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- N.D.Tex.: AUSA can summarize what the gov’t knows for SW application
- S.D.N.Y.: No right to quash SCA warrant before execution; remedies are after
- S.D.N.Y.: SW not based on mere speculation
- D.Mont.: Officers had RS for stop; it wasn’t based on the race of the suspects
- M.D.Pa.: SW for phone 19 months after alleged crimes showed PC
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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)
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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: September 2019
E.D.Mich.: Affidavit for SW was “bare bones” so no GFE; Brandeis quoted
The affidavit for the search warrant for defendant’s home proved to be “bare bones” and showed no probable cause or nexus to crime whatsoever. Accordingly, the good faith exception doesn’t even apply. The court cites Brandeis’s 1928 Olmstead dissent. United … Continue reading
CA10: No occupant having a DL justified extending the stop
Defendant was a passenger detained with the driver. Nobody had a DL, and that reasonably caused the extension of the stop. His argument reasonable suspicion didn’t extend to him “cannot support Gurule’s theory that he was unlawfully detained as a … Continue reading
NYT: Police Use of Facial Recognition Is Accepted by British Court
NYT: Police Use of Facial Recognition Is Accepted by British Court By Adam Satariano: “In a closely watched case, a judge ruled that live facial recognition does not violate privacy rights. There has been little legal precedent about its use.”
NC: Def’s arrest was without PC, but he abandoned his gun
“The trial court erred in denying Defendant’s motion to suppress the firearm based on its reasoning that officers had the probable cause necessary to arrest Defendant for resisting, delaying, or obstructing a public officer. The firearm, however, was not the … Continue reading
VI: RS exists on smell of marijuana in a car even though locally small amounts of MJ was decriminalized
Despite decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana in VI, reasonable suspicion of possession of a small amount of marijuana is still contraband (an issue already settled here) that can justify a stop. Here, officers were watching a high crime area … Continue reading
VA: Def’s ignoring shouts to show his hands and reaching to back seat justified pulling him out of the car and doing a sweep of the car
Defendant ignored 7-10 shouts to keep his hands up and get out of the car, and he reached down into the back seat. Officers opened the door and pulled him. Then he was seized, and it was reasonable to pull … Continue reading
DE: DNA warrant fails because affidavit for it does show how or why it could be found
“As previously noted, this Court must pay great deference to a magistrate’s determination of probable cause and must take a common-sense approach rather than a hyper-technical approach. Nonetheless, given the totality of the circumstances set forth in the Affidavit, including … Continue reading
CA8: Stop lacked RS, but the finding of a warrant on def was attenuation under Strieff and search incident was valid
Defendant was known to the officer and directed to stay away from a bus shelter. He was found there and the officer accosted him. The district court found reasonable suspicion to support the seizure of a firearm from his person. … Continue reading
Lexology: Carpenter and Everything After: The Supreme Court Nudges the Fourth Amendment into the Information Age
Lexology: Carpenter and Everything After: The Supreme Court Nudges the Fourth Amendment into the Information Age by Christopher Fonzone, Kate Heinzelman, and Michael R. Roberts
ME: Nexus between cell phone and crime can be inferred from totality of affidavit
Probable cause was shown for nexus between defendant’s cell phone and a multi-person burglary ring. While the affidavit didn’t explicitly state that the conspirators would communicate by cell phone before the burglary, it was a reasonable inference on the totality. … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Compelled use of fingerprint to open cell phone not testimonial
The court at first declined to sign a search warrant for a cell phone that compelled use of a fingerprint to unlock it. After further submissions from the USAO and the FPD as invited amicus, the court concludes that a … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: An NCIC check is within the normal mission of a traffic stop
An NCIC check is within the normal mission of a traffic stop. “Next, regardless of the timing of events, ‘most courts confronted with the issue have determined that checking a passenger’s driver’s license in addition to the vehicle driver’s license … Continue reading
ID: Two brief calls to inquire about the location of drug dog didn’t constitute abandonment of the stop for investigation
Two brief calls during the traffic stop to inquire about a drug dog were not themselves abandonment of the stop in favor of the dog. It was reasonable at the time and didn’t extend the stop. State v. Still, 2019 … Continue reading
CA9: Seven hour arrest and detention of decedent’s wife as witness to a police shooting was unreasonable under clearly established law
Plaintiff’s husband was shot by sheriff’s deputies and killed and she was arrested as a material witness, taken away, and held for seven hours–four before any questioning. This was unreasonable under Maxwell v. County of San Diego, 708 F.3d 1075, … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: Omitted facts for Franks purposes are intentional in one sense, but not presumably intentionally misleading
Omitted facts for Franks purposes are intentional in one sense, but not presumably intentionally misleading. Not every thing the affiant knows makes it in there. Also, citizen informant’s statement defendant was seen with a gun five weeks before the search … Continue reading
OH5: Trial court erred in holding def couldn’t be ordered out of car without RS
The trial court erred in holding that the state trooper had no reason to order defendant out of her car, and the inquiry stopped there. Under Mimms, however, it’s entirely under the officer’s discretion. When he stopped her, her pants … Continue reading
The Atlantic: The Supreme Court Is Not Well. And the People Know It.
The Atlantic: The Supreme Court Is Not Well. And the People Know It. by Garrett Epps (“A new guns case reveals that the once-noble institution has died, and we’re left working with its corpse.”)
WaPo: Pollen ‘nerds’: U.S. government enlists scientists to track drug loads, crack cold cases
WaPo: Pollen ‘nerds’: U.S. government enlists scientists to track drug loads, crack cold cases by Nick Miroff:
E.D.Va.: While the “four corners” rule is the standard for evaluating probable cause, the court may go outside the four corners in applying GFE
While the “four corners” rule is the standard for evaluating probable cause, the court may go outside the four corners in applying the good faith exception. Here, the officer had additional information he didn’t include because he’d reasonably thought he’d … Continue reading
NJ: Consent two hours later was attenuated from initial unlawful entry
Defendant was subjected to an entry and sweep. Consent two hours later was voluntary as attenuated. What was found didn’t come from the initial entry. State v. Williams, 2019 N.J. Super. LEXIS 138 (Aug. 29, 2019):