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- 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
- CO: DNA could be seized from trash
- CA8: Nebraska statute allowing SWs to cross state lines doesn’t violate 4A
- WA: Sweat patch as condition of release violated state constitution’s privacy provision
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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)
--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: January 2019
E.D.Ark.: Negligent investigation doesn’t state a 4A claim for malicious prosecution
Plaintiff is a dentist and he was investigated for alleged sexual molestation of a patient. He was tried and acquitted of the sexual assault, and then sued the police officers involved for malicious prosecution under the Fourth Amendment. The claim … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Mistake as to address for SW was precipitated by def and doesn’t implicate Franks
Mistake as to address (Green v. Gretna) was precipitated by defendant having given a Green Street address during a prior stop. There’s no showing of a deliberate or even reckless falsehood by the officer in getting the state search warrant … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: SW for data off phone isn’t governed by Carpenter
Where the search warrant sought information off defendant’s telephone, Carpenter is not implicated. It was also pre-Carpenter. There was also an order for CSLI in 2015, and that was not barred by Carpenter. United States v. Evans, 2018 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
CA10: BLM can’t force oil and gas operator to put BLM’s lock and key on property for annual inspections
Plaintiff has oil and gas leases on private lands of a third party in Southwest Colorado. The Bureau of Land Management sought “lock and key” authority to have access to the property to conduct annual inspections. Plaintiff brought a Fourth … Continue reading
Dept. of Labor has proposed an unemployment drug-testing rule, and comment period has closed
thefix.com: Proposed Unemployment Drug-Testing Rule Set To Be Finalized by Lindsey Weedston:
WaPo: There’s hope for federal online privacy legislation
WaPo: There’s hope for federal online privacy legislation (editorial):
WaPo: Some U.S. police departments dump body-camera programs amid high costs
WaPo: Some U.S. police departments dump body-camera programs amid high costs By Kimberly Kindy:
NE: GFE applied to CSLI obtained two years before Carpenter
Defendant’s CSLI was obtained two years before Carpenter with an order under the Stored Communications Act to connect him to a murder. Carpenter was decided while on appeal. The court follows every other case on the issue and applies the … Continue reading
CA3: Cabin search of cruise ship at border non-routine, but QI granted here
This is a suit over a 2008 search at USVI port of the plaintiff’s cabin on the Adventure of the Seas cruise ship. Plaintiff was in the Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS), a CBP database for intel, from prior travels … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: PC shown for records of the last number a murder victim called
Defendant’s cell phone number being the last number a murder victim called was at least a minimally sufficient basis for a search warrant for cell phone records to see who it was. It was also at least supported by the … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: SW affidavit showed def as a guest of the place searched; the govt essentially conceded his standing there
During a protective sweep of the premises, the officers’ observation of a dinner plate covered with heroin could be included in the affidavit for search warrant. The affidavit for the search warrant mentioned a cell phone linked to defendant, and … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Officer’s experience shown in SW affidavit that large scale drug dealers keep it at home can be nexus
Nexus is shown to defendant’s home; the high level of his alleged drug dealing coupled with the officer’s experience that it is reasonably likely that he’d have drugs in the home. United States v. Rivera-Figueroa, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8805 … Continue reading
AR: Def can’t show IAC from counsel’s advice on motion to suppress and his decision to go to trial and risk jury sentencing
Defendant’s motion to suppress was denied and he went to trial on a possession/constructive possession case and lost at trial. The conviction was affirmed on appeal. Lane v. State, 2017 Ark. 34, 513 S.W.3d 230 (2017). On post-conviction, defendant could … Continue reading
FL5: Record doesn’t show no standing in CSLI; remanded
The record does not conclusively show that defendant was without standing to challenge the CSLI from the cell phone at issue. Remanded. Litz v. State, 2019 Fla. App. LEXIS 649 (Fla. 5th DCA Jan. 18, 2019).* A store loss prevention … Continue reading
WaPo: The Sexts of Jeff Bezos and the Death of Privacy
WaPo: The Sexts of Jeff Bezos and the Death of Privacy by Kara Swisher We can’t look away. But we should.
OH5: State’s claim of reasonable mistake of fact rejected: statute not ambiguous and not violated
The state’s claim of a Heien-type mistake of law fails. The statute is not ambiguous, and the defendant didn’t violate it. State v. Trout, 2019 Ohio ___, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 124 (5th Dist. Jan. 15, 2019). Defendant operated a … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Ptf adequately pled that def officers used SWs as excuse to commit theft and robberies of search targets
Plaintiff adequately pled that defendant officers, members of CPD Team 6713, were engaged in a theft and robbery ring where they used bogus and apparently real search warrants to rob their victims. Motion to dismiss for failing to state a … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Pocket and backpack search and patdown of 21 students at school for stolen money was with RS so officer gets QI
A school security officer gets qualified immunity for a patdown search of 21 students in a class for allegedly stolen money because there was reasonable suspicion as to all 21. Woods v. Rio Rancho Pub. Schs, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Seizure of clothing from hospital room floor was justified by plain view
Seizure of defendant’s clothing from a hospital room floor was justified by the plain view doctrine. United States v. Clancy, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8471 (W.D. Tenn. Jan. 17, 2019), adopting, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 219585 (W.D. Tenn. Dec. 19, … Continue reading
Slate: Biometrics vs. the Fifth Amendment
Slate: Biometrics vs. the Fifth Amendment by Josephine Wolff: