Archives
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Recent Posts
- 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
- D.Utah: Minor time detours to writing up a traffic ticket didn’t unreasonable extend this stop; the dog was quickly on its way
- KY: Despite lack of nexus, SW sustained under GFE
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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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (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: June 2018
ND: Search of “squishy” thing in def’s bra wasn’t a search for weapons
The search of defendant after a patdown which included something “squishy” in her bra was unreasonable because it could not be a search for weapons. State v. Broom, 2018 ND 135, 2018 N.D. LEXIS 143 (June 5, 2018):
D.Ariz.: “A series of legal acts may provide the basis for probable cause of illegal acts.”
The purchase of a chemical that could be used to make a toxic chemical weapon, legal in itself, can be probable cause. “A series of legal acts may provide the basis for probable cause of illegal acts.” United States v. … Continue reading
Just Security: Opinion: What If Police Use ‘Rekognition’ Without Telling Defendants?
Just Security: Opinion: What If Police Use ‘Rekognition’ Without Telling Defendants? by Sarah St. Vincent: At least two US law enforcement departments – and Motorola, which sells equipment to the government – have already purchased access to Amazon’s ‘Rekognition’ system. … Continue reading
Gizmodo: Paul Manafort Learns That Encrypting Messages Doesn’t Matter If the Feds Have a Warrant to Search Your iCloud Account
Gizmodo: Paul Manafort Learns That Encrypting Messages Doesn’t Matter If the Feds Have a Warrant to Search Your iCloud Account by Matt Novak: Federal prosecutors have accused Paul Manafort of witness tampering, alleging that he used WhatsApp and Telegram in … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Facebook warrants have to be broad; showing the crime under investigation is limit enough
If probable cause is shown, Facebook warrants have to be broad. There must be some attempt to limit by at least the crime under investigation, but the result will likely be production of the entire account. That is not unreasonable … Continue reading
VA: Gun in plain view left in car was seizable under Long
Defendant fled from a car, and a gun was in plain view in the car. The officer acted reasonably in searching the car to secure the firearm under Michigan v. Long [aside from abandonment of the car] because defendant could … Continue reading
Kansas City Star: Driving while black in Missouri is becoming more perilous, traffic stop report shows
Kansas City Star: Driving while black in Missouri is becoming more perilous, traffic stop report shows:
CA11: Def counsel wasn’t ineffective for not pursuing suppression motion after def admitted facts showing no standing
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not adequately pursuing defendant’s motion to suppress because defendant admitted to counsel facts after the motion was filed that he had no standing at all. He provided that address as his address, but he was … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Def’s admissions on body camera duffle bag wasn’t his denies him standing
“The body camera recording clearly shows that Defendant denied any ownership interest in the duffel bag at the time of the stop. As such, the Court finds that Defendant voluntarily abandoned the duffel bag and therefore lost any reasonable expectation … Continue reading
Rewire.com: Clarence Thomas Manages to Be Wrong Even When He’s on the Right Side
Rewire.com: Clarence Thomas Manages to Be Wrong Even When He’s on the Right Side by Imani Gandy. You don’t have to agree. At least think about it.
DE: Facts escalated from speeding to RS of DUI leading to SW for blood draw
Defendant’s stop started with speeding 85 in a 50, and the reasonable suspicion progressed to probable cause he was under the influence. “The Court also finds that Mr. Kamwani’s performance on the field sobriety tests, the odor of alcohol, the … Continue reading
WaPo: A police officer was fired after video showed him running down a fleeing suspect with his car
WaPo: A police officer was fired after video showed him running down a fleeing suspect with his car by Avi Selk. The suspect was fleeing a drug probation violation stop.
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: A South Carolina anti-drug police unit admitted it conducts illegal no-knock raids
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: A South Carolina anti-drug police unit admitted it conducts illegal no-knock raids by Radley Balko. “Yet local officials don’t seem to mind.” The case: Despite officers’ deposition testimony that they announced before entry shooting plaintiff nine … Continue reading
AK: Def’s admission he had a knife during traffic stop justified a further patdown
Defendant was stopped for having studded tires after May 1st, and another warrant surfaced when checking on him. Despite the officer’s discretion to issue a summons or arrest, he still had the authority to conduct a patdown if there was … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Cell phone search protocol can’t be described in SW in advance
It is difficult for law enforcement officers to describe in the search warrant a protocol for searching electronic data from a cell phone, whether it be a mechanical search or an electronic search. In fact, Cellebrite didn’t work on one … Continue reading
DE: Nexus applies to vehicles; no showing car was involved in drugs, and no automatic search of drug def’s car
There must be nexus to search a drug defendant’s car. There is no automatic right to search it without some indication the car was involved in drugs. State v. Valentin, 2018 Del. Super. LEXIS 236 (May 29, 2018):
CA6: New evidence in civil case to impeach officers’ prior suppression hearing testimony isn’t ground for a successor 2255
2255 petitioner filed a successor petition alleging that a civil case he filed developed impeachment material that would undermine the original probable cause finding. This isn’t new evidence of innocence for a successor petition. In re Mohammed, 2018 U.S. App. … Continue reading
LA3: Ping order for def’s cell phone was based on exigency
The police ping request to locate defendant’s phone to locate him was based on clear exigent circumstances. Thus, it did not violate the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2702(c)(4). State v. Malveaux, 2018 La. App. LEXIS 1082 (La. App. … Continue reading
PA: Date typo in affidavit for SW could be corrected in context of totality
A typographical error in a date of an occurence in the affidavit for search warrant for the year (2013 instead of 2014) could be overlooked in context of the affidavit as a whole which showed it a mere typo. Commonwealth … Continue reading
WaPo: The hunt for the Golden State Killer led detectives to a Hobby Lobby parking lot
WaPo: The hunt for the Golden State Killer led detectives to a Hobby Lobby parking lot by TJ Ortenzi: While Joseph DeAngelo shopped inside, detectives swabbed his car door for DNA, according to documents that were unsealed Friday.