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Recent Posts
- MO: When officers came with an arrest warrant, def’s admission he had a firearm justified the entry
- PA: Shining flashlight into hole in a shoebox was a search; there was a REP in the closed box
- CA5: Accidentally shooting the man who disarmed the shooter from a residence was not a constitutional violation
- CA9: False evidence to arrest violates due process
- CA6: The SW affidavit here was thin, but it wasn’t completely bare bones, so GFE applies
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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)
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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
CA7: 911 call about DV in progress in house was exigency for entry
“Here we conclude that, based on the undisputed facts, the officers had an objectively reasonable basis to believe that someone in Cannon’s home needed immediate aid and that there was a compelling need to enter without a warrant. The officers … Continue reading
WaPo: U.S. capture of Maduro may be illegal; that likely won’t matter in court
WaPo: U.S. capture of Maduro may be illegal; that likely won’t matter in court by Perry Steinand Shayna Jacobs:
CA10: Nexus subject to GFE
The charge was impersonating an FBI agent at a school student pickup line. A warrant was issued for defendant’s house and computers to see if he bought faux FBI paraphernalia online.* The district court suppressed for lack of nexus. Reversed; … Continue reading
MA: Facebook selfie supported SW for def’s cell phone
A Facebook photo that appeared to be a selfie on defendant’s Facebook account wearing the shirt witnesses to the shooting describe supported a search warrant for defendant’s cell phone. Commonwealth v. Carleton, 2026 Mass. LEXIS 1 (Jan. 5, 2026). Plaintiff … Continue reading
CA6: 4A doesn’t impose a “shot clock” on staleness
A three-week-old controlled buy was part of the probable cause. The Fourth Amendment doesn’t impose a “shot clock” on staleness. Nexus was clear: “The nexus in this case, by contrast, left nothing to the imagination.” Police used pole camera surveillance … Continue reading
D.N.H.: Late disclosed SW application doesn’t show “actual innocence”; “legal innocence” is different
Petitioner obtained his search warrant application years after he was convicted. His habeas is denied. He claims it shows he was actually innocent, but this is only potential legal innocence, not actual innocence, and there’s a difference. Davis v. Warden, … Continue reading
KY: Def needs to make a record on how long the drug dog extended the stop under Rodriguez
The drug dog arrived while the traffic tickets were still being written. All the record shows is that. The record doesn’t “reveal how much time elapsed between the canine’s arrival and it alerting to the odor of unlawful drugs emanating … Continue reading
WSJ: A Police Drone Might Be Behind Your Next Ticket
WSJ: A Police Drone Might Be Behind Your Next Ticket by James Fanelli (“Law enforcement is expanding the use of remotely controlled drones despite concerns of civil liberties groups”):
W.D.Ark.: Not clearly established that searching inside underwear on side of road was unreasonable if no one saw it
No clear line of cases suggests the officer’s searching inside plaintiff’s underwear was unreasonable where it was not seen by anyone else. “Plaintiff’s right to be free from such a search was not clearly established at that time and Defendant … Continue reading
D.S.C.: Issuing magistrate sharing address with LE agency doesn’t make the magistrate not “neutral and detached”
The issuing magistrate is not shown to be an adjunct law enforcement officer just because the judge shares an address with a police department. Martinez v. Wilson, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 268655 (D.S.C. Dec. 10, 2025). The search incident of … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: CSAM PC allegations never go stale
Child pornography probable cause allegations, especially those on a computer have a “long shelf life” and virtually never go stale. United States v. Picca, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 267611 (M.D. Pa. Dec. 30, 2025). Plaintiff alleged enough to proceed past … Continue reading
CA10: Protective sweep of car was valid despite presence of six officers; def would get back in car
There was reasonable suspicion enough potential for dangerousness for a protective sweep of defendant’s car. “The district court’s dangerousness analysis relied on four factors: (1) Raban’s gang affiliation, (2) the high-crime and rival-gang neighborhood, (3) Armstrong’s presence, and (4) Raban’s … Continue reading
Kavanaugh Stops #4
Reason: Did Brett Kavanaugh Just Apologize for Butchering the Fourth Amendment? Maybe. by Damon Root (“Puzzling over a curious omission from the conservative justice”):
Reason: DHS Says REAL ID, Which DHS Certifies, Is Too Unreliable To Confirm U.S. Citizenship
Reason: DHS Says REAL ID, Which DHS Certifies, Is Too Unreliable To Confirm U.S. Citizenship by C.J. Ciaramella*:
DE: Failure to file a pretrial motion to suppress is waiver with no plain error review
Failure to file a pretrial motion to suppress is waiver, and it will not be considered on plain error review, and for good reason. Swanson v. State, 2025 Del. LEXIS 504 (Dec. 31, 2025):
CA9: Evidence seized by state not taken or used by feds not subject to Rule 41(g)
State officers seized defendant’s Rolex watch in a search, and there was a federal prosecution, but the watch was never part of it nor evidence of anything. Thus, Rule 41(g) affords him no relief here. There’s no constructive federal possession … Continue reading
The Sixth Edition is 15% off today
Search and Seizure a $100 savings
Slate: Brett Kavanaugh Is Trying to Walk Back “Kavanaugh Stops.” Too Late.
Slate: Brett Kavanaugh Is Trying to Walk Back “Kavanaugh Stops.” Too Late. By Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern:
D.Md.: Photos taken during search come in at trial
Photos taken during execution of a search warrant are coming in at trial. “Photos of the location where the items were recovered supports the allegation by placing the search warrant in context.” United States v. Jenifer, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading