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Recent Posts
- VA: Retrieving drugs from def’s underwear wasn’t unreasonable
- D.Minn.: Particularity for PC doesn’t mean BRD
- E.D.N.C.: Person with lock on a storage unit has apparent authority to consent to its search
- AR: Taking two minutes to review a SW application doesn’t make issuing judge not neutral and detached
- MO: No REP in hotel room mistakenly renting hotel room to unwanted guest
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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 / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the 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) -
“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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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)
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Monthly Archives: September 2025
VA: Retrieving drugs from def’s underwear wasn’t unreasonable
Retrieving a bag of drugs from defendant’s underwear with probable cause was still reasonable. The court of appeals erred in reversing. Commonwealth v. Hubbard, 2025 Va. LEXIS 44 (Sep. 11, 2025) (revg Hubbard v. Commonwealth, 80 Va. App. 384, 898 … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Particularity for PC doesn’t mean BRD
The particularity requirement for a warrant doesn’t mean the specificity for proof beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Banks, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 177576 (D. Minn. Sep. 11, 2025):
E.D.N.C.: Person with lock on a storage unit has apparent authority to consent to its search
The person with a lock on a storage unit, even though not the renter, has apparent authority to consent to its search. United States v. Gibson, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178083 (E.D.N.C. Sep. 11, 2025). Rule 41 doesn’t mandate a … Continue reading
AR: Taking two minutes to review a SW application doesn’t make issuing judge not neutral and detached
The search warrant application was emailed to the issuing magistrate, and the warrant came back in two minutes. That doesn’t show that the judge was not neutral and detached because “an experienced judge can prudently review a succinct, factually detailed … Continue reading
MO: No REP in hotel room mistakenly renting hotel room to unwanted guest
The fact a hotel mistakenly gave a room to an unwanted guest gave the guest no standing in the room when the hotel sought to eject him. State v. Mount, 2025 Mo. App. LEXIS 601 (Sep. 9, 2025):
techdirt: Federal Judges Are Done Playing Nice: NBC Reports Full-Scale Revolt Against SCOTUS Shadow Docket Bullshit
techdirt: Federal Judges Are Done Playing Nice: NBC Reports Full-Scale Revolt Against SCOTUS Shadow Docket Bullshit by Mike Masnick:
ABAJ: As Customs searches more electronic devices, lawyers have some considerations when they cross borders
ABAJ: As Customs searches more electronic devices, lawyers have some considerations when they cross borders by Anna Stolley Persky:
D.Mass.: Wooded area near def’s property was not his curtilage
The wooded area near defendant’s property was not his curtilage. United States v. Rodrigues, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176637 (D. Mass. Sep. 10, 2025).* A cut and paste typo and an honest and material mistake on a connection to the … Continue reading
CA6: Business’s sole other employee had apparent authority to consent
Plaintiff’s adult child was the sole other employee of the business, and he had apparent authority to consent to a search. For all practical purpose, he’s in charge, too. Rockwood Auto Parts, Inc. v. Monroe Cty., 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: Handcuffing DV detainee was reasonable, but search of his bag was without RS
Officers responding to a 911 call about alleged domestic violence in public handcuffed defendant. This was reasonable at the time. Reasonable suspicion for a search of the cross body bag on him was lacking. He was handcuffed, there was no … Continue reading
OR: CP warrant was overbroad
The warrant for defendant’s computer was overbroad in seeking alleged child pornography of others than the known alleged victims, essentially based on assumptions about child pornographers. State v. Schult, 343 Or. App. 376 (Sep. 10, 2025). This is a rarity:
ABAJ: Kavanaugh cites precedent, ‘common sense’ in supporting SCOTUS order allowing immigration stops
ABAJ: Kavanaugh cites precedent, ‘common sense’ in supporting SCOTUS order allowing immigration stops by Debra Cassens Weiss (“Justice Brett Kavanaugh explained his agreement with a U.S. Supreme Court stay on Monday that allowed the federal government to continue making immigration … Continue reading
CA10: Having the driver get out is within the scope of any traffic stop
Having the driver come back to the patrol car is a basic safety concern within the scope of any traffic stop. United States v. Brown, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 23113 (10th Cir. Sep. 8, 2025). “Voorhis’s false arrest claim is … Continue reading
Stingrays are back
Forbes: How ICE Is Using Fake Cell Towers To Spy On People’s Phones by Thomas Brewster:
E.D.La.: AirBnb permittees have no REP in information already voluntarily provided to city
AirBnb and its permittees don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy in information that was already essentially turned over to the city in getting permits in the first place. Bodin v. City of New Orleans, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174172 … Continue reading
LAT: You look Latino. You speak Spanish. You work hard. That’s now probable cause.
LAT: You look Latino. You speak Spanish. You work hard. That’s now probable cause. by Dean Florez (“When I was a young UCLA constitutional law major, we learned that the Constitution wasn’t just parchment behind glass: It was a living … Continue reading
404 Media: ICE Spends Millions on Clearview AI Facial Recognition to Find People ‘Assaulting’ Officers
404 Media: ICE Spends Millions on Clearview AI Facial Recognition to Find People ‘Assaulting’ Officers by Joseph Cox:
The Guardian: US Supreme Court ‘effectively legalized racial profiling’, immigration experts warn
The Guardian: US Supreme Court ‘effectively legalized racial profiling’, immigration experts warn:
NYT: Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions on L.A. Immigration Stops
NYT: Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions on L.A. Immigration Stops by Adam Liptak (“federal judge had ordered agents not to make indiscriminate stops relying on factors like a person’s ethnicity or that they speak Spanish.”) The order is here. Kavanaugh, J., … Continue reading
CA5: Bailing out and running away from open truck at a convenience store was abandonment
Bailing out of a truck on the sidewalk of a convenience store and running away leaving the windows open and it unlocked is an abandonment. United States v. Tsatenawa, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 23079 (5th Cir. Sep. 5, 2025). The … Continue reading