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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)
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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: April 2021
W.D.Pa.: SW for drug proceeds properly included jewelry it could have been converted to
A search warrant for drug proceeds properly included jewelry that the officer, in his experience, believed drug traffickers converted cash to. United States v. Thomas, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65553 (W.D. Pa. Apr. 5, 2021). The officer here saw a … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Pushing down the ptf causing injury was a seizure
The officer pushing down the plaintiff causing injury was a seizure. “A reasonable officer in Sasse’s position would not have thought it appropriate to shove Martinez so forcefully without first at least requesting that Martinez step back or step away … Continue reading
CA3: There was PC on the totality of the SW affidavit despite its alleged “slapdash” format; courts don’t grade warrant requests except for totality
There is probable cause on the totality of the affidavit. Defendant challenges the lack of order and “slapdash” nature of the showing. Courts don’t grade warrant applications for style, just substance. United States v. Wilson, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 9619 … Continue reading
GA: Valid strategic choice to forego search claim to support defense
Involving pre-Carpenter CSLI, the defense had valid strategic reasons to forego a motion to suppress to support the defense arguments at trial. “Because we hold that Thomas’s trial counsel did not perform deficiently because she had a reasonable strategic purpose … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: 4A doesn’t apply in civil discovery between private parties
In a civil dispute, defendant can get discovery of plaintiff’s text messages. Her Fourth Amendment and reasonable expectation of privacy argument is unavailing because they don’t apply to private parties. Petty v. Bluegrass Cellular, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64853 (W.D. … Continue reading
CA11: Tasing someone ignoring three commands to get on the ground was reasonable for QI purposes
“Measuring the facts of this case against the above factors, Deputy Ward acted reasonably when he used force against Duncan after she did not obey his orders to get on the ground. Even accepting as true that Duncan did not … Continue reading
CA8: While the stated reason for the stop was maybe legally erroneous, there was a valid unstated alternative basis
Officers stated an improper lane change as their basis for a stop, but it might not have been illegal under Nebraska law. However, they already had reason to believe the registration on the vehicle was lapsed, and that’s a proper … Continue reading
Virginian Pilot: Virginia State Police admit — after repeated denials — that they used controversial facial recognition app
Virginian Pilot: Virginia State Police admit — after repeated denials — that they used controversial facial recognition app by Jonathan Edwards (“After repeated denials, the Virginia State Police last week admitted that some of their detectives used a controversial facial … Continue reading
OH2: SW for BAC executed in 5 hrs was “as soon as possible”
The search warrant for a blood draw said it had to be within 3 hours [a statutory artifact] and as soon as possible, but it took 5. The trial court found it was executed as soon as possible, and that’s … Continue reading
CA5: A jury will have to decide reasonableness of excessive force used against a suicidal man
A jury needs to decide whether this officer’s use of deadly force on a suicidal suspect was reasonable. it was “clearly established — and possibly even obvious — that an officer violates the Fourth Amendment if he shoots an unarmed, … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Def counsel’s strategic decisions about how to argue a suppress issue is entitled to deference
Defense counsel’s strategic decisions about to argue a suppression motion is entitled to nearly total deference. Brown v. United States, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63948 (S.D. N.Y. Apr. 1, 2021). Petitioner’s 2255 claim is based on defense counsel’s not raising … Continue reading
OR: SW for evidence of murder on cell phone was general search as to its pictures
The search warrant for defendant’s cell phone permitted officers to search for location information, texts, and calls around the time of the murder. It also permitted a search for evidence of attempted murder. Officers found a picture of a gun … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Because tracking order affiant was fired for falsifying other tracking requests doesn’t mean this one was false when def can’t show anything
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not challenging the tracking warrant in defendant’s case based on the fact the officer who got it was fired for falsifying other tracking orders. “Bettis alleges that his counsel was ineffective by failing to challenge … Continue reading
CA6: When the question of nexus is close, GFE is the answer
When the question of nexus of probable cause of a crime to a defendant’s home is close, the good faith exception provides the answer. United States v. Reed, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 9526 (6th Cir. Apr. 1, 2021):
CA3: Mid-trial suppression argument wasn’t timely
Defendant’s mid-trial suppression motion was untimely despite the defense claim that this was a second search he wasn’t aware of until it came up at trial. United States v. Elcock, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 9503 (3d Cir. Apr. 1, 2021). … Continue reading
CA11: Def’s stop on another driver’s tip was RS
A driver’s tip was sufficiently corroborated to be reasonable suspicion. At defendant’s stop, “Demeanor counts for a lot.” United States v. Martinez, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 9480 (11th Cir. Apr. 1, 2021):
WaPo: How America’s surveillance networks helped the FBI catch the Capitol mob
WaPo: How America’s surveillance networks helped the FBI catch the Capitol mob by Drew Harwell and Craig Timberg (“Federal documents detailing the attacks at the U.S. Capitol show a mix of FBI techniques, from license plate readers to facial recognition, … Continue reading
IL: CSLI 11 years before Carpenter obtained in good faith
CSLI data obtained 11 years before Carpenter was obtained in good faith at the time and would not be suppressed. People v. Potts, 2021 IL App (1st) 161219, 2021 Ill. App. LEXIS 166 (Mar. 31, 2021). Defense counsel was not … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: No possessory interest in UM property ptf had for access to buildings
Plaintiff did not have a sufficient possessory interest in property of the University of Michigan that he’d been entrusted with. It belonged to the University who could recapture it. Hoeltzel v. Pillsbury, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 62371 (E.D. Mich. Feb. … Continue reading