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- CA11: Service of SW without attachments isn’t 4A violation
- KS: Running warrants on a passed out person is reasonable
- M.D.Fla.: Unidentified pills in driver’s lap may have been RS but it wasn’t PC for arrest
- D.C.Cir.: It was reasonable for officers to conclude that evidence or instrumentalities of the crime would be found in the car used in a robbery
- CA7: Officer’s warrantless view of CSAM flagged by hash value was not unreasonable
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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: August 2017
S.D.Fla.: A car broken down on the highway was still “readly mobile” enough for the automobile exception to apply
A car broken down on the highway was still “readly mobile” enough for the automobile exception to apply. United States v. Ortiz-Santizo, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128710 (S.D. Fla. Aug. 14, 2017):
NC: Seizure of shotgun during protective sweep for misdemeanor probation arrest was unreasonable
Defendant was arrested without incident in his living room for a violation of misdemeanor probation, and there was a protective sweep of other rooms looking for others, and a shotgun was seen. The protective sweep was valid, but the seizure … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Inventory invalid for not sufficiently complying with policy; bodycam video relied upon
The inventory is invalid for not coming close to complying with the LVMPD inventory policy. The lack of a written itemization and the body camera video shows it was not a valid inventory. Also, the passenger was a good friend … Continue reading
D.Minn.: PC for SW doesn’t even need to be decided if the GFE would apply
Probable cause doesn’t even need to be decided if the good faith exception would apply. “Even assuming without deciding that the search warrants lacked probable cause, the Court concludes that the evidence is nonetheless admissible under the good-faith exception to … Continue reading
D.Kan.: The question is not whether following too close statute was violated; it’s whether there was RS it was violated
On deciding reasonable suspicion for following too close, “[d]eciding the issue presented by these motions does not require the court to decide whether Mr. Acevedo violated [the statute]. Instead, it requires the court to decide whether Lt. Stopper had an … Continue reading
TX14: Argument that arrest violated 4A wasn’t specific enough to preserve lack of PC
Arguing that one’s arrest violated the Fourth Amendment didn’t preserve his lack of probable cause claim on appeal. Doremus v. State, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 7702 (Tex. App. – Houston (14th Dist.) Aug. 15, 2017). The affidavits in support of … Continue reading
MA: Riley applies under state const. to digital cameras
A digital camera, like a cell phone, can be seized incident to an arrest, but it can’t be searched without a warrant. While SCOTUS hasn’t applied Riley to digital cameras, the state constitution here affords the same protection to digital … Continue reading
Mother Jones: Justice Department Accused of Breaching Constitution by Seeking Info on Visitors to Anti-Trump Website
Mother Jones: Justice Department Accused of Breaching Constitution by Seeking Info on Visitors to Anti-Trump Website by Pema Levy The website hosting company calls the move a “clear abuse of government authority.”
C.D.Cal.: Even if Carpenter reverses, Davis GFE will apply to searches occurring before
Even though CSLI is before SCOTUS in Carpenter, this court had sustained seizure of CSLI before, so, even if Carpenter reverses, the Davis good faith exception will sustain this seizure. United States v. Brown, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126504 (C.D. … Continue reading
M.D.La.: No standing in a stolen car
The stop was justified by a seatbelt violation, but defendant didn’t have standing because the car was stolen. United States v. Joseph, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 123893 (M.D. La. Aug. 7, 2017). The landing in front of an apartment is … Continue reading
TN: Conclusory statement from CI defs had drugs and unsuccessful controlled buy was neither PC for warrant nor RS for probation search
The trial court properly granted defendants’ motion to suppress evidence seized as a result of a warrantless search of their house. The information possessed by the officers at the time of the search, including a conclusory statement from a confidential … Continue reading
ZDNet et al: Trump administration demands data on over a million visitors to anti-Trump site
ZDNet: Trump administration demands data on over a million visitors to anti-Trump site by Zack Whittaker The EFF, representing Dreamhost in the case, called the Justice Dept’s order ‘unconstitutional’. ACLU: Massive Search Warrant Targets Anti-Trump Website in Clear Threat to … Continue reading
CA6: Arrest warrants don’t get stale like SWs
Application for a COA on a 2255 appeal for failing to timely file a motion to suppress is denied. Arrest warrants don’t get stale like search warrants, and such a staleness argument would fail. Also, the record shows that the … Continue reading
OR: No exigency for warrantless entry into home for BAC when another warrant required for that anyway
In a DUI case, the state did not show exigent circumstances to enter defendant’s home to take him into custody to then have to seek a search warrant for his blood anyway. State v. Ritz, 361 Ore. 781, 2017 Ore. … Continue reading
Law360: Cell Location Searches Assailed In Raft Of High Court Briefs
Law360: Cell Location Searches Assailed In Raft Of High Court Briefs by Shayna Posses:
CA4: Inevitable discovery applies to def’s name
The district court did not err in finding the inevitable discovery doctrine applied where officers responded to an assault call and saw defendant, believed to be a felon, with a gun. It was inevitable that police would have lawfully discovered … Continue reading
LA2: A host of RS: (1) no DL or paperwork on car; (2) suspicious travel plans; (3) extensive criminal history of driver and passenger; (4) not knowing passenger’s name
“As previously noted in [the first appeal of this case,] Tpr. Sharbono’s testimony provided the articulable facts that raised his suspicions of other illegal activity: (1) Manning had no driver’s license or paperwork for the vehicle he was driving; (2) … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: The email SW here was limited by time and crime and that made it reasonable and not a general warrant
It is too easy for an email warrant to be a general warrant because there has to be an articulation of what the government is looking for. Moreover, all the emails may be seized so they can be searched looking … Continue reading