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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
- 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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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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"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
CA4: Search incident of bag unreasonable where def handcuffed behind back and face down
Search of defendant’s bag when he was handcuffed behind his back and lying face down was unreasonable because it was unreachable. United States v. Buster, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 4747 (4th Cir. Feb. 22, 2022). When omitted information is relied … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: SW for what turned out to be multiunit apts is suppressed, and no GFE
The multi-unit character of the property being searched under a warrant wasn’t immediately apparent to the officers, or so they said. The court doesn’t credit that because they knew defendant was in “apartment 3” on the third floor. Post-search follow-up … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: GFE applies to warrant execution issues
Officers had a search warrant for the premises of a house, and an outbuilding off the curtilage was searched, too. “Defendant next argues that the officers exceeded the scope of the search warrant because the converted shed was outside of … Continue reading
CA7: Officers not liable for search of wrong apartment in reliance on SW description
In a § 1983 case over a search of the wrong apartment, the affidavit for the search warrant could be relied upon in good faith. The mistake was negligent at best, and it didn’t support civil liability here. The officers … Continue reading
CA1: GFE applies to warrant execution issues
The First Circuit makes clear that the good faith exception applies to warrant execution issues despite Leon’s statement it should not. (Not the first court to hold this.) United States v. Pimentel, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 4350 (1st Cir. Feb. … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: A “network of pole cameras” doesn’t violate 4A
Five pole cameras were trained on defendant’s house. A “network of pole cameras” isn’t a Fourth Amendment violation. See United States v. Tuggle, 4 F.4th 505 (7th Cir. 2021). Moreover, he does not rebut the presumption of good faith with … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Inventory was unreasonable where SOP didn’t mention inventory for overtinting and cash found wasn’t inventoried but was instead delivered to DEA
Even assuming that a tow and inventory is permissible for an illegal tint violation (comparing Atwater v. Lago Vista on trivial arrests not being unreasonable), the inventory police did not address such incidents and the inventory itself mentioned “backpack” without … Continue reading
IA: Conflict of laws: Federal SW that ends up in state prosecution governed by federal law, not state
When a federal search warrant results in a state prosecution, federal law applies to the search in state court. Here it applied to a scope of search question that might have been decided differently under state law. This court held … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Failure to completely follow inventory policy doesn’t require suppression
The inventory here wasn’t complete because defendant’s cell phone wasn’t in the inventory and apparently left behind. [Now that’s ironic.] A gun and ammunition were. Because they are dangerous instrumentalities, that makes the inventory reasonable. “It is not obvious to … Continue reading
CA4: Unsigned SW was subject to GFE where it was readily apparent it was read and acted on
A state unsigned warrant was subject to the good faith exception where the issuing magistrate did everything but sign. The magistrate signed the application on the back of the state-mandated form and initialed the warrant. The court doesn’t go so … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: PC in the affidavit was lacking, even with its detail; no GFE either
The affidavit for the search warrant for defendant’s place lacked probable cause. “As the affidavit did not establish probable cause as to forgery or possession of stolen property, and the government conceded there was not probable cause to support the … Continue reading
D.Mass.: SW for def’s old car and iPhone on two-year-old information they were maybe connected to a murder was stale and probative of little; no GFE either
There was no probable cause for the search of defendant’s house for evidence of a nearly two-year-old murder. Even if what was sought was there, it was highly unlikely it would prove anything. Finally, the probable cause was so lacking … Continue reading
TX3: Statute as interpreted was clear; state’s Heien argument rejected
The maintaining one’s lane statute has long been construed to require that any movement be unsafe. The officer’s mistaken belief defendant violated the statute here without being unsafe was unreasonable under Heien and state cases. Daniel v. State, 2021 Tex. … Continue reading
OH: Lack of judge’s signature on actual arrest warrant not fatal where judge signed off on complaint; GFE also applies
The absence of the judge’s signature on an arrest warrant was not fatal where the affidavit for probable cause sworn by the witness was attested to by the judge and attached. The good faith exception also applies. (Finally, the state’s … Continue reading
CA6: GFE applies to warrantless detention based on state DMV computer response
The good faith exception applies to this warrantless detention which resulted from a regular state computer request which flagged to “verify insurance.” United States v. Warren, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 37674 (6th Cir. Dec. 20, 2021):
NM: Tow and inventory of vehicle parked in owner’s driveway was unreasonable
The tow and inventory of the car defendant was driving, his grandmother’s, without a valid license was an abuse of the officer’s discretion. Here, the vehicle was parked in the grandmother’s driveway when the stop occurred. The officer’s practice of … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Warrant overbreadth claim fails because of PC and GFE
“Suppression of digital photographs, videos and bank records that fell outside the April 1, 2019 through October 25, 2019 timeframe seized from the Subject Device is not warranted, as the December 2020 Warrant was sufficiently particularized and not overbroad.” On … Continue reading
OH4: Failure to corroborate CI was a complete failure of PC, so no GFE either
The affidavit for search warrant here failed to show probable cause at all. It relied on informant hearsay from an identified informant. The trial court erroneously concluded that an identified informant didn’t have to be corroborated. In addition, probable cause … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: IAC claim over how to argue GFE fails
This 2255 petitioner argued his defense lawyer didn’t properly argue application of the good faith exception in the direct appeal, but doesn’t say how the case could have come out different. Also, the briefs and opinion on appeal show that … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: CI’s information showed almost nothing as to one property for SW, so no PC nor GFE
The affidavit for the warrant for one particular address in this case fails to even minimally show probable cause. “Here, there was not enough information in the affidavit to allow a reasonable officer to conclude that there was sufficient ‘ongoing … Continue reading