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- CA10: SW for gun three weeks after road rage incident wasn’t stale
- OH10: Parole search of cell phone can occur even when it’s taken from the property room at jail
- TX14: No REP in location information on bondsman’s GPS monitor
- W.D.N.Y.: No IAC for not challenging search without standing
- CAAF: Victim’s 4A rights were at issue, too
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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) -
“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 2023
E.D.N.C.: Posting political candidate’s address online violated no REP
A candidate running for office had his address posted online, and this did not violate any reasonable expectation of privacy or Fourth Amendment right. His voter registration address was already online. Sharma v. Hirsch, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 202163 (E.D.N.C. … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Car company with security interest had claim for alleged illegal disposal of seized car
A motorist was stopped and searched and his car was seized, towed, and impounded. Later it was sold by the towing company for expenses. Toyota had a security interest in it. Toyota stated a claim for loss of the car. … Continue reading
D.Vt.: Delay in searching one cell phone here leads to suppression but not as to a second one
Considering the four factors to consider in the delay in searching defendant’s cell phone, all the factors favor him. As to the exclusionary rule, “Because there is an ‘appreciable deterrent value’ in suppressing the evidence from the 9/15/22 Warrant, as … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Protective sweep of meth lab property was objectively reasonable
The officers’ protective sweep of a property with a working meth lab was objectively reasonable. United States v. Moreno, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 201424 (N.D. Tex. Nov. 9, 2023). Defendant’s cell phone was used during the period the rape victim … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Strip clubs aren’t “closely regulated businesses” for administrative searches
“In 2007, the Texas Legislature instituted the Sexually Oriented Business Fee Act (‘the SOBF’)” which requires admission fees into strip clubs and records inspections. A sexually oriented business is not one of those that can be “closely regulated” for administrative … Continue reading
WV: A summons is not a 4A seizure
Claiming plaintiff was “forced to turn himself in” on a summons didn’t state a claim for a Fourth Amendment seizure. State ex rel. Atty.-Gen. v. Ballard, 2023 W. Va. LEXIS 473 (Nov. 9, 2023). “The warrant in this case listed … Continue reading
WV: State did not justify “officer safety” as reason for entry
The state failed to justify the entry here on officer safety grounds because their neighbor disturbance call included no reference to potential violence or threats and no good reason could be articulated other than “officer safety” which essentially is always … Continue reading
PA: Car and phone were abandoned after police chase
Defendant was allegedly driving his car, fled a police stop and crashed into another car. He fled and abandoned the car leaving his cell phone inside. He reported it stolen the next morning, but that proved to be false. The … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Overnight guest ordered out no longer had REP
Defendant was an overnight guest, but the homeowner told him to get out and called the police on him because he was tearing the place up. “The Court finds it doubtful that “society is prepared to recognize as reasonable” Starghill’s … Continue reading
AR: Probation search waiver can be required in suspended sentences, too
The state probation search waiver statute doesn’t refer to suspended sentences, but the court has the power to impose it there, too, even without a supervision requirement. Johnson v. State, 2023 Ark. App. 509 (Nov. 8, 2023). The dog sniff … Continue reading
CA4: Clerk’s failure to file and stamp warrants not a 4A violation
The alleged failure of the clerk of court to file and stamp warrants was not a Fourth Amendment claim for a § 1983 case. Jordan v. Newman, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 29766 (4th Cir. Nov. 8, 2023). The taking of … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: City policy of towing and impounding vehicles for fees owed violated 4A of lessor
Plaintiff leased a vehicle to a motorist who got behind in payments. By the time it was ready to repossess, VW Credit found out that the city had the car towed and held by a towing company which refused to … Continue reading
IA: A drug pipe in def’s possession doesn’t help show PC for DWI (but other evidence did)
“But while the drug pipe in the passenger’s pocket does not lend support for probable cause that Roe was operating while intoxicated, excluding this evidence from consideration is not fatal to the warrant as Roe’s other arguments on the lack … Continue reading
CA10: No REP against officer running an LPN
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a license plate number. Officers can run any LPN number. They can also walk up to his car in his driveway and look at it. Becerra v. City of Albuquerque, 2023 U.S. … Continue reading
NYT: CIA officer’s cell phone search case pled yesterday
The cell phone search case of the CIA officer noted here from two weeks ago resulted in a guilty plea yesterday to some counts. NYT: Former C.I.A. Officer Pleads Guilty to Sexual Abuse Charges (“The former officer, Brian Jeffrey Raymond, … Continue reading
OH11: Person seeking return of property seized need not provide actual evidence in the petition
In a petition for return of property seized from a business, it was only required to show a possessory interest and likelihood of return. An evidentiary quality response isn’t required. State v. Allen, 2023-Ohio-4032, 2023 Ohio App. LEXIS 3869 (11th … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Evidence in plain view may be seized during protective sweep
It was permissible for officers to seize firearms seen in plain view during this protective sweep. United States v. Riley, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 198798 (S.D. Ohio Nov. 6, 2023). “Given the totality of the circumstances and the numerous distinctions … Continue reading
TN: No IAC to distance def from property of another and claim no standing
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not filing a motion to suppress property that wasn’t his but where he spent time. The trial strategy was to distance defendant from the property, and asserting a reasonable expectation of privacy in the property … Continue reading