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Recent Posts
- IL: A backpack is not as personal a repository of stuff as a purse or wallet; officers ordered it left in vehicle for safety reasons and it was inventoried
- DE: Cell phone SW was limited by time and data sought, so it was not a general warrant
- MD: Under Bruen, mere possession of a handgun outside the home is no longer RS; Terry stop doesn’t include looking in a bag
- 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
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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)
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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
E.D.Okla.: Geofence warrant held 4A violation with no GFE
The R&R recommended suppression of the geofence warrant. It is adopted. The warrant caused a wholesale search and was based on what appears to be a slipshod effort. Even the good faith exception didn’t apply. United States v. Fuentes, 2025 … Continue reading
CA7: No trespassing sign on driveway didn’t prevent animal control officer from walking up driveway
No trespassing sign at plaintiff’s driveway didn’t make the animal control officer’s entry onto the driveway a Fourth Amendment violation. Also, “[t]he argument that a land patent exempts Shaw’s property from the law is frivolous.” Shaw v. Hall, 2025 U.S. … Continue reading
D.N.H.: Affidavit for SW showed def’s standing
“Examining the totality of the circumstances, the evidence shows that the officers reasonably believed that Guerrero-Nuñez lived in Apartment 204 and would be present when they entered the apartment. As such, their entry into the apartment did not violate Guerrero-Nuñez’s … Continue reading
CA2: Alleged inconsistencies in dog handler’s testimony didn’t necessarily make him unbelievable
“Any inconsistent testimony Fisher gave as to the dog’s ‘alerts’ and ‘indications’ arose out of a confusion of vocabulary rather than lack of credibility, as made evident by the district court’s request that Fisher clarify and not conflate the terms. … Continue reading
D.Alaska: It was litigation strategy to not file a motion to suppress and cut def’s losses
It was litigation strategy to not file a motion to suppress and cut defendant’s losses. No ineffective assistance of counsel. United States v. Davis, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24036 (D. Alaska Jan. 8, 2025).* The cell phone warrant was sufficiently … Continue reading
OR: Officer’s use of a flashlight to facilitate a plan view at night was reasonable
The officer’s use of a flashlight to facilitate a plan view at night was reasonable. State v. Starr, 337 Or. App. 682 (Feb. 12, 2025).* There was probable cause to believe blood on the cell phone was defendant’s justifying the … Continue reading
ID: Officer’s subjective belief drug dog alerted can be sufficient for PC
The officer’s subjective belief the drug dog alerted can be sufficient for probable cause. Here, it’s based on the officer’s training and experience. State v. Morgan, 2025 Ida. App. LEXIS 6 (Feb. 12, 2025):
MO: GPS monitoring of a sex offender after release was reasonable
F.S.’s expectation of privacy is diminished as a convicted felon and registered sex offender, and the GPS monitoring’s intrusion on her privacy is slight. The state has a legitimate interest in protecting children and other potential victims from sex crimes. … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Stone bar applies regardless of the merits of the 4A claim
The Stone bar applies regardless of the merits of the Fourth Amendment claim. Wood v. Warden, Noble Corr. Inst., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24460 (S.D. Ohio Feb. 11, 2025).* Notice pleading in Fourth Amendment § 1983 claims: “Plaintiff alleges that … Continue reading
D.Minn.: That officers could have been more careful and detailed in monitoring the CI doesn’t show a lack of PC
“Mr. Turner is correct that the use of a CRI during drug investigations is common. Moreover, the Court does not disagree that officers could have taken additional steps to yield an even higher degree of confidence that Mr. Turner was … Continue reading
CA9: Use of Taser in dart-mode wasn’t excessive force because it was justified
“An officer’s use of a Taser in dart-mode ‘constitute[s] an intermediate, significant level of force.’ … But under the Graham factors, Officer Swindling’s brief Taser use was justified under the circumstances. First, Sharif had assaulted his daughter’s mother; stolen a … Continue reading
CA8: False statement van was “secured” was based on secondhand information and was neither material or reckless
The officer’s statement that defendant’s van was “secured” was not sufficient false and misleading to even be reckless. The officer was passing on information from other officers about the van, but the windows were missing and it was accessible. United … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Statement taken in violation of Miranda likely usable for impeachment
Defendant’s statement allegedly in violation of Miranda that the government doesn’t intend to use may be used for impeachment if the defendant contradicts them under Harris. United States v. Cardona, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22757 (D.P.R. Feb. 6, 2025). Inferences … Continue reading
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Informed today.
OH5: RS permits putting def into a patrol car to maintain the status quo
Officers had reasonable suspicion to initiate a brief investigative stop of defendant based on the totality of the circumstances, including the citizen’s tip, the late hour, the location, and the defendant’s suspicious behavior upon seeing them. Placing him in the … Continue reading
Orin S. Kerr, The Two Tests of Search Law: Reconciling Katz and Jones
Orin S. Kerr, The Two Tests of Search Law: Reconciling Katz and Jones on SSRN. Abstract:
CA11: Potential new Franks violation not enough for third successor habeas
This is petitioner’s third successor habeas attempt. This one claims new information might make a Franks violation. Except that it doesn’t qualify for permission to proceed as a successor. In re Obeginski, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 2806 (11th Cir. Feb. … Continue reading
CA3: “Rodriguez moment” here was 13 minutes into the stop and with RS
“We agree with the District Court that everything that occurred before the Rodriguez moment was within the scope of a normal traffic stop, and after that point, was supported by reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Cpl. Conrad’s initial questioning of … Continue reading
DC: Key fob was properly seized incident to arrest
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not moving to suppress his frisk incident to arrest that produced a key fob in 2017. The law changed a little five years after the search occurred, but it still would have failed at the … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Fact def was armed when SW for firearms was executed didn’t preclude further search for firearms
The affidavit for search warrant was particular for firearms based on threatening social media posts. When the search occurred, defendant was armed, but there was probable cause there could be other firearms on the premises. United States v. Rui Jiang, … Continue reading