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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www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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.Iowa: If a vehicle’s registration comes back to an unlicensed owner there is reasonable suspicion for the stop even if SCOTUS holds otherwise in Glover because of GFE
If a vehicle’s registration comes back to an unlicensed owner, there is reasonable suspicion for the stop even if SCOTUS holds otherwise in Kansas v. Glover. Probable cause developed after the stop. United States v. Legarrea, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA11: CoA granted to pursue 4A IAC claim
2255 appellant gets a CoA to appeal an ineffective assistance of counsel that defense counsel did not pursue a valid motion to suppress. (A prima facie case was apparently made.) Spriggs v. United States, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 4162 (11th … Continue reading
CA5: When appealing PC and GFE, both have to be briefed on appeal or it will be affirmed
When the district court decides a Fourth Amendment case on probable cause and good faith exception, counsel on appeal has to brief both issues. Failure to brief the good faith exception here results in affirmance by waiver of the issue. … Continue reading
FL1: Leon’s “so lacking in indicia of probable cause” doesn’t seek to determine whether PC actually exists; it’s whether it is conclusory and “bare bones”
Leon’s “so lacking in indicia of probable cause” doesn’t seek to determine whether probable cause actually exists. It’s whether the affidavit is so conclusory it is “bare bones.” Wingate v. State, 2020 Fla. App. LEXIS 1369 (Fla. 1st DCA Feb. … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: When the R&R has two bases, objections have to go to both
The R&R determined that there was no “search” for Fourth Amendment purposes, and if there was, it was reasonable. On review by the USDJ, the failure to challenge the “no search” holding isn’t a proper objection. United States v. Oury, … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Def’s felony drug arrest after a patdown on RS of fleeing justified search of his car
Defendant was being watched by police, and he was being followed and ran a stop sign. In the stop, the officer told defendant to roll down his window and turn off the car. He rolled the window part way down … Continue reading
OH2: Def was shot and the SW for his house where it happened included searching for drugs without PC; still it was in good faith
In an investigation of defendant’s shooting, officers obtained a search warrant for his premises and the warrant included search for drugs. The warrant was overbroad, but the court declines to apply the exclusionary rule finding it was in good faith. … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Issues over the territorial jurisdiction of state issuing magistrate for geolocation information was subject to GFE
Defendants’ challenges to the state issuing magistrate’s jurisdiction over geolocation information that crosses jurisdictional lines were based on a Franks challenge that was negligence at worst and not an intentional misrepresentation as to the judge’s jurisdiction. Besides, as interesting as … Continue reading
S.D.Miss.: Preindictment suppression governed by equitable standards, and GFE still applies
Plaintiff seeks preindictment suppression of evidence and return of evidence of illegal employment of undocumented workers. Preindictment suppression is based on equitable grounds. In the face of the good faith exception, Koch Foods can’t show that it does not apply … Continue reading
N.D.Ala.: Def had no standing to complain of illegal “arrest” of a corporation
Defendant has no standing to complain of the alleged illegal arrest of a corporation, even if it could be. United States v. Cargill, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9581 (N.D.Ala. Jan. 21, 2020). “All together, the Defendant’s resemblance to Jose Corpus, … Continue reading
CA8: Handcuffing a park jogger who was watching a traffic stop for not giving SSN was unreasonable
Handcuffing plaintiff for merely stopping to watch a St. Louis police officer conduct traffic stops in the park where he was jogging violated clearly established law on plaintiff’s facts. Walker v. City of Pine Bluff, 414 F.3d 989 (8th Cir. … Continue reading
D.N.J.: What witnesses to call at a suppression hearing is strategic call under Strickland
Defendant wasn’t prejudiced by not calling his codefendant wife at the suppression hearing. Her declaration was already before the court, and nothing more could be added. What witnesses to call, even in a suppression hearing, is a Strickland strategic decision. … Continue reading
AL applies GFE to CSLI 2½ years before Carpenter
CSLI obtained by court order, but without showing probable cause, nearly three years before Carpenter was all in good faith. Watson v. State, 2020 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 4 (Jan. 10, 2020). Defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim against counsel … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: No PC for arrest or SW; GFE hearing wasn’t concluded, and it shall now
The defendant’s arrest on this thin claim from an unproven and unreliable CI was without probable cause, and the search of his person is suppressed. The search warrant was also issued without probable cause, but the part of the hearing … Continue reading
DE: Slim inference for nexus wasn’t enough, and exclusionary rule applies
The affidavit for the search warrant creates only a slim inference at best, and no facts at all, showing a nexus to the place to be searched and the fraud crime under investigation. Therefore, the search warrant lacks probable cause … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Even if SW was not particular enough, it wasn’t so defective or obvious that the GFE should not apply
Even if the search warrant for defendant’s cell phone was overbroad, which isn’t even decided, it was not so overbroad that the good faith exception to the exclusionary should be applied. United States v. Obie, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 216350 … Continue reading
D.V.I.: GFE applies to searches before the court held U.S. to V.I. packages weren’t border searches
Applying its prior Baxter case, the District of the Virgin Islands holds that the border search exception doesn’t apply to mail and packages shipped from the Continental U.S. The searches here, however, predated Baxter, so the good faith exception applies. … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: False positives by drug dog don’t necessarily undermine PC for SW; GFE can still apply
The fact a drug dog has alleged false positives (i.e., hits on things but no drugs found) does not mean that a dog alert that led to a search warrant still cannot be relied upon in good faith. United States … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Govt overcame presumptively unreasonable search finding a bullet hole to validate SW for premises
Defendant showed that filing his motion to suppress nearly a year late under the motions deadline was with good cause because of continuances of the trial and changes in counsel. A bullet hole in a hallway wall was discovered by … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Pre-warrant thought process of police relevant to GFE
The good faith exception saved this apparent warrantless search that led to a search warrant. The government gets to explore the officer’s thought process leading to the warrant after an apparent warrantless search led to discovery of a bullet hole … Continue reading