September 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Archives
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Recent Posts
- WaPo: Americans have turned against police cameras that track license plates, new survey shows
- W.D.Tex.: What is the duty of the neutral and detached magistrate?
- D.Me.: Yes, more investigation could have been done, but there’s still PC on what there was
- CA3: Brady doesn’t apply to SW materials
- E.D.Mich.: Person a cell phone was given to as gift could consent to search
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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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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (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. 
Category Archives: Good faith exception
N.D.Ohio: SW was defective as to second address for no showing of PC, but there really was PC, so GFE applies
Probable cause in a search warrant affidavit as to one address was not probable cause as to another. Yet, there was, in fact, separate unstated probable cause as to the second address. The officers reasonably relied on the search warrant … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Illustrative list in SW satisfies particularity
Use of an illustrative list helps show particularity of the search warrant. United States v. Messalas, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 123735 (E.D. N.Y. July 10, 2020). The video of the stop supports justification for the stop. State v. Rivera, 2020 … Continue reading
CA7: Failure to record supplemental testimony for issuance of SW in state court not 4A violation
An Illinois state judge issued a search warrant on a CI’s allegations of being in defendant’s home. The affidavit was essentially bare bones, but the judge took testimony about the CI and his or her basis of knowledge and maybe … Continue reading
CA2: Even if SW was issued without PC, GFE clearly applies
“Brennerman challenges the lawfulness of the search warrant of his Las Vegas apartment. Even assuming, for the sake of argument only, that the search warrant was unlawful, we conclude that the good faith exception to the Fourth Amendment’s exclusionary rule … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Govt’s GFE exception argument waived by not being presented to USMJ
The officer here departed from the investigation of the traffic offense without reasonable suspicion, and the stop became unreasonable. The government’s argument that Rodriguez hadn’t been decided at the time this happened wasn’t presented to the magistrate, so it’s waived. … Continue reading
CA6: Alleged lack of nexus in showing of PC saved by GFE
Defendant challenges the lack of nexus of his alleged conduct to the premises, but it doesn’t matter because the good faith exception applies. United States v. Novak, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 17133 (6th Cir. May 29, 2020). Inconsistent and implausible … Continue reading
AR: No abuse of discretion in not forcing state to disclose that which it couldn’t get from HBO camera crew being at search
An HBO crew was present at the drug raid here while filming “Meth Storm.”The prosecutor didn’t know about it until the eve of trial, and he sought to get the video and couldn’t, and he disclosed to the defense. The … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Six days to draft a cell phone SW was reasonable
The government was diligent in getting a warrant over six days, including a weekend, where the agents and the USAO spent most of three days drafting it. “Still, the Fourth Amendment obligated the United States to ‘diligently obtain[ ] a … Continue reading
NE: Indicia linking def to premises searched could be subject of SW; affidavit didn’t need a detailed explanation of CODIS for magistrate
Obtaining defendant’s CSLI in February 2017, 16 months before Carpenter, was in good faith and reasonable. That information could thus be used in an affidavit for search warrant for his house because probable cause was otherwise shown for it. Also, … Continue reading
SC: Def gets to litigate possible Mitchell exceptions on remand
Defendant is entitled to a remand to litigate whether a Mitchell warrantless BAC exception applies. State v. Key, 2020 S.C. LEXIS 71 (May 13, 2020). Defendant’s motion to suppress was properly denied by the good faith exception where obtaining of … Continue reading
OH5: Driver’s pulling MJ from her bra wasn’t RS as to the passenger
The driver producing marijuana from her bra did not create reasonable suspicion as to passenger. State v. Howard, 2020-Ohio-1400, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 1364 (5th Dist. Apr. 7, 2020). Since the three search warrants were all issued with probable cause, … Continue reading
TX: State statutory requirement of legible magistrate’s signature subject to GFE
Code of Criminal Procedure Article 18.04(5) requires, in part, that a search warrant contain a legible magistrate’s signature. So what effect does an illegible magistrate’s signature have upon the applicability of the statutory good-faith exception? See Tex. Code Crim. Proc. … Continue reading
OH1: Warrantless procedure for police obtaining medical records violates 4A, but GFE applied here
State law provided for a warrantless procedure to obtain medical records for OVI cases. The court finds it violates the Fourth Amendment, but it refuses to apply the exclusionary rule because the officer reasonably relied on state law to access … Continue reading
CA4: State court suppressed SW for lack of nexus, and then feds indicted; GFE applies to the state warrant
Defendant was prosecuted in state court for a drug related murder, and the state court suppressed the search of his house finding lack of nexus. State v. Miller, 2016 S.C. Unpub. LEXIS 28 (Mar. 30, 2016). Defendant was then prosecuted … Continue reading
D.Colo.: DEA subpoena for records of two pharmacies is enforced
The DEA’s subpoena to the Board of Pharmacy for controlled substances prescriptions for two pharmacies was reasonable and within the DEA’s jurisdiction. It is enforced. United States DOJ v. Colorado Bd. of Pharmacy, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69726 (D. Colo. … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Protective sweep of house after arrest outside was unjustified; it was a search for a gun
Defendant’s arrest outside his house near his front door did not justify a protective sweep of his house. “Indeed, this Court finds that the marshals’ broad search of the Westberry residence was conducted specifically to find the firearm. … Because … Continue reading
AR: Drug dog at scene while warning ticket being written didn’t extend stop
This dog sniff did not extend the stop where the dog arrived while the warning ticket was being written. Mickens v. State, 2020 Ark. App. 280, 2020 Ark. App. LEXIS 307 (Apr. 29, 2020). The blood draw of the unconscious … Continue reading
CA8: SW to seize a car implicitly includes seizing the keys to it
A search warrant to seize a car implicitly includes seizing the keys to it. “Thiel also maintains that Baker and Minor went too far in executing the second warrant when they seized antique handguns, handguns in unopened boxes, and gun … Continue reading