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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
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- 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)
--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. 
Monthly Archives: January 2017
W.D.Mo.: RS still required for a Long protective weapons search of a car
There was no reasonable suspicion for a protective weapons search. Without reasonable suspicion, all cars are subject to search without cause, thereby nullifying the Fourth Amendment. Defendant was stopped in his driveway, and there was also an effort to call … Continue reading
OH6: Because OH limits minor misdemeanor searches more than the 4A, search of def because of marijuana flakes on shirt was unreasonable
Defendant was a passenger in a vehicle stopped for suspicion the driver had a suspended DL because of a computer check. Defendant was made to get out of the vehicle despite being blind. The officer noted marijuana flakes on his … Continue reading
Reason: ‘Hit and Run’ Blog: Inside Mississippi’s Asset Forfeiture Extortion Racket
Reason: ‘Hit and Run’ Blog: Inside Mississippi’s Asset Forfeiture Extortion Racket by C.J. Ciaramella: State narcotics police seized $4 million in cash—as well as couches, comics, and 18-wheelers—through asset forfeiture in 2015.
SCOTUS: Warning before use of deadly force not “clearly established” [or established at all]
It does not violate clearly established law under the Fourth Amendment to shoot without warning when the shooting is otherwise justified. White v. Pauly, 2017 U.S. LEXIS 5 (Jan. 9, 2017) (per curiam):
OR: Trash collector could segregate def’s trash for police
Defendant’s trash was segregated by the private contractor working for the city on defendants’ collection days. That is virtually indistinguishable from State v. Howard, 204 Ore. App. 438, 129 P.3d 792 (2006), aff’d, 342 Ore. 635, 157 P.3d 1189 (2007), … Continue reading
D.Me.: Third party consenter’s apparent authority included the attic
“Contrary to Defendant’s argument, Ms. Barry had common authority over the property. She lived in the home with Defendant and their minor child, and shared a bedroom with Defendant. Consistent with the fact she resided in the home and had … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: USMJ accidentally crossing out a paragraph when a single sentence about no-knock was intended to be struck didn’t undermine PC; judge deciding the case made the mistake
The USMJ who issued the search warrant decides its validity. An entire paragraph was crossed out, but the court says that it only intended to cross out the no-knock authorization. Since the warrant was signed and the officers were directed … Continue reading
D.Utah: Tossing bag of drugs onto somebody else’s porch is an abandonment; where the police were standing doesn’t matter
Defendant’s tossing a black bag with drugs onto the porch of another apparently attempting to distance himself from them was an abandonment, and he had no standing as to what was thrown onto the porch. It matters not where the … Continue reading
IN: Tossing flash bang into room with only a 9 month old baby in a playpen during drug raid was excessive under the circumstances; suppressed
Using a flash bang device during a SWAT drug raid that went off in a room with only a nine-month old baby in a playpen violated the state constitution for its overall unreasonableness. Watkins v. State, 2017 Ind. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Frisk was without RS, but computer check showed outstanding arrest warrant, so inevitable discovery applies
“In sum, at the time Browning decided to conduct a Terry pat-down of James’ outer clothing, he was faced with a suspect that (1) was present in a high-crime area, (2) was, by his own admission, recently released from prison … Continue reading
NE: Recognizing driver as having suspended DL is RS for stop without computer check
An officer recognizing the driver of a car as somebody with a suspended license is reasonable suspicion for a stop without even checking the computer. State v. Arizola, 295 Neb. 477, 2017 Neb. LEXIS 1 (Jan. 6, 2017). Plaintiff’s claim … Continue reading
D.Minn.: IP address and alleged crime was sufficient nexus to def’s electronic devices
Somehow linking defendant’s address to an IP address in an investigation of use of the internet is nexus if there is otherwise probable cause to search electronic devices at defendant’s address. (How it was obtained isn’t all that important. The … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Franks challenge requires proffer by affidavit, not merely representations by counsel
Franks challenge requires an offer of proof by affidavit. Representations of counsel aren’t enough. United States v. Houston, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 558 (M.D.Fla. Jan. 4, 2017). After dealing with all the allegations:
D.Idaho: Def’s flight from an unreasonable stop, after initial detention, wasn’t attenuated
Defendant’s flight and dropping gun from an illegal arrest here wasn’t an intervening circumstance. There was nothing in the 911 call that justified defendant’s stop in the first place. Defendant complied at first, and then fled. United States v. Gallinger, … Continue reading
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: This week in drug raids
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: This week in drug raids: The latest in busted doors, dead dogs and dead bodies. … Meanwhile, the Drug War Chronicle reports that 49 people were killed in police drug war operations in 2016, … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Apparent hand-to-hand transaction in high crime area is RS; officers don’t have to actually see the drugs
Officers don’t have to actually see drugs pass in an apparent hand-to-hand transaction in a high crime area to have reasonable suspicion. Reasonable suspicion isn’t a certainty. United States v. Slaughter, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 569 (W.D.Ky. Jan. 4, 2017):
The Legal Intelligencer: Will Technology Change the Interpretation of the Fourth Amendment? Part 2
The Legal Intelligencer: Will Technology Change the Interpretation of the Fourth Amendment? Part 2 by Leonard Deutchman:
Tribune-Review: Equal enforcement for all: Set StingRay standard (Editorial)
Tribune-Review: Equal enforcement for all: Set StingRay standard (Editorial): A new, bipartisan House Oversight and Government Reform Committee report rightly calls for a national standard governing all federal, state and local law enforcers’ use of devices that mimic cellphone towers … Continue reading
AntiWar.com: There’s Little Reason To be Optimistic About Trump and Privacy
AntiWar.com: There’s Little Reason To be Optimistic About Trump and Privacy by Lucy Steigerwald: