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- 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
- CO: DNA could be seized from trash
- CA8: Nebraska statute allowing SWs to cross state lines doesn’t violate 4A
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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: March 2019
E.D.Ky.: DUI checkpoint was properly set up for proper motives and was reasonable
“In sum, the record establishes that the checkpoint at which Mink was stopped was not implemented in an unreasonable fashion under the Fourth Amendment. Instead, the checkpoint ‘was clearly aimed at reducing the immediate hazard posed by the presence of … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Def’s stop was in 2011 and he doesn’t get the benefit of 2015’s Rodriguez
“The search in the present case occurred in 2011. Hare’s focus on Rodriguez, which was issued in 2015, is misplaced. The Fifth Circuit has ‘repeatedly held that “there is no general duty on the part of defense counsel to anticipate … Continue reading
NE: Search of the person here was valid an an inventory at the jail
The search of defendant’s person at the jail after his arrest was valid as an inventory search. State v. Garcia, 302 Neb. 406 (Mar. 8, 2019). “As set forth above, the undersigned does not agree with Defendant that the affidavit … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Citizen informants saw shooting, and video surveillance caught image of def’s car at the time, and that was PC for arrest
Citizen informants saw a shooting from a vehicle and area video surveillance caught an image of defendant’s car. Police looked, and he was convicted felon. There was thus probable cause for defendant’s arrest. United States v. Cotto, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: There is no constitutional right of a defendant to testify at a suppression hearing
The right to testify at a trial doesn’t also mean that a defendant has a constitutional right to testify at a suppression hearing. Here, defendant wasn’t even present at the suppression hearing. The court finds that defense counsel wasn’t ineffective … Continue reading
CA8: Arguable probable cause for arrest gives QI
“The totality of the circumstances at the time of the arrest, as described above, were sufficient for Svajgl to believe that Nader had committed or was committing the offense of possessing child pornography.” Arguable probable cause is all that’s required … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Carpenter doesn’t change the third-party doctrine as to IP information
Carpenter doesn’t change the third-party doctrine as to IP information. United States v. McCutchin, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36811 (D. Ariz. Mar. 7, 2019). The affidavits “are somewhat thin,” but this is deferential, not de novo, review, and, while this … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Chicago Sun-Times gets access to SW affidavit briefly accidently unsealed on PACER under common law right of access to judicial records
The Chicago Sun-Times got access on PACER to a search warrant affidavit that was filed and briefly not sealed. They opened and copied it before it was sealed. Now they seek access to the file. The court finds that the … Continue reading
FL2: State raises standing for first time on appeal; remanded so issue can be developed
The trial court suppressed on a violation of the curtilage, and the state raises standing for the first time on appeal. The court lets it do so, but remands for another suppression hearing to develop the facts. State v. Pettis, … Continue reading
FL1: Entry into def’s backyard for “strong chemical smell” was without showing exigency and suppressed
Police entered defendant’s backyard based on a call about a strong chemical smell. He was grinding glass with a heavy tool. They saw two women and another man visible inside the shed. They ordered him out and then got defendant … Continue reading
MA applies “foregone conclusion” test to determine def could be compelled to provide password for cell phone
Massachusetts applies the “foregone conclusion” test to whether forcing defendant to enter the password on his cell phone to search it violates the Fifth Amendment. The court concludes that defendant’s possession of the phone and admission it was his and … Continue reading
IL: State did not satisfy foregone conclusion test to get cell phone password
The state did not satisfy the foregone conclusion test to get access to defendant’s password on his cell phone. People v. Spicer, 2019 Ill. App. LEXIS 129, 2019 Ill. App. LEXIS 129 (Mar. 7, 2019):
E.D.Mich.: Not IAC to not have challenged CSLI in 2014
It wasn’t ineffective assistance for defense counsel to not have filed a motion to suppress 2014 CSLI. United States v. Littles, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34359 (E.D. Mich. Mar. 5, 2019).* In this 2255, defense counsel was not shown to … Continue reading
OH8: Stop for flashing high beams was mistake of law and objectively reasonable under Heien
The state concedes that one flashing his high beams for one second twice 14 seconds apart at a vehicle in front of him for not moving is not a violation of the statute for unnecessarily driving on high beams. Nevertheless, … Continue reading
D.V.I.: “Premises” includes the curtilage
The premises for a search warrant includes the curtilage, and drugs found hidden outside the house on the curtilage just a few feet from the house were properly seized. United States v. Dowling, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34956 (D. V.I. … Continue reading
D.Ore.: Seizing house title records from house officers already had copies of wasn’t overbroad; it shows control
The search warrant was not overbroad because officers seized title records on the property that they already apparently had copies of. It shows control. United States v. Cramer, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34959 (D. Ore. Mar. 5, 2019). There is … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Federal telephonic SW not subject to suppression without bad faith
The stop, as told to defendant, was for a traffic violation, but there was reasonable suspicion for drug trafficking considering all that the officers knew. Therefore, using a drug dog was reasonable because a drug investigation was legally supported. Use … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Even if def accused drug dealer’s alleged cover business was omitted from affidavit, there still was PC
The officers lack of complete detail to fully explain defendant’s version that he might have had a lawful explanation for what he was doing doesn’t rise to the high bar of a Franks violation. In addition, it’s not uncommon for … Continue reading
CA9: CSLI warrant was issued without PC, but it wasn’t so lacking that GFE should not apply
The government’s pre-Carpenter search warrant for CSLI was issued without probable cause, but it wasn’t so deficient that the good faith exception should not apply. United States v. Elmore, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 6507 (9th Cir. Mar. 4, 2019):
W.D.Mo.: Def had standing in a truck he was loaned
Defendant has standing in his daughter’s truck because he showed that she let him use it. The officer’s mistake of law concerning the expiration date of the vehicle’s license was reasonable. “Month of expiration” under Missouri law isn’t obvious. United … Continue reading