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- D.R.I.: Defense attorney’s affidavit for Franks motion was insufficient for lack of personal knowledge
- Philadelphia Inquirer: Two Philadelphia police officers stopped hundreds of Black men on the street. Lawyers say the stops were illegal and racially biased.
- Reason: Iowa Man Seen in Viral Body Camera Footage Wins $105,000 Wrongful Arrest Lawsuit
- W.D.Mo.: ALPR information helped support RS
- D.S.D.: If def testifies to show standing, he can be asked about his association with the drugs found
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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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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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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. 
Author Archives: Hall
CA9: Where officers were attempting to de-escalate a situation, warning about deadly force not required
A warning before deadly force would be used was contrary to the officers’ efforts to de-escalate the situation. Otherwise qualified immunity applies. Eyre v. City of Fairbanks, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 19770 (9th Cir. Aug. 7, 2024) (2-1).* Plaintiff’s claim … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Without showing no PC on remainder of affidavit, Franks challenge fails
Defendant’s Franks challenge fails because he doesn’t show that the affidavit does not show probable cause on the remainder. United States v. Chappell, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140479 (E.D. Mich. Aug. 7, 2024).* The officers apparently didn’t know that the … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Asking about drugs made this stop intimidating and governed by Rodrieguez
During this stop, the officer finally asked about drugs in the car. “At this moment, the encounter became intimidating, and a reasonable person in Tripp’s situation would not feel free to leave. The encounter thus ripened into a Terry, or … Continue reading
MT community caretaking entries cannot be based on alleged crime alone
The welfare check of defendant’s house was reasonable. Yet, in this state, the community caretaker function cannot be based on an alleged crime alone. State v. Case, 2024 MT 165 (Aug. 6, 2024). Defendant’s 2255 ineffective assistance claim is rejected. … Continue reading
MT: SCA grants state courts authority to issue SWs for out-of-state data
Because the internet uniformly crosses state lines, the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2703(a), grants state courts additional jurisdiction over search warrants for information that is stored out of state. State v. LeVine, 2024 MT 169 (Aug. 6, 2024):
Yes, I’m behind on postings
I’m in my ninth trial this year. Tenth next week.
Reason: The Volokh Conspiracy, The Fifth Circuit Shuts Down Geofence Warrants—And Maybe A Lot More
Reason: The Volokh Conspiracy, The Fifth Circuit Shuts Down Geofence Warrants—And Maybe A Lot More by Orin S. Kerr: An astonishing ruling, and one that creates splits on two differerent issues.
New Law Review: Who’s Got Mail? The Fourth Amendment Impact of Pseudonyms
Timothy S. Iversen, Comment: Who’s Got Mail? The Fourth Amendment Impact of Pseudonyms, 31 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 961 (Spring 2024):
W.D.N.C.: While NCIC data error on warrant was “troubling,” the arrest was still in good faith
While there was an NCIC warrant entry error which was “troubling,” it has nothing to do with the good faith of the officers in executing it under Evans. United States v. Valdez, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 138952 (W.D.N.C. Aug. 6, … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Even summary denial of 4A claim in state court means Stone bar applies
Even a summary denial of a Fourth Amendment claim gets deference under Stone v. Powell. Burns v. Hainsworth, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 138877 (M.D. Pa. Aug. 6, 2024). Petitioner’s successor habeas petition claim based on an alleged fabricated search warrant, … Continue reading
CA9: Ptf’s protestations of innocence at arrest doesn’t undermine this arrest warrant
“Farber’s § 1983 claims also fail because she has not shown an underlying constitutional violation. Her arrest did not violate the Fourth Amendment because the arresting officers ‘had a good faith, reasonable belief that [Farber] was the subject of the … Continue reading
Reason: The FBI Raided This Innocent Woman’s House. Will She Ever Get Justice?
Reason: The FBI Raided This Innocent Woman’s House. Will She Ever Get Justice? by Billy Binion (“The FBI detonated a flash grenade in the house and ripped the door from its hinges in a raid to arrest a man, Joseph … Continue reading
W.D.Okla.: Search of hotel room lacked justification under community caretaking function; allied SW lacked PC
The search of defendant’s hotel room was without probable cause or any other justification for a warrantless search, here the community caretaking function. That search supported a warranted search, but it was necessary to the finding of probable cause for … Continue reading
AP: Prosecutors plan to charge former Kansas police chief over his conduct following newspaper raid
AP: Prosecutors plan to charge former Kansas police chief over his conduct following newspaper raid by John Hanna (“Two special prosecutors said Monday that they plan to charge a former central Kansas police chief with obstruction of justice over his … Continue reading
CA5: Drug dog jumping in already open window not unreasonable
Drug dog’s spontaneously jumping in the vehicle window that was down when the stop began wasn’t directed by the officer and didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Wilson, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 19424 (5th Cir. Aug. 2, 2024). … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Govt has burden to show first appearance more than 48 hours after arrest was reasonable
“Mr. Williams alleged enough facts to support an inference that his rights were violated. Mr. Williams contends that the County Sheriff violated his Fourth Amendment rights because he was jailed without a timely decision about whether there was probable cause … Continue reading