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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: March 2019
Slate: The U.S. May Soon Have a De Facto National DNA Database
Slate: The U.S. May Soon Have a De Facto National DNA Database by Natalie Ram We need to close the loopholes that allow law enforcement to take advantage of consumer genetics.
CA9: Warrantless placement of GPS on a parolee’s car was reasonable under 4A
Based on Ninth Circuit precedent that cell phone searches are permitted by the parole search doctrine, the court finds that warrantless placing of a GPS on a parolees car is permitted under the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Korte, 2019 … Continue reading
Daily Kos: 100 million traffic stops show massive racial bias in policing
Daily Kos: 100 million traffic stops show massive racial bias in policing by Laura Clawson:
E.D.Cal.: Product of a search is inadmissible in an extradition proceeding to send def to Mexico for murder trial
Mexico seeks defendant’s extradition for murder. Defendant seeks to use the product of a search warrant to show that he might not have been involved in the murder. Mexico shows sufficient evidence to extradite, and this proceeding is not to … Continue reading
CA9: While there was no basis for def’s stop, his and his passenger’s flight after stopping was an intervening circumstance
The court agrees that there was no basis for defendant’s traffic stop, but, after defendant stopped the car, his passenger bailed out of the car and ran, and then defendant took off and went another two miles before he was … Continue reading
W.D.La.: A state judge without terroritial jurisdiction doesn’t violate Stored Communications Act
The fact a Louisiana state judge’s warrant under the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2703, was apparently partly outside the judge’s territorial jurisdiction is not a ground to suppress under § 2703. “Article 161(A) states, ‘a judge may issue … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: A prison cell search doesn’t need justification
“‘[P]rison officials are presumed to do their best to evaluate and monitor objectively the security needs of the institution and the inmates in their custody, and then to determine whether and when such concerns necessitate a search of a prison … Continue reading
CA9: Parole search ability extends to trunk of car
A parole search of the trunk of a car is still an area under the control of the defendant and subject to the search. And, CSLI before Carpenter is admissible. United States v. Korte, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 7672 (9th … Continue reading
Olean Times Herald: Nevada considers technology to scan cellphones after crashes
Olean Times Herald: Nevada considers technology to scan cellphones after crashes by Ryan Tarinelli:
ND: Citizen informants are presumed reliable
Citizen informants are presumed reliable. Coupled with trash pulls and the informants’ reports of repeated short term stays at defendant’s house, there was probable cause. State v. Laverdure, 2019 ND 72, 2019 N.D. LEXIS 59 (Mar. 15, 2019). Officers had … Continue reading
D.V.I.: Nearly two month old information for a bank robbery SW wasn’t stale
Where there were two bank robberies allegedly attributable to defendant (September 2 and October 23, 2014). The search warrant issued after the latter could seek information and evidence from the former because it was apparently an ongoing operation. Even if … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Child sex offense revealed during FISA warrant doesn’t entitle defense to see the papers to attempt to suppress
Defendant is accused of a coercion of a minor for sex that was revealed during a FISA warrant. The AG having certified that revealing the source would harm national security, the defense doesn’t get to see the papers submitted in … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Driving below “normal speed of traffic” is undefined and couldn’t form basis for stop
There is no statutory definition of ‘normal speed of traffic.’ And, Officer Anderson did not testify that the SUV was driving less than the ‘normal speed of traffic’ as required by the statute. Rather, he stated that the SUV was … Continue reading
GA: A temporary protective order is not a substitute for a SW; they’re also issued on a citizen complaint
A temporary protective order issued on a citizen’s complaint cannot substitute for a search warrant to permit entry into defendant’s property to seize firearms. State v. Burgess, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 191 (Mar. 14, 2019):
MN: A blood sample in a lab is not “information” within the physician-patient privilege statute
A blood sample in a lab is not “information” within the physician-patient privilege statute. The state sought a search warrant for the blood sample. State v. Atwood, 2019 Minn. LEXIS 122 (Mar. 13, 2019). “[B]y the time Defendant complied with … Continue reading
ABAJ: Compelled-password decision is ‘death knell’ for Fifth Amendment, state justice argues
ABAJ: Compelled-password decision is ‘death knell’ for Fifth Amendment, state justice argues by Debra Cassens Weiss:
CA11: Strip club survives summary judgment on unreasonable search claim when it was raided by 36 officers including SWAT team
A strip club was subjected to a raid with 36 officers, including the SWAT team. People were manhandled during the raid. The plaintiff club stated a claim sufficient to overcome summary judgment that the raid and search was unreasonable. WBY, … Continue reading
CNBC: Robert Kraft case reveals how police can secretly install cameras inside a private business
CNBC: Robert Kraft case reveals how police can secretly install cameras inside a private business by Scott Zamost, Hannah Kliot, and Bianca Fortis:
NY2: Jail call here was more prejudicial than relevant and should have been excluded
Admission of defendant’s jail call here was more prejudicial than relevant because it omitted context. The jury was at a loss as to what arrest was being talked about. People v. Robinson, 2019 NY Slip Op 01799, 2019 N.Y. App. … Continue reading