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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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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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Section 1983 Blog -
"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: May 2019
E.D.N.Y.: Computer search for CP can lead to legitimate plain view
In a computer search for child pornography, reviewing the computer files can easily lead to a plain view. “The agents were permitted to ‘engage in a cursory review of files [in the folder dated 2005], by opening them, to determine … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Heck explained in 4A terms
Explaining Heck: This case involves alleged illegally admitted statements, but it’s explained in terms of the Fourth Amendment. Edwards v. Perry, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74480 (S.D. Ga. May 3, 2019):
E.D.Cal.: § 1983 4A prison claim is an attack against his disciplinary proceeding and barred by Heck
Plaintiff’s § 1983 Fourth Amendment prison claim is an attack against his disciplinary proceeding and barred by Heck. Lout v. Sidhu, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74550 (E.D. Cal. May 3, 2019).* Claimant has no standing to challenge the seizure before … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Airbnb has REP in nonpublic usage data for its rentals
“The Court finds Airbnb has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the nonpublic usage data for its listings—especially when paired with additional information such as the location of the unit—and that the City cannot lawfully require disclosure of that information … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Beverly Hills Airbnb unit disclosure ordinance isn’t barred by Patel
The City of Beverly Hills has an ordinance requiring registration of properties subject to rental through Airbnb. The Apartment Association attempts to analogize the information sought in City of Los Angeles v. Patel, but it doesn’t come near. “In sum, … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Pro se ptf stated claim for abusive strip search in jail
Pro se prison plaintiff stated a claim for a strip search for in an improper purpose at least at the pleading stage. He also states a retaliation claim that another search occurred where the defendant referred to the lawsuit in … Continue reading
UT: Community caretaking function authorized stop of def asleep on McDonald’s parking lot at 3 am
Defendant was asleep in his car on a McDonald’s parking lot with the motor running after midnight in the winter. A McDonald’s employee finally got him awake and told him to leave. Defendant drove around the building and parked in … Continue reading
CA6: Tracking warrant was issued with PC
The tracking warrant here was issued on probable cause. “Courts have upheld vehicle-tracking warrants based on much weaker factual allegations than these. See, e.g., United States v. Faulkner, 826 F.3d 1139, 1145 (8th Cir. 2016) (upholding a vehicle-tracking warrant where … Continue reading
IL: Kentucky officers investigated aggravated DUI with an accident on Ohio River bridge; remanded for findings of GFE
Defendant was involved in an accident on the Brookport Bridge between Illinois and Kentucky, and he was originally charged in Kentucky. On closer examination, the accident was determined to be in Illinois, so that case was dismissed, and it was … Continue reading
OH: Officers responding to nearby shots fired were justified in stop def, the only person around
Officers heard nearby gunshots and approached the only person in the vicinity with guns drawn and did a frisk of the person. The frisk was justified by reasonable suspicion, and drawing firearms didn’t convert the stop into a seizure. State … Continue reading
MD: Maryland exclusionary rule and GFE applied to search in NJ for evidence of a MD murder
Defendant was a suspect in a Maryland murder case, and the state and USMs certainly had probable cause for him connecting him to the murder. Yet, the affidavit for the search warrant for property in New Jersey merely conclusorily stated … Continue reading
D.N.M.: SW for CP in house didn’t need to identify the person who was the target of the search
Officers had probable cause that child pornography came from a particular IP address that was linked to a street address. The search warrant was properly issued for the entire premises, and it did not need to list the target of … Continue reading
Cal.4 dissent: Riley and Sansom require RS for cell phone probation search
Defendant was subjected to a probation search of a cell phone where the underlying crime had nothing to do with cell phones or the internet. The dissent believes that Riley and Sansom together require reasonable suspicion for a cell phone … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: State SW issued for violation of state statute under federal injunction since 1997 should be suppressed
Defendant was federally indicted for possession of child pornography after a state search warrant for violation of state law. There was, however, a federal injunction from 1997 prohibiting prosecutions under a particular New York statute, but at least 11 people … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Typo in SW address overlooked under GFE
Typographical error in the search warrant (648 South 21st Street rather than 748 South 21st Street) would be overlooked under the good faith exception where the correct property was searched. United States v. Carey, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74140 (M.D. … Continue reading
WaPo Podcast: Police test facial recognition in Oregon. But privacy advocates have serious concerns.
WaPo Podcast: Police test facial recognition in Oregon. But privacy advocates have serious concerns. by Drew Harwell
S.D.N.Y.: Govt fails its burden of proof to show RS for a stop and frisk based on credibility of the officer; it was a hunch at best
Defendant was seen at 1 am in a high crime area on the street in the Bronx talking with three others. The officer claimed he could see him adjusting his waistband, suggesting a gun. Collectively, the court simply doesn’t believe … Continue reading
NY2: “Defense counsel’s equivocal, vague and conclusory statements that defendant had standing to challenge the searches” has no offer of proof or facts
“The court correctly denied, on the ground of lack of standing as well as on the merits, defendant’s motion to controvert two search warrants. Defense counsel’s equivocal, vague and conclusory statements that defendant had standing to challenge the searches of … Continue reading
DE: The standard for abandonment is objective; actual disclaiming ownership not required
The standard for abandonment is objective. What do the facts show? Here, defendant left his backpack in a place where he could not keep an eye on it. Disclaiming ownership alone is not the test. Patton v. State, 2019 Del. … Continue reading