Archives
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Recent Posts
- 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)
--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: October 2017
E.D.Pa.: Leaning in a car window to talk in a high crime area isn’t RS
Somebody leaning in defendant’s car window to greet him and then get in the car, even in a high crime area, is not remotely suspicious. The stop was without reasonable suspicion. United States v. Lynch, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161717 … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Suspicionless parole search of def’s cell phone was reasonable
Defendant was on parole for pimping an underage prostitute out of California, and he had a warrantless search condition on his cell phone. The suspicionless parole search of the phone was reasonable. United States v. Monson, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA11: Ordinance for rental property inspections not unconstitutional on face; has an admin warrant requirement
The City of Lauderhill’s rental property inspection ordinance is not unconstitutional on its face under the Fourth Amendment. It does provide for an administrative warrant if one is required. 2051 Lush Apts., LLC v. City of Lauderhill, 2017 U.S. App. … Continue reading
TX1: Money was lawfully seized by SW from attorney’s bank account as proceeds of theft
The state seized $80,600 from a criminal defense lawyer’s bank account transferred from IOLTA account that was alleged to be the proceeds of crime. The attorney claimed it was earned attorney’s fees under his retainer agreement. “At the hearing, Fisch … Continue reading
ID: Stop was lengthy but still reasonable as stuff developed
The stop was lengthy, but it was still reasonably conducted to pursue legitimate investigative ends as stuff developed during the stop. State v. Fenton, 2017 Ida. App. LEXIS 73 (Sept. 29, 2017). The officers’ encounter with defendant wasn’t a seizure. … Continue reading
NM: “Birchfield does not prohibit the introduction of evidence of, and commentary on, evidence establishing a defendant’s refusal to take a blood test.”
“Birchfield does not prohibit the introduction of evidence of, and commentary on, evidence establishing a defendant’s refusal to take a blood test.” State v. Storey, 2017 N.M. App. LEXIS 75 (Sept. 28, 2017):
NM: Vehicle impoundment does not entirely depend upon there being an arrest of the driver; community caretaking function can justify it
An impoundment does not entirely depend upon there being an arrest of the driver. Usually, it does, but it certainly can if impoundment is required under the community caretaking function for some other reason. Here, defendant was taken to the … Continue reading
Cato: BREAKING: FISA Section 702 Reauthorization Bill Circulated
Cato: BREAKING: FISA Section 702 Reauthorization Bill Circulated by Patrick G. Eddington Earlier this afternoon, the House Judiciary Committee circulated its draft FISA Sec. 702 reauthorization bill. This is a preliminary readout of the major problems I see with this … Continue reading
NE: Oral and written advice of rights to refuse consent attenuated any possible minor illegal police misconduct
The officer’s misconduct, if any, wasn’t flagrant and the later written advisement and waiver of consent was attenuation. State v. Bray, 297 Neb. 916, 2017 Neb. LEXIS 178 (Sept. 29, 2017). Defendant was driving a car carrier, and he was … Continue reading
Idaho rejects Heien mistake of law under state constitution
Idaho rejects Heien mistake of law under state constitution. State v. Pettit, 2017 Ida. App. LEXIS 75 (Sept. 29, 2017):
D.Minn.: Search incident on a PV warrant was valid
Search incident to arrest on a DOC warrant was valid. Search incident of his backpack in the car wasn’t valid, but it was by inventory and thus inevitable discovery. United States v. Vang, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161227 (D. Minn. … Continue reading
DE: While there was a plausible motion to suppress waived by the guilty plea, the plea offer was advantageous and undermines the prejudice
There was a good premise for a motion to suppress the probation search here from a 14 year old consenting to entry, but defendant’s benefit from the plea agreement shows that there was no prejudice. State v. Wallace, 2017 Del. … Continue reading
IL: Stop of a witness to a homicide led to RS for frisk
Defendant was seized as a witness to a homicide, not as a suspect. Once stopped, however, reasonable suspicion developed that he was in possession of a firearm, and a frisk was permitted. In re Tyreke H., 2017 IL App (1st) … Continue reading
CA5: Thumping a spare tire, even if a search, was with RS and reasonable under 4A
“Here, the agent articulated several observations which, based on his eight years of experience at this checkpoint, indicated that the truck’s spare tire contained contraband. Viewing this testimony in the light most favorable to the Government, and giving due deference … Continue reading
IA: Officer’s inquiry into a backpack unreasonably extended the stop
Defendant was stopped because there was a plastic film over his license plate that made one of the letters illegible in headlights. The purpose of the stop was complete within 3-4 minutes. The officer, however, suddenly became interested in a … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Govt’s email SW in identity theft scheme is overbroad; applications need to be limited and resubmitted
The government’s email search applications are overbroad and don’t sufficiently protect the privacy rights of the account holders. The government, however, can limit the applications and submit them again. “The Magistrate Judge’s denial of the search warrant applications was not … Continue reading
E.D.Wash.: No REP in jail calls
Defendant’s jail calls were not obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Angulo, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 190187 (E.D. Wash. March 18, 2015). Defendant challenges defense counsel’s performance in not asking the right questions during the suppression … Continue reading
CA5: Thumping a spare tire on PC wasn’t an unreasonable search
“Here, the agent articulated several observations which, based on his eight years of experience at this [immigration] checkpoint, indicated that the truck’s spare tire contained contraband. Viewing this testimony in the light most favorable to the Government, and giving due … Continue reading
LA1: State cured error of SDT for medical records with SW showing independent source
Defendant was charged with rape of a minor and whether he transmitted chlamydia to the alleged victim was a fact issue in dispute. The state obtained the records by subpoena finding that he had been a carrier since 2010, but … Continue reading