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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)
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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: July 2018
NMCCA: Despite lack of PC for search authorization, GFE applies because everybody thought there was PC
Defendant service member had sex with another service member, allegedly taking pictures and videos of her. Then he allegedly tried to extort her over the pictures, which she reported. A search authorization was issued for defendant’s on base housing to … Continue reading
NY3: Neutral and detached magistrate claim has to be preserved for appeal
Defendant’s claim that the issuing magistrate was not neutral and detached was not preserved for appellate review. And, in any event, it lacks merit because there was plenty of probable cause. People v. Schaefer, 2018 NY Slip Op 05235, 2018 … Continue reading
TN: Seizure of a cell phone incident to arrest is provided for in Riley; search still requires warrant
Defendant’s cell phone was properly seized incident to his arrest, as contemplated by Riley. It was not searched until a search warrant was obtained. State v. Wade, 2018 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 523 (July 13, 2018). The search warrant for … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Passenger’s possession of counterfeit drugs didn’t justify search of def’s car
Defendant’s passenger having alleged counterfeit drugs on his person didn’t provide probable cause for a search of defendant’s car under the automobile exception. United States v. Daughtridge, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 115326 (E.D. N.C. July 11, 2018). You can’t relitigate … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Protective sweep here was based on officers’ experience and not on any specific facts and was still reasonable
The officers here had no specific information there was anybody else in defendant’s house when they did a protective sweep. Nevertheless, the sweep is reasonable. Officers are also entitled to draw on their experience in determining whether a protective sweep … Continue reading
D.Md.: Officer gets QI for arresting person with same name but it turned out warrant was for far younger woman of different race
Plaintiff was legally blind but owned her car. She was a passenger in the back seat. After the vehicle was stopped, the officer found a warrant for a person with the same name as her. She protested she wasn’t the … Continue reading
Lexology: Can the government unlock your iPhone by forcing you to provide your fingerprints?
Lexology: Can the government unlock your iPhone by forcing you to provide your fingerprints? by Duane Morris LLP.
D.D.C.: Random drug testing of day care employees unreasonable
Random suspicionless government mandated drug testing of day care employees unreasonable because there is no compelling governmental interest. Ass’n of Indep. Sch. of Greater Wash. v. District of Columbia, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70146 (D.D.C. April 20, 2018), reconsideration denied, … Continue reading
The Verge: California malls have been feeding license plate data to a national network linked with ICE
The Verge: California malls have been feeding license plate data to a national network linked with ICE by Russell Brandom: A number of California malls appear to be feeding data back to a national license-plate reader network linked to Immigration … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Manafort storage building search sustained: Employee with free access had apparent authority to consent to entry
The FBI reasonably relied on a person with apparent authority to consent to an entry into a storage locker to look around. The consenter had free access to the storage room as an employee, and the employer-employee relationship can permit … Continue reading
CA3: FTCA doesn’t apply to TSA screeners
TSA screeners are not “investigative or law enforcement officers” for purposes of the Federal Tort Claims Act. Therefore, they are covered by the discretionary function exemption. Pellegrino v. United States Transp. Sec. Admin., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 18821 (3d Cir. … Continue reading
OH & MO: Erratic driving justifies stop
Defendant’s stop was justified, and, during the stop, probable cause developed that he was operating under the influence. State v. Dallman, 2018-Ohio-2670, 2018 Ohio App. LEXIS 2890 (12th Dist. July 9, 2018).* Defendant’s erratic driving of swerving within his lane … Continue reading
OH11: Arrest warrant and knowing def home authorized entry to arrest
Officers had an arrest warrant for the defendant and they knew he was home. That was justification to enter. State v. Weaver, 2018-Ohio-2675, 2018 Ohio App. LEXIS 2898 (11th Dist. July 9, 2018). Defendant doesn’t allege any facts that his … Continue reading
CA9: Def’s 22 minute detention was reasonable because he wouldn’t properly ID himself
Defendant’s 22-minute detention was reasonable because he was lying about who he was, and officers had a right to know. United States v. Thompson, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 18603 (9th Cir. July 9, 2018). Defendant’s vehicle was outside a house … Continue reading
CA3: NJ bail reform act doesn’t violate 4A or 8A
New Jersey’s bail reform act which shifts emphasis away from money bail to other restraints and conditions to assure release and return to court does not violate the Fourth Amendment. Not all restraints are unreasonable, given a probable cause finding … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: INSIGHT: Cracking Open a Can of Worms: Why Carpenter v. United States May Not Be the Privacy Decision That Was Needed … or Wanted
Bloomberg Law: INSIGHT: Cracking Open a Can of Worms: Why Carpenter v. United States May Not Be the Privacy Decision That Was Needed … or Wanted by Chris Ott