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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Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
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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: March 2018
MA: CSLI warrant based on unsupported hearsay suppressed
The 2008 CSLI warrant here was based on a “conclusory statement” of witness statements being credible and “bereft of the factual details required to establish probable cause.” It had to be suppressed. (Based on Fourth Amendment and state constitution.) Commonwealth … Continue reading
MA: Alternative inference to facts not drawn by hearing judge doesn’t permit reversal
An alternative interpretation of a witness’s testimony at a suppression hearing not drawn by the judge hearing the motion doesn’t permit reversal. Commonwealth v. Gonzalez, 2018 Mass. App. LEXIS 28 (Mar. 12, 2018).* Plaintiff’s complaint against a judge for an … Continue reading
NE: Because of direct evidence def was involved in crime, computer search history was harmless error, if error at all
Defendant challenged the search for lack of probable cause of the search history of his computer that produced evidence he searched for violent pornographic videos that matched how the victim was killed. There was direct evidence he was involved in … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Where def shared a car with one key, he had no standing when it was searched when he was out of possession
Defendant lacked standing in the car a gun was found in. He was free to use the car when he wanted, but he wasn’t at the time of the search. It was his grandfather’s car, there was one key, and … Continue reading
Politico: The Legal Way to Seize Guns From Dangerous People
Politico: The Legal Way to Seize Guns From Dangerous People by Alex Yablon It’s not the way President Trump suggested.
W.D.Pa.: Ordering occupants to stay in parked car officer pulled up behind was a seizure, but with RS
The officer pulled up behind defendant’s parked car. “[T]he Court concludes that the officers pulling up behind the parked vehicle constituted a mere encounter that did not ripen into a seizure for Fourth Amendment purposes until Sergeant Spangler ordered Defendant … Continue reading
CA6: 4A doesn’t apply to removal of stuff from an inmate’s cell after a shakedown search
“Cody failed to state a Fourth Amendment claim for relief. He claimed that the defendants violated his Fourth Amendment rights by removing property from his cell during routine searches. But Cody was in prison, and ‘the Fourth Amendment proscription against … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Def was driver for drug dealer selling from car; a trash pull from his house was sufficient to show nexus
More was shown than just that defendant was a drug dealer. He was the driver for a man who regularly did drug deals and he watched them all go down. He was seen leaving a house attributed to him in … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: The sole fact of being a drug trafficker doesn’t provide nexus to house; something has to be shown, and it wasn’t and GFE doesn’t apply
Being a drug trafficker is not enough to search defendant’s home. The government had to show nexus, and it never did anywhere in the affidavit for search warrant. The affidavit for the search warrant was, in fact, so lacking in … Continue reading
OH12: Father’s admission of using heroin justified hair follicle testing in custody matter
The juvenile court did not abuse its discretion in ordering hair follicle testing of the father because of his admissions he’d used heroin. Hatfield v. Cornell, 2018-Ohio-798, 2018 Ohio App. LEXIS 840 (12th Dist. Mar. 5, 2018). Defendant’s Franks challenge … Continue reading
Cal.1: Def’s false name was intended to avoid probation search condition; he’s estopped to argue exclusionary rule
“We hold that when a probationer gives a false name to a police officer, and a record check of that name fails to reveal that the probationer is in fact subject to a search condition, the probationer is estopped from … Continue reading
NY3: Call from DEA to stop def was based on their PC
The officers stopping defendant received a call from the DEA to stop him because he was involved with a place they were searching, having just left with a backpack as the DEA was arriving. The stop was based on their … Continue reading
CA7: No 4A right to see SW before search; therefore, accidentally showing wrong warrant doesn’t violate 4A either
The Fourth Amendment does not require the search warrant be presented to the person whose premises were to be searched before it occurred. Thus, accidently presenting the wrong search warrant at the time of the search doesn’t constitutionally matter. Also, … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: No IAC for not raising search issue that would lose on merits by inevitable discovery
“Nevertheless, Petitioner’s arguments for suppression do not succeed. [¶] This is because police ultimately found the firearm and ammunition from an independent source, thus defeating the need for suppression. Under the independent source doctrine, evidence that was ‘initially discovered during … Continue reading
ID: Search of driver while waiting for confirmation of outstanding warrant suppressed; second search after finding it was valid; no inevitable discovery
Defendant was stopped for a traffic offense, and it came back that there might be a warrant for him. Under state practice, the police then seek confirmation of the warrant before acting on it. Here, however, defendant was frisked incident … Continue reading
NY2: Def ordered out of backseat of car during speeding stop resulted in admission of gun; suppressed for lack of RS
Defendant was in the backseat of a car stopped in Queens for speeding. The officer decided he was a little too nervous and had him get out and asked him what he had. Defendant said “I have a piece.” Based … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Affidavit for SW didn’t support def’s claim of standing
Defendant relied on the affidavit for search warrant as showing his standing, but it didn’t resolve the question, so he fails in his burden of proof and lacks standing. The government showed nexus in the 61 page affidavit for residences … Continue reading
CA10: GFE applied to cell phone SW in KS where phone was actually searched in MO
Search incident did not justify seizure of defendant’s cell phone when he was arrested because he’d been separated from the cell phone. The government’s claim that officers seizing the cell phone were proceeding under “direction of” defendant’s PO is rejected … Continue reading
CA3: SW issued after alleged illegal entry was based on independent source and valid
“[W]hen police search a home pursuant to a warrant obtained after a warrantless search, evidence obtained pursuant to the warrant need not be suppressed so long as: (1) a neutral magistrate would still have issued the warrant ‘even if not … Continue reading
Gizmodo: Georgetown Lawyers Sue NYPD to Reveal Its Secret Face Recognition Programs
Gizmodo: Georgetown Lawyers Sue NYPD to Reveal Its Secret Face Recognition Programs by Sidney Fussell: Researchers at the Georgetown Center of Privacy and Technology have filed suit against the NYPD for more details on the department’s highly secretive face recognition … Continue reading