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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)
--Outline of 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
E.D.Mo.: SW description was defective but reference to affidavit and GFE saves it
The warrant was defective on its face, only authorizing a search of the person of the accused. The affidavit for the warrant, however, was more detailed and described places and things: a hotel room and a Mercedes. The officer sought … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: After gun was found in car, search incident and automobile exception didn’t apply, but inventory was inevitable [right result, wrong reasoning]
After defendant’s car was stopped, the officers conducted a Michigan v. Long protective weapons search of the car while gaining control of the defendant, and a gun was located. There was a search incident: “Furthermore, he was standing at the … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Def’s conditional plea and slight chance of success on appeal aren’t enough to avoid detention at plea
Defendant litigated a motion to suppress and lost, and then he entered a conditional plea. Because his sentencing range is 10 years or more, he is ordered into custody. The court is not convinced there is a debatable issue for … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Rodriguez is not merely a durational test; RS allows continuing the stop
Rodriguez is not merely a durational test. Here, reasonable suspicion developed during the stop that justified the detention, something absent in Rodriguez. The video of the defendant’s stop doesn’t support his position, and it doesn’t undermine the government’s. It does … Continue reading
MA: A suppressed statement can’t be kept from the press
A suppressed statement cannot be suppressed from the press under the First Amendment. Commonwealth v. Chism, 2017 Mass. LEXIS 4 (Jan. 4, 2017):
Rare: Donald Trump has no interest in the Fourth Amendment
Rare: Donald Trump has no interest in the Fourth Amendment by Lucy Steigerwald:
S.D.Cal.: Def, a citizen of Mexico suspected of drug trafficking in his mother’s car, was lawfully arrested when he was lured to a border crossing to talk about her permanent resident status
Defendant’s mother, a citizen of Mexico who crossed regularly at Tecate, was arrested for importation of meth in her car, which she claimed was a gift from her son. Officers were looking for him and finally found him in Mexico … Continue reading
W.D.La.: Arrest of two in a check forgery scam created exigency for search of hotel room from which they operated with others
Defendant used a foil to cash checks for them, claiming it was for tax purposes. They turned out fairly quickly to be forged. Police found the foil and he told them all about it, and he said the same two … Continue reading
Guam: Jardines curtilage doesn’t apply to castle doctrine and defense of dwelling
Jardines on curtilage doesn’t apply to the statute on the castle doctrine for defense of home which applies to the habitable dwelling and not the porch. Defendant’s proffer jury instruction was properly denied. People v. John, 2016 Guam 41, 2016 … Continue reading
Center for Democracy and Technology: Alexa, is Law Enforcement Listening?
Center for Democracy and Technology: Alexa, is Law Enforcement Listening? by Joseph Jerome Just days after Christmas, news broke that police in Bentonville, Arkansas, had issued a warrant to Amazon to turn over audio recordings from an Echo as part … Continue reading
NYLJ: Ethics of Using Hacked Information to Prosecute Criminal and Civil Claims
NYLJ: Ethics of Using Hacked Information to Prosecute Criminal and Civil Claims by Rahul Mukhi and Martha Vega-Gonzalez: Since WikiLeaks first came to global prominence in 2010, an increasing number of vigilantes, activists, and allegedly even state actors have obtained … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: An anonymous tip included LPN of vehicle; when officers attempted to stop it, occupants shot at them; there was RS
An officer attempted to pull over a car based on an anonymous 911 tip that people who were in a crashed car got into the suspect vehicle and the LPN was given. The car refused to stop, a high speed … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Undocumented alien was held w/o PC and interrogated; exclusionary rule applies
“This is a story about law-enforcement officers who take shortcuts in their zeal to make arrests and the Fourth and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution, which prohibit them from doing so.” Defendant was validly stopped, but he was … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Def’s complete lack of knowledge of anything of vehicle was RS of drug trafficking
“Here, Officer Pratt had independent reasonable suspicion for prolonging the traffic stop. He noted that the fact that the car was registered to one person and insured to another, neither of whom were the defendant, was a prominent indicator of … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: Using Cellebrite to copy files on two phones and an iPad at the border was with RS and reasonable
A DHS officer took defendant’s Motorola phone, iPhone, and iPad from a Customs officer at the border when defendant was arrested for importing cocaine in her car. The Motorola phone wasn’t password protected, and it was examined with a Cellebrite … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Failure to follow a document search protocol in otherwise reasonably conducted computer and device searches wasn’t unreasonable under 4A
The court conducts a second hearing over whether blanket suppression is required for over searching numerous electronic devices seized from the defendant, some of which were later turned over by defense counsel. Defendant sought to bring his case within “United … Continue reading
PA: Lifting floor mat in protective weapons search of car was reasonable
Lifting the floor mat during a protective weapons search of a car is reasonable. Defendant’s IAC claim fails because the search was valid. Commonwealth v. Watley, 2016 PA Super 311, 2016 Pa. Super. LEXIS 810 (Dec. 29, 2016). A 911 … Continue reading
OH9: Highly erratic driving with a near head-on collision and “glassy, bloodshot eyes” alone was RS for FST even without smell of alcohol
The video of defendant’s driving shows that he drove entirely into another lane and nearly had an accident with another vehicle. When stopped, he was cooperative, didn’t smell of alcohol, and denied drinking. He did, however, have “glassy, bloodshot eyes, … Continue reading
TX DWIs: RS for cont’d detention to get certified officer there; no justification shown for failure to get a SW for draw
There was reasonable suspicion of DWI for defendant’s detention for an additional 21 minutes to get an officer there certified to conduct an HGN test. The delay for was legitimate law enforcement and investigative purposes. Cagle v. State, 2016 Tex. … Continue reading