunk; here, however, trunk accessible from inside car
Noting a split in authorities, the court finds that the smell of marijuana in the passenger compartment [here, coming off the rental agreement] does not give probable cause to search the trunk. Here, however, the trunk was accessible from the … Continue reading
IA: Trained drug dog’s instinctive jump into the window of def’s car didn’t make the dog sniff unreasonable
A trained drug dog’s instinctive jump through an open window and into defendant’s vehicle did not violate his right to be free from unreasonable searches. [If the dog is so well-trained, what’s it doing jumping through the window anyway? The … Continue reading
FL2: Fireman’s plain view of contraband was valid, but then there was a search that wasn’t
Contraband in plain view seen by firemen in defendant’s garage was lawfully seized. Guns and cash weren’t in plain view, and they were seen after a re-sweep of the house with the police, so they weren’t lawfully seized. Young v. … Continue reading
NY4: Consent form filled out by police wasn’t proof of control of the premises; facts otherwise too vague
Defendant’s consent form was written by the police with boilerplate language, and the consent form is not sufficient evidence of control of the place searched. For all the proof shows, he was just somewhat familiar with the place and there … Continue reading
MA: Inventory of backpack was unnecessary where def’s grandmother was there and could have taken it; giving it to her satisfied legal justifications for inventory
There was no need to inventory defendant’s backpack when his car was being impounded where his grandmother was there and could have taken it away. Since a purpose of inventory is to prevent theft and false claims, turning the backpack … Continue reading
Two on justified reasonableness of delay of a traffic stop
The delay in defendant’s detention was reasonable because a person with the same name had been previously deported, and officers were trying to get a picture of that person sent to them. United States v. Jimenez-Delatorre, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Warrantless entry because of unjustified fear of destruction of heroin inside voided entry
Police entered defendant’s hotel room without a warrant because there was heroin inside and they claimed they feared destruction of evidence. Instead, however, the occupant was expecting a buyer to come back and the officers heard nothing from inside the … Continue reading
CA10: If an inventory could be lawfully conducted, the fact it stopped when guns were found doesn’t make it void
Defendant’s car was subjected to an inventory which he contended was unreasonable. If he had been reasonably conducted, the firearms would have been found in any event, such as where an inventory starts but ends when something significant is found, … Continue reading
TN: Def’s children were missing after he was arrested for shooting his wife, so entry into house was based on exigency
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not challenging the warrantless entry into defendant’s home. He was apprehended for shootings including shooting his wife, and their children were unaccounted for. The entry was valid based on exigency. Therefore, no IAC. Jordan v. … Continue reading
NYTimes: A 10-Digit Key Code to Your Private Life: Your Cellphone Number
NYTimes: A 10-Digit Key Code to Your Private Life: Your Cellphone Number by Steve Lohr:
IA: All specifics of lack of PC need to be raised in trial court; here, this argument was waived
Defendant was stopped for having one headlight. The specific claim that there was no probable cause for pulling him over because he wasn’t on a public road was never presented to the trial court, and it’s waived. State v. Tusler, … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: A vehicle inventory is not invalid because it is discretionary
Defendant had standing in his girlfriend’s car. His stuff was throughout it, and he drove it some. An inventory is not invalid because the decision to inventory or not is discretionary. United States v. Gilmore, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 156240 … Continue reading