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- CA6: State officer’s arrest for violation of federal MJ law likely wouldn’t violate 4A
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- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
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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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General (many free):
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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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)
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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
CA10: Inventory fails circuit’s standards, and seizure of machine gun reversed
Defendant didn’t have to show an investigative pretext for the impoundment of his vehicle and the finding of the machine gun. He prevails on the Tenth Circuit’s Sanders standard. “United States v. Sanders, 796 F.3d 1241, 1243 (10th Cir. 2015) … Continue reading
D.Haw.: Def’s use of known alias to rent property gave standing
Rental of storage unit in one of defendant’s known aliases gave him standing. United States v. Eberhart, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 222575 (D. Haw. Dec. 14, 2023). Defendant’s Franks challenge fails for lack of the proffer of good reason. Aside … Continue reading
CA8: Def’s condition (“rotting teeth, quick speaking, profuse sweating, and rapid, shallow breathing”) plus odd travel plans was RS
Defendant’s condition (“Baltes had observed Betts’s symptoms of drug use: rotting teeth, quick speaking, profuse sweating, and rapid, shallow breathing.”), a torch lighter, and unusual travel plans added up to reasonable suspicion to extend the stop. United States v. Betts, … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Former President’s name in SW materials for Parnas and Giuliani disclosed because it came up in an impeachment
In Lev Parnas’s case, the search papers are partially unsealed as to former President Trump’s name but kept under seal as to others. He is a public figure, and the others are not. As to Trump, most of this came … Continue reading
AR: HBO film crew ride-along on drug raid doesn’t lead to suppression
An HBO film crew was doing a ride-along with the DEA and local DTF officers for the making of “Meth Storm.” Defendant raises via post-conviction that the ride-along film crew violated the Fourth Amendment and the state constitution. The court … Continue reading
NE declines to apply exclusionary rule to first interpretation of statute for DUI stop out of officer’s jurisdiction
The officer made a DUI stop outside his jurisdiction, and state law makes that important for his authority. The statute also has Fourth Amendment implications. And, the stop was with probable cause. Because the statute had not been interpreted like … Continue reading
LA: Def’s lie about living in place to be searched helped GFE to apply to overcome staleness
The trial court and court of appeals both erred in finding that the affidavit for search warrant was “so lacking” in probable cause that the good faith exception should not apply. “The affidavit accompanying the search warrant application explained the … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Greyhound’s cooperation with the DEA doesn’t give rise to a 4A cause of action against it
Just because Greyhound cooperates with the DEA in Albuquerque doesn’t mean it can be sued there under the Fourth Amendment. Fernandez v. Greyhound Lines, Inc., 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 211564 (D.N.M. Nov. 28, 2023). Homeless in Los Angeles likely had … Continue reading
CA5: Siccing police dog on woman in mental health crisis was excessive force; no crime involved
“Without any further attempts to subdue Sligh without the use of a dog bite, and without providing Sligh any warning that she may be subjected to a dog bite if she did not comply, Sutton sicced a dog on a … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: If the SW lacks PC, the remedy is a motion to suppress, not a motion to rescind the SW via 41(g)
Defendant filed a motion for the court to rescind the search warrant for his cell phone under Rule 41(g) because it was allegedly defective. The remedy is a motion to suppress, not to rescind. United States v. Cardenas, 2023 U.S. … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: SW for defendant’s email to show his and others’ state of mind at time of crime was not overbroad
The search warrant for defendant’s email accounts to show where he was when he accessed it, “evidence relating to the planning, execution, furtherance and/or concealment of the crimes under investigation,” and his “and other participants’ state of mind as it … Continue reading
CA11: SW for iCloud account from before crime even occurred sustained on good faith
Defendant’s cell phone was used to arrange a robbery. A search warrant was also obtained for defendant’s backup iCloud account before the robbery even occurred, and there was no probable cause for that. Yet, the Eleventh Circuit [some would say … Continue reading
CA6: State issuing magistrate’s failure to transcribe supplemental information for PC was not enough to suppress
The affidavit and supplementing testimony provided substantial probable cause for issuance of the warrant. State law requires any testimony supplementing a search warrant affidavit be preserved and transcribed. The state issuing magistrate failed. The officer, however, acted in good faith, … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Seizure of car key from around def’s neck to search glovebox was with PC
Seizure of defendant’s car key from around his neck to open glove compartment was with probable cause to search the car interior. His cell phone was also seized and then searched with a warrant. It is not challenged. United States … Continue reading
OH5: No showing of PC and no GFE for SW for Google search history
The search warrant for defendant’s Google search history lacked any justification of why it would produce evidence, that it was even used in planning or executing the alleged crime. It was bare bones, and the good faith exception does not … Continue reading
CO: REP in Google search history which also implicates freedom of expression
“First, the court concludes that, under the Colorado Constitution, the defendant has a constitutionally protected privacy interest in his Google search history even when revealed only in connection with his IP address and not his name and that, under both … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: CA6 previously suggested cell phone on drug trafficker was nexus to evidence, so GFE at least applied
The Sixth Circuit has suggested that a cell phone on the person of a drug trafficker likely has evidence of drug trafficking on it, so the cell phone warrant was issued with probable cause. Even if not, the good faith … Continue reading
CA9: Passenger has standing to challenge reasonableness of length of stop
Defendant passenger had standing to challenge the length of the stop because it was his detention, too. There was, however, reasonable suspicion for that. United States v. Alvarez, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 26980 (9th Cir. Oct. 10, 2023). “Stiff failed … Continue reading
MA: Officer recording drug deal on cell phone governed by state wiretap law
An officer’s surreptitious recording of a drug deal with a cell phone is an interception of a communication under the state wiretapping law. Commonwealth v. Du, 2023 Mass. App. LEXIS 143 (Oct. 6, 2023). The publicly available address (SoS, website, … Continue reading