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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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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)
--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: August 2018
OK: Trial court’s granting motion to suppress without even considering GFE on state’s request was an abuse of discretion
The trial court abused its discretion in granting the motion to suppress the search warrant without even considering the good faith exception after the state raised it. State v. Haliburton, 2018 OK CR 28, 2018 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 28 … Continue reading
CA9: No justification for probation search of locked bedroom of non-probationer roommate brother
Defendant lived with his brother who was on probation in a locked room. Officers came to conduct a probation search of the brother, and it was unreasonable to search defendant’s locked room. They had no reason to believe the brother … Continue reading
NPR: The Pot Breathalyzer Is Here. Maybe
NPR: The Pot Breathalyzer Is Here. Maybe by Eric Westervelt: As legalization of recreational and medical marijuana continues to expand, police across the country are more concerned than ever about stoned drivers taking to the nation’s roads and freeways, endangering … Continue reading
NYLJ: Privacy and the Fourth Amendment: ‘Carpenter’ Nails It
NYLJ: Privacy and the Fourth Amendment: ‘Carpenter’ Nails It: “In his column on Criminal Law and Procedure, Barry Kamins analyzes ‘Carpernter v. U.S.,’ a landmark decision significantly affecting digital privacy.”
E.D.Ky.: Carpenter doesn’t apply to CSLI gathered 17 months before under GFE
In January 2017, defendant was in a car where the driver was arrested, and he was detained too. Calls were made from their cell phones to tell the codefendant’s father to “clean out” the house before a search warrant arrived. … Continue reading
MI: Def’s admission he took a sleeping pill before driving added to PC for his blood
The affidavit for the blood search warrant here included that defendant admitted taking some kind of sleeping pill before driving and getting in the accident. That was probable cause and the good faith exception applies in any event. People v. … Continue reading
D.Conn.: A safe could be searched under SW in a homicide case; logical place for weapon or ammunition
There was probable cause to search a safe found in defendant’s house for evidence in a murder case because the firearms, ammunition, clothing, or electronic devices could be there. United States v. Fable, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129527 (D. Conn. … Continue reading
D.Md.: Regular visitor with run of the house who never spent the night didn’t have standing
Defendant was a regular visitor at the place searched, but he did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in it. He was a regular social visitor about once a week for three years and had free run of the … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Carpenter doesn’t apply where CSLI was obtained nearly a year before
The SCA request for CSLI was issued here nearly a year before Carpenter. The good faith exception applies, and there will be no exclusion. United States v. Williams, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129639 (E.D. Mich. Aug. 2, 2018):
FL1: Inevitable discovery requires actual effort to get SW or exception swallows rule
There was no attempt by the officers to secure a search warrant. Probable cause alone isn’t enough: there has to be an effort to get a warrant for inevitable discovery to apply. “Any other result would allow the exception to … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Cell phone SW in white collar case also for proof of perjury was a virtual computer search but it was still one issued on PC
In an investigation into job promotion and hiring fraud in the Cook County Circuit Clerk’s office, a cell phone search warrant was issued, and it was with probable cause. “Because the affidavit established probable cause to believe that Beena’s cell … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Cell phone SWs have to be considered like a computer search; this was broad yet still particular enough
The search warrant for defendant’s phone was broad, yes, but it was sufficiently particular, and the good faith exception applies as well. A cell phone is a computer, and the issue is analyzed the same. United States v. Chang, 2018 … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: Def’s continual distancing himself in pleadings and at hearing from the cell phone at issue shows no standing
Defendant went to great lengths to distance himself from telephone 3 that was tracked in the suppression motion and hearing. Therefore, he has no standing to challenge the collection of CSLI on it. Carpenter and Byrd do not, as defendant … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Def’s IAC claim a Stingray was used was speculative at best; govt already had plenty from lawful sources
Even if a Stingray was used to get defendant’s information, which is speculative at best, the government lawfully used a host of other information gathering devices and orders to get the same information. Therefore, he wasn’t prejudiced. IAC claim denied. … Continue reading
ID: Cell seizure of def’s notes for conversation with defense lawyer presumptively prejudicial; remanded to see if state can overcome prejudice and whether DA disqualified
Defendant was convicted of attempted murder. “While he was incarcerated prior to trial, Robins’s cell was searched and handwritten notes he had prepared in anticipation of a meeting with counsel were seized and delivered to the prosecuting attorney. The district … Continue reading
IL: To argue defense counsel was ineffective for not arguing “seizure” instead of “search” is frivolous here
Defendant claimed his counsel was ineffective for not arguing the seizure was unreasonable rather than the search. That’s frivolous. People v. Lee, 2018 IL App (3d) 160100, 2018 Ill. App. LEXIS 569 (Aug. 1, 2018). [I had the same argument … Continue reading
CA11: Officer’s slight misnaming prior sex offense against a child in a CP warrant affidavit wasn’t a Franks violation
Petitioner raised 78 grounds in his 2255 against a life sentence for child pornography. “As to Ground 6, Freeman’s various arguments largely mischaracterize the supposedly false statements in the warrant affidavit. And although the affidavit seemingly incorrectly stated that his … Continue reading
C.D.Ill.: 18 month pole camera surveillance of def’s house didn’t violate REP
18 month pole camera surveillance of defendant’s house didn’t violate his reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Tuggle, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 127333 (C.D. Ill. July 31, 2018):
NY3: Cell phone SW must be based on fact and inference, not just “common sense”
A search warrant for a cell phone must be based on fact and inference not just on “common sense.” People v. Jemmott, 2018 NY Slip Op 05632, 2018 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5576 (3d Dept. Aug. 2, 2018). The application … Continue reading
S.D.Ala.: That state court warrant was missing two pages when filed doesn’t matter when the whole SW produced in federal court
The search warrant was issued by a state court, and two pages were missing from the filed version. The complete version was presented in federal court, and the fact part was missing in state court is not a Fourth Amendment … Continue reading