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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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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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: November 2019
KY: “Plain smell” is longstanding, derives from plain view, and it won’t be reconsidered
The “plain smell” doctrine is longstanding, derives from plain view, and this court declines to resubmit the case for en banc review to reconsider it in the context of smell of marijuana in the car extending to the person in … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: A “Brinks box” in the house being searched with a warrant for drugs was subject to the search
A “Brinks box” in the house being searched with a warrant for drugs was subject to the search. United States v. Simmermaker, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199422 (N.D. Iowa Oct. 25, 2019), adopted, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 198379 (N.D. Iowa … Continue reading
TN: Failure to include the search warrant and affidavit in the record on appeal waives the search issue
Failure to include the search warrant and affidavit in the record on appeal waives the search issue. State v. Parks, 2019 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 740 (Nov. 13, 2019). The officer gets qualified immunity because there was probable cause for … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: Def shows a “substantial question” of the legality of his search for bail pending appeal of his conviction
Defendant showed a substantial enough question for appeal on the legality of a protective sweep that led to a plain view, so he gets bail pending appeal. United States v. Roark, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 198264 (W.D. Tex. Nov. 15, … Continue reading
CA9: Three-month-old information about where probationer lived wasn’t stale for probation search
Probation officers could rely on a three-month-old list that showed defendant’s brother lived there and he was on probation. The list was not stale because there was no suggestion the brother’s tenancy was transitory. Defendant’s claim the probation search as … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: One day’s GPS monitoring reasonable under Knotts, all things considered
A valuable opinion from the Middle District of Alabama on privacy v. property, mosaic theory or not, reasonable expectations of privacy on the open road. The court is constrained to find one day’s GPS tracking was reasonable under Knotts. United … Continue reading
WI: Uncorroborated informant hearsay was strong enough to credit for probation search on RS
Wisconsin permits warrantless probation and parole searches on reasonable suspicion by any law enforcement officer. Officers had it here based on uncorroborated informant hearsay. The record also supports the trial court’s conclusion that the officer knew of the search condition … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: No 4A right via Rule 41 to have copy of SW at scene; no exclusion for failure to timely leave it
Rule 41 requires that a copy of the search warrant be left at the premises, but it grants no constitutional right to the target of the search to supervise the search. Moreover, failure to leave a copy of the warrant … Continue reading
VA: State gets to argue GFE after a Carpenter remand even though it never raised the question before Carpenter was decided
Defendant was the subject of warrantless CSLI pre-Carpenter, and he petitioned for cert while Carpenter was pending. After Carpenter was decided, his case was GVR’d back to the state court of appeals. Reed v. Virginia, 138 S. Ct. 2702 (2018). … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Passenger’s flight from a car during a traffic stop is RS
A passenger’s flight from a car during a traffic stop is reasonable suspicion. United States v. Goines, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 197656 (D. Kan. Nov. 14, 2019). The search warrant for defendant’s home was particular because it referenced Attachment B, … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Michigan v. Long search of car on RS for a weapon called “protective sweep”
The officers had reasonable suspicion to believe there was a weapon in the car justifying a “protective sweep” of the car under Michigan v. Long. United States v. Alexander, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 197653 (D. Kan. Nov. 14, 2019). Defendant … Continue reading
MD: MTA “fare sweep” resulted in def’s detention without RS
A “fare sweep” on an MTA train in Baltimore led to defendant being detained. Officers ran his name and found a record. At a station, a scuffle ensued, one of the officers shouted “gun” and defendant was wrestled to the … Continue reading
CA5: CSLI obtained prior to Carpenter was valid, and it didn’t taint CSLI obtained after Carpenter for backup
Defendant was suspected of being a serial bank robber in the Houston area, and the government obtain CSLI by an SCA § 2703(d) order without a showing of probable cause. Two months before trial, Carpenter was decided, and, that same … Continue reading
N.D.Ala.: No exigency for entry into home to seize gun for alleged safety of children
The entry into defendant’s house to search for a gun lacked exigent circumstances. There was nothing on which the officers could claim there was any risk. Moreover, defendant didn’t consent to their entry into the home. United States v. Mulato-Herrara, … Continue reading
Cal.4: Warrantless seizure of def’s dashcam was reasonable on exigent circumstances; three days to get a SW wasn’t unreasonable
Defendant was convicted of reckless driving with an accident. His dashcam would have a recording of it. The dashcam was reasonably seized without a warrant on exigent circumstances. And, it wasn’t unreasonable to wait three days before getting a search … Continue reading
FL2: Anonymous calls about a pick-up truck driving slowly around the block in the middle of the night in a residential low crime area wasn’t RS
Officers received two anonymous calls about a dark pickup truck with a loud muffler on a residential street in the middle of the night. Once it stopped in the street for a few seconds and then pulled off and turned … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Collective knowledge doctrine doesn’t require that the officers actually share the information
The collective knowledge doctrine doesn’t require that the officers actually share the information. United States v. Devaugh, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 196059 (D.D.C. Nov. 12, 2019). The use of a “court ordered subpoena” apparently not issued on probable cause was … Continue reading
NY Daily News: Opinion: Unready for their closeup: The NYPD’s body camera problem
NY Daily News: Opinion: Unready for their closeup: The NYPD’s body camera problem (“Last month, outgoing Police Commissioner Jimmy O’Neill quietly released two pages of long-awaited guidelines outlining how and when video from body cameras all cops now wear shall … Continue reading