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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)
--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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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: March 2021
CA5: 4A generally only applies to pretrial govt activities
The Fourth Amendment only applies to pretrial alleged constitutional deprivations. Trial related constraints are not Fourth Amendment issues. United States v. Emakoji, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 6843 (5th Cir. Mar. 9, 2021):
Forbes: Drones With ‘Most Advanced AI Ever’ Coming Soon To Your Local Police Department
Forbes: Drones With ‘Most Advanced AI Ever’ Coming Soon To Your Local Police Department by Thomas Brewster (“Founded by Google veterans and backed by $340 million from major VCs, Skydio is creating drones that seem straight out of science fiction—and … Continue reading
CA5 declines to extend Bivens to 4A claims outside the home
Court declines to extend Bivens to a search in parking lot because it thinks SCOTUS would agree. Bivens was a search of the home. Byrd v. Lamb, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 6844 (5th Cir. Mar. 9, 2021). “Henriquez-Perez has not … Continue reading
WA: Uncorroborated CI’s story not RS or PC
CI was not shown to be sufficiently reliable by an attempt to corroborate her to justify defendant’s stop and subsequent search. “Unlike a citizen informant calling 911, a criminal informant is not presumed to be acting out of civic responsibility. … Continue reading
WY: Mere citation to state constitution without cogent argument for different treatment is waiver
Citation alone to the state constitution’s search and seizure without cogent argument for differentiating Fourth Amendment cases is waiver. The totality of information before the officer in the traffic stop justified it. Elmore v. State, 2021 Wyo. LEXIS 48 (Mar. … Continue reading
CA5: Warrantless entry to seize suicidal ptf was reasonable
The officer’s warrantless entry to seize the allegedly suicidal plaintiff was based on probable ause and exigency. “The exigency of a credible risk that a person is about to end their life justifies the warrantless entries into Clark’s hotel room … Continue reading
CA5: Police accidentally shooting a hostage isn’t an intentional seizure
“Here, the only plausible reading of the allegations is that Doe accidentally shot Ulises while trying to help him by ending the hostage situation. Such accidental conduct does not result in a Fourth Amendment seizure. See Brower, 489 U.S. at … Continue reading
D.Conn.: When govt raises an exception to warrant requirement, def must rebut in briefing, but cell phone seizure shown unjustified
In response to defendant’s motion to suppress, the government argued search incident, which the defense didn’t rebut in the papers. Motion denied in part. Defendant’s cell phone seizure is suppressed, however, because the government didn’t show justification for its seizure. … Continue reading
Cal.2: Litigating a motion to suppress with an affidavit sealed in part from the defense
People v. Washington, 2021 Cal. App. LEXIS 196 (2d Dist. Mar. 9, 2021):
WaPo: Massive camera hack exposes the growing reach and intimacy of American surveillance
WaPo: Massive camera hack exposes the growing reach and intimacy of American surveillance by Drew Harwell (“A breach of the camera start-up Verkada ‘should be a wake-up call to the dangers of self-surveillance,’ one expert said: ‘Our desire for some … Continue reading
CA10: Successor habeas denied on claim state judges denied 4A claims because they were racist
2254 petitioner’s claim the state courts failed to adequately consider his Fourth Amendment claim because they were racist was still barred as a successive habeas. White v. Crow, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 6769 (10th Cir. Mar. 9, 2021):
EFF: App Stores Have Kicked Out Some Location Data Brokers. Good, Now Kick Them All Out.
EFF: App Stores Have Kicked Out Some Location Data Brokers. Good, Now Kick Them All Out. by Bennett Cyphers:
OH11: Driver being passed out behind the steering wheel with the engine running is RS
The driver being passed out behind the steering wheel with the engine running and radio playing is reasonable suspicion. State v. Cassel, 2021-Ohio-661, 2021 Ohio App. LEXIS 654 (11th Dist. Mar. 8, 2021).* Defendant’s stop was justified by a traffic … Continue reading
VICE: Dashcam Video Shows a State Trooper Ordering His Dog to Bite Man for Nearly 4 Minutes
VICE: Dashcam Video Shows a State Trooper Ordering His Dog to Bite Man for Nearly 4 Minutes by Trone Dowd (“After an investigation, Parker Surbrook has been charged with felony assault.”)
OH5: Def didn’t abandon cell phone but it was still reasonable for officer to turn it on to see if he could ID owner
Defendant did not abandon his cell phone by leaving it charging in a vehicle (actually, it had fallen out but the charging cable was attached) where he was away from it. However, the officer reasonably could turn on the phone … Continue reading
D.D.C.: 6A, due process, and F.R.Crim.P. 43 don’t mandate in person 4A suppression hearings during Covid
The court prefers to hold suppression hearings in person because, in many cases, it is the most important pretrial proceeding. But, while a suppression hearing is a critical stage where the right to effective assistance of counsel has attached, the … Continue reading
CA6: No suppression remedy for no-knock violation
The remedy for a no-knock violation is not suppression of the evidence—it’s a § 1983 action for violating the Fourth Amendment. Moreover, “An issuing judge need not eliminate every alternative explanation to find a ‘fair probability’ that contraband will be … Continue reading
CA9: Violent take down of traffic detainee not resisting could be found excessive; no QI
Qualified immunity is denied officers for excessive force in a violent take down on a passively resisting plaintiff in a traffic stop without there being any exigency justifying it. “Viewing the facts, as we must, in the light most favorable … Continue reading
CA5: District court’s failure to credit def’s claim of possessory interest in car is affirmed
Defendant was a passenger in a car in which he claimed he had a possessory interest because it belonged to his domestic partner and he claimed to have paid $2000 toward the car. The district court didn’t credit that testimony … Continue reading