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- CA6: State officer’s arrest for violation of federal MJ law likely wouldn’t violate 4A
- D.N.M.: Shared driveway outside of fence and gate was not curtilage
- CA6: Knowing passcode to cell phone shows common authority over it to consent
- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
- Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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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)
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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. 
Category Archives: Good faith exception
N.D.Tex.: Drone flyover approved by SW led to SW for residence
In a dog fighting investigation, Dallas PD [showing great respect for the rights of a homeowner] got a drone fly over warrant for residential property. Seeing dogs chained up in a dog fighting training configuration, officers obtained a search warrant … Continue reading
VA: NC tracking warrant validly led to conviction in VA
North Carolina officers put a warrant approved tracker on defendant’s vehicle. That out-of-state warrant led to defendant’s conviction in Virginia. The out-of-state warrant was issued on probable cause, and it didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment tracking him in Virginia. A … Continue reading
TX: If electronic search was illegal, it was harmless
The court of appeals applied the wrong standard for harm analysis from an alleged Fourth Amendment violation. The alleged illegal search of his electronics didn’t have that much to do with the fact defendant was convicted of smothering his child. … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Warrantless arrest at door for CSAM didn’t support plain view seizure of cell phone
Officers came to defendant’s house without an arrest or search warrant to arrest him for a CSAM offense. He answered the door in his underwear. They asked about cell phone and saw it and seized it. Payton applies, and the … Continue reading
CO courts can issue subpoenas for out-of-state records
Colorado courts have jurisdiction to issue subpoenas for out-of-state records. Citation of the wrong statute in the application didn’t make it void. People v. Jargowsky, 2026 COA 66 (Sep. 3, 2026). There was no probable cause for this warrant for … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: PC for CSLI shown
Explaining how probable cause was shown for CSLI is United States v. Maragh, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 195812 (W.D. Pa. Aug. 31, 2026),* and, of course, the good faith exception would apply, too:
CA7: Officer’s warrantless view of CSAM flagged by hash value was not unreasonable
Google and others flagged apparent CSAM by hash value alone and reported them to NCMEC which forwarded them to police where the IP address was. The officer viewed the images without a warrant and found them with names suggesting they … Continue reading
KY: Despite lack of nexus, SW sustained under GFE
A search warrant for defendant’s place was because Customs had flagged a child sex doll coming to his house. While the state supreme court held that while nexus was lacking, it remanded for determination of the good faith exception. Looking … Continue reading
CA4: Affidavit for SW provided neither nexus nor timing and even failed GFE
The affidavit for warrant here provided neither nexus nor timing to address 6740. As to all around it, yes, but not there. As to timing, as to the others, yes, but all the police had as to 6740 was 13-year-old … Continue reading
OH1: Even with MJ use being legal, driving under influence isn’t
While small amounts of marijuana are legal in Ohio, driving under the influence is not, so the smell of burnt marijuana in a vehicle is probable cause. Also, a blunt was seen in the ashtray. State v. Sawyer, 2026-Ohio-2913 (1st … Continue reading
UT: Failure to include nighttime search request in SW in violation of rule didn’t require suppression
Officers applied for a search warrant that should have been for a nighttime search but omitted that, and that violated a state rule. If they’d sought permission for a nighttime search they likely would have gotten it. The trial court … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Just because bodycam shows officer on curtilage doesn’t mean it was violated
Plaintiff misunderstands Kyllo and Jardines. Just because the officer’s bodycam showed his house doesn’t mean an illegal entry onto the curtilage occurred. Corbett v. Vargas, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161409 (M.D. Fla. July 20, 2026).* Defendant wasn’t yet seized when … Continue reading
MD: Exclusionary rule will not be applied in judicial discipline proceedings
The exclusionary rule will not be applied in judicial discipline proceedings. In re Knapp, 2026 Md. LEXIS 330 (July 17, 2026). The affidavit for the warrant may have been weak, but more information was given to the issuing magistrate which … Continue reading
CA4: Cell phone non-forensic border search doesn’t require individualized suspicion
“Border searches do not require a warrant to be reasonable. And if a border search is routine, individualized suspicion is not required either. But law enforcement may not conduct a nonroutine border search without individualized suspicion. Under our precedent, forensic … Continue reading
OH7: Magistrate signing SW for something outside of territorial jurisdiction not a 4A violation
A municipal court judge issuing a search warrant for something outside his or her territorial jurisdiction is a nonfundamental error that does not require suppression of the evidence. State v. Mele, 2026-Ohio-2604, 2026 Ohio App. LEXIS 2537 (7th Dist. July … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Bivens not extended to knock-and-announce violation and shooting; FTCA applies instead
Bivens won’t be extended to an alleged knock-and-announce violation and a police shooting of the homeowner. SCOTUS should just go ahead and abandon Bivens. It proceeds as an FTCA case. Malinowski v. United States, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 148126 (E.D. … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Cell phone tower dump was with GF; issue left open by Carpenter
A tower dump warrant is an issue left open in Carpenter, 585 U.S. at 316, and the police effort here was valid under the good faith exception. United States v. Campbell, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146360 (E.D.N.Y. June 30, 2026):
CA6: The SW affidavit here was thin, but it wasn’t completely bare bones, so GFE applies
After controlled buys from defendant’s house, two separate police departments prepared search warrants for his place, and they were presented together. One was signed. Defendant moved to suppress contending there was no probable cause and it was so lacking that … Continue reading
CAAF: GFE applies to cell phone’s geolocation data because of substantial basis for the search authorization
Defendant Air Force enlisted man at a base in Italy was convicted of burglary and entering quarters with the intent to assault and photograph what was an AFOSI, where his victim beat him up in the act. Geolocation data from … Continue reading