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- CA10: SW for gun three weeks after road rage incident wasn’t stale
- OH10: Parole search of cell phone can occur even when it’s taken from the property room at jail
- TX14: No REP in location information on bondsman’s GPS monitor
- W.D.N.Y.: No IAC for not challenging search without standing
- CAAF: Victim’s 4A rights were at issue, too
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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) -
“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: October 2017
D.Nev.: Def had standing in a car he was loaned
Defendant had standing to challenge GPS tracking of a car he was loaned by the owner. The search wasn’t a pretext from inventory: there was probable cause for the automobile exception. “A warrantless search can occur even after the automobile … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Calling for drug dog whose sniff didn’t extend stop at all was reasonable
Calling for a drug dog during processing the paperwork of a traffic stop that produced a dog sniff before the stop was over was reasonable. United States v. Harry, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174689 (N.D. Iowa Oct. 23, 2017), adopted, … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Officer’s belief that driver couldn’t stay in the passing lane wasn’t reasonable mistake
The officer’s belief that driving too long in the left lane of a divided highway was a traffic violation wasn’t reasonable because nothing in the statute allows that construction. Therefore, the stop was invalid. United States v. Buruato, 2017 U.S. … Continue reading
Cal.1: Def’s lie about his identity to avoid probation search estopped his 4A argument; search valid even if officer didn’t know about probation
Officers believed defendant was involved in a robbery and shot himself. At the ER, defendant lied and gave a false name because he was on probation with a search condition. Defendant’s lie about his identity is an estoppel. He was … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Window tint violation observed at night in a “split second”
Defendant’s window tint was the basis for a stop at night, and the officer got only a “split second” look at the car but couldn’t see inside. That’s at least reasonable suspicion. [Yes, it’s possible.] United States v. Bogan, 2017 … Continue reading
OH4: Knock-and-announce is not a 4A exclusion issue, and no justification shown for state const. to have different result
Failure to knock-and-announce was not a Fourth Amendment violation, and defendant gave no justification for extending the state constitution. State v. Robinson, 2017-Ohio-8274, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 4658 (4th Dist. Sept. 27, 2017). Defendant waived his knock-and-announce claim by not … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Seeing def in house of another permitted entry to arrest on an arrest warrant
Seeing defendant in the house of another was justification for entry into the home to arrest him on a warrant under Steagald. United States v. Terrell, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 175483 (E.D. Mich. Oct. 24, 2017). Defendant was stopped for … Continue reading
DE: Probation absconder didn’t have standing in another person’s property; alternatively, probation absconding is exigency
Defendant was a probation absconder, and he did not have standing to contest a search of another probationer’s camper. Even if defendant did have standing, the probation officers substantially complied with departmental guidelines. Defendant’s presence as an absconder from probation … Continue reading
NY: Threshold arrests remain valid in NYS
Defendant’s arrest at his threshold when he answered his door was valid. The court declines to overturn its “longstanding rule.” People v. Garvin, 2017 NY Slip Op 07382, 2017 N.Y. LEXIS 3201 (Oct. 24, 2017). There was reasonable suspicion defendant … Continue reading
MO: SI of bag with def was valid because, although handcuffed, he wasn’t yet in the patrol car
Search incident of a bag associated with defendant was valid here because defendant wasn’t handcuffed and inside a patrol car. Instead, he was handcuffed and outside the patrol car, and, of course, that’s a big difference. State v. Hughes, 2017 … Continue reading
EFF: EFF and ACLU Ask Appeals Court to Find Section 702 Surveillance Unconstitutional
EFF: EFF and ACLU Ask Appeals Court to Find Section 702 Surveillance Unconstitutional by Andrew Crocker: As Congress considers reforming Section 702, the NSA’s warrantless surveillance authority, EFF and ACLU are asking a federal court of appeals in New York … Continue reading
MA: Nexus shown between murder and def’s computer having relevant evidence on it
The state showed nexus to defendant’s laptop and the victim’s murder. Defendant had forged documents on a computer before, and it was reasonable to conclude that similar events happened here by defendant’s hand. Defendant was well experienced in using computers … Continue reading
OH3: It’s not constitutionally required that the triggering condition of an anticipatory SW be stated
The triggering condition for the anticipatory search warrant was provided for in the warrant, but that’s not constitutionally required. It did not matter that defendant was a guest in the premises. There was a fair probability that the triggering conditions … Continue reading
Reason: Sens. Rand Paul and Ron Wyden Unveil Long-Awaited, Privacy-Protecting Surveillance Reform Bill
Reason: Sens. Rand Paul and Ron Wyden Unveil Long-Awaited, Privacy-Protecting Surveillance Reform Bill by Scott Shackford The Fourth Amendment matters to some legislators.
NM: Citizen informant’s call about erratic driving was RS for stop when the vehicle was found
Citizen informant’s call to the police about erratic driving was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop when the car was found. State v. Tidey, 2011-NMCA-068, 2017 N.M. App. LEXIS 103 (Oct. 17, 2017). The stop was justified by a lane change … Continue reading
NACDL: Protecting Your Digital Devices at the Border, A Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Primer
NACDL: Protecting Your Digital Devices at the Border, A Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Primer (October 2017): Courts have long made it clear that agents can search the bags of people entering the country. For the past decade or so, U.S. Customs … Continue reading
CNET: Microsoft drops suit over Justice Dept.’s secret data requests
CNET: Microsoft drops suit over Justice Dept.’s secret data requests by Steven Musil: The move comes after the Justice Department says it would scale back demands for customer data without their knowledge. WaPo: Justice Department moves to end routine gag … Continue reading
EFF: FBI Director Wray is Wrong About Section 702 Surveillance
EFF: FBI Director Wray is Wrong About Section 702 Surveillance by David Ruiz: Newly-minted FBI Director Christopher Wray threw out several justifications for the continued, warrantless government search of American communications. He’s wrong on all accounts.
Law.com: The Old Particularity in New Digital Raids
Law.com: The Old Particularity in New Digital Raids by Peter A. Crusco In his Cyber Crime column, Peter A. Crusco addresses the particularity requirement as it relates to digital evidence seized by search warrant, reviews some of the recent cases, … Continue reading