Archives
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Recent Posts
- D.R.I.: Defense attorney’s affidavit for Franks motion was insufficient for lack of personal knowledge
- 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
- 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
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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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"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
TX2: Overnight guest staying with a registered hotel guest has standing over the room
“[A]n overnight guest of a registered hotel guest shares the registered guest’s reasonable expectation of privacy in the hotel room and thus has standing to contest the search.” Fitzgerald v. State, 2024 Tex. App. LEXIS 6161 n.11 (Tex. App. — … Continue reading
OH8: Citizen informant’s 911 call was RS under Navarette
The citizen informant’s 911 call that defendant was drunk, belligerent, and driving gave reasonable suspicion to stop defendant under Naverette. City of Parma v. Coyne, 2024-Ohio-3192, 2024 Ohio App. LEXIS 3019 (8th Dist. Aug. 22, 2024). “And here, even expunging … Continue reading
CA3: Reframing issues outside of the original argument below requires plain error review
Fed. R. Crim. P. 12(c)(3)’s good-cause standard applied to defendant’s specific suppression arguments that were raised for the first time on appeal rather than plain error review under Fed. R. Crim. P. 52(b). Because defendant did not demonstrate good cause … Continue reading
FL3: Officers could enter def’s home to make his arrest with an arrest warrant
Defendant was convicted of resisting arrest without violence. The jury was properly instructed that the officers could enter his home on an arrest warrant. Martinez v. State, 2024 Fla. App. LEXIS 6538 (Fla. 3d DCA Aug. 21, 2024). Plaintiff’s malicious … Continue reading
FL6: Officer does not have to decide potential defenses to a traffic stop before letting motorist go
“In similar fashion, the officer in our case did not need to first reach a state of ‘absolute certitude’ before forming a probable cause belief that careless driving had occurred. While there were numerous possibilities that could have presented a … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Verifying validity of an AW wasn’t unreasonable extension of stop
The stop was concededly valid, and a warrant was found. Verifying that the warrant is still out is not an unreasonable extension of the stop. United States v. Colquhoun, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 149487 (N.D. Iowa Aug. 21, 2024). [Defendant … Continue reading
Reason: Limit Government’s Use of Surveillance Technology Before It’s Too Late
Reason: Limit Government’s Use of Surveillance Technology Before It’s Too Late by Steven Greenhut (“In that relatively short time, humanity has become accustomed to a level of technological intrusion that was previously unfathomable. Most of us have mixed feelings. We’ve … Continue reading
NJ: Defense gets discovery of drug dog’s records
Defendant was entitled to discovery of the drug dog’s records to determine the dog’s reliability. State v. Morgan, 2024 N.J. Super. LEXIS 88 (Aug. 21, 2024). Suspicionless supervised release searches are reasonable when applied to child porn offenders. United States … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Fact no MJ was found despite car strongly smelling of it doesn’t mean officer wasn’t credible
The fact a car smells of marijuana but none was found doesn’t mean the officer wasn’t credible. United States v. Wardlow, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 148359 (M.D. Fla. Aug. 20, 2024):
D.Minn.: PC shown for SW for dog sniff at apartment door
There was probable cause for a dog sniff warrant at defendant’s apartment door. There was also probable cause for the warrant for his vehicle. The use of an unwitting informant doesn’t negate probable cause (collecting cases). United States v. Turner, … Continue reading
Cal.4th: Motorist can be ordered from car without RS
The search was reasonable when viewed objectively, and the superior court is reversed. “We have reviewed the video from the two officers’ body-worn cameras, which were admitted into evidence at the hearing on the motion. Viewed objectively, we see no … Continue reading
Just Security: Warrantless “Defensive” Searches of FISA Section 702 Data Violate the Fourth Amendment
Just Security: Warrantless “Defensive” Searches of FISA Section 702 Data Violate the Fourth Amendment by Noah Chauvin:
MD: No claim for false arrest under an arrest warrant approved by a judge on PC
After being acquitted in a bench trial on interpretation of the statute involved, plaintiff sued for false arrest and malicious prosecution. The arrest warrant was issued on probable cause by a neutral and detached magistrate, and the officers had to … Continue reading
Reason: The Feds Are Skirting the Fourth Amendment by Buying Data
Reason: The Feds Are Skirting the Fourth Amendment by Buying Data by Joe Lancaster (“The government needs a warrant to spy on you. So agencies are paying tech companies to do it instead.”)
CA11: Week’s delay in getting SW for cell phone was reasonable; def in custody and didn’t ask for it back.
The warrant for defendant’s cell phone wasn’t issued for a week, but the delay was reasonable. He was in jail with a diminished privacy interest, and he didn’t ask for it back. United States v. Watson, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Out-of-bounds camping stop led to RS and that led to PC
Defendant was stopped for out-of-bounds camping by a park ranger. The conversation led to reasonable suspicion then to probable cause for a search. United States v. Gearhart, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146610 (E.D. Cal. Aug. 16, 2024). Obviously, vehicle stops … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Gang members’ waving guns in Instagram post was RS for later stop
“To start, the Instagram video that showed Brown, McCullers, and others waving firearms and pointing them directly at the camera provided the officers with reasonable suspicion to stop the two men. That’s because, under Virginia law, it is ‘unlawful for … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Cell phone next to seized drugs was nexus for SW
“In sum, the search warrant affidavit contained considerably more than the mere fact that Bell was arrested with the cell phone on his person. Rather, law enforcement found the cell phone on Bell’s person near ‘the very drugs’ he has … Continue reading
CA5: Sounds of a fight inside at a domestic call justified this warrantless entry
Officers responded to a domestic disturbance call and heard shouting inside that made them believe there was a fight inside. Summary judgment for the officers in a warrantless entry case was properly granted. Ramirez v. Killian, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
N.D.Miss.: Def’s arguments against the PC showing in the SW go more toward a trial defense, not PC
Probable cause and good faith arguments about three images of child pornography in the affidavit out of 121 total, were more toward a defense of the charge and do not undermine probable cause. United States v. Murphy, 2024 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading