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- USA Today: Cell phone SW for cause of crash
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- MD: While protective sweep information made it into SW affidavit, there was PC without it
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- CA6: State officer’s arrest for violation of federal MJ law likely wouldn’t violate 4A
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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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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
WA: Breath test was valid as search incident
A breath test conducted under the implied consent law is a valid search incident to arrest. The state constitution does not impose a higher standard. State v. Nelson, 2019 Wash. App. LEXIS 354 (Feb. 14, 2019). Defendant didn’t raise a … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Corroboration of CI for rectal SW was thin, but GFE applies
Based on a CI that was partially corroborated, officers believed defendant was concealing drugs in his rectum. They obtain a search warrant for a rectal search. The probable cause from the CI is thin. “Basic fairness requires the government to … Continue reading
Two controlled buys: one not done right, one good
The search warrant was based on a controlled buy, but the CI doing the buy was controlled enough to know that what was acquired came from defendant. Therefore, probable cause is lacking, and the good faith exception won’t be applied. … Continue reading
CA7: SW affidavit failed to show nexus, but it was close enough for GFE
The affidavit for a search warrant for a third person’s home where defendant spent a lot of time was deficient on showing nexus and defendant’s connection to it, but it otherwise showed probable cause. Actually, right after three controlled buys, … Continue reading
CA11: PC showing in SW affidavit but “we cannot say that the officer’s reliance on the warrant was unreasonable.”
The affidavit for the search warrant didn’t clearly identify defendant as connected to the property or that there was drug trafficking just from the trash pulls, but it showed that there was drug activity. The court cannot say, however, that … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: FBI Exceeded GPS Tracking Warrant, But Convictions Survive
Bloomberg Law: FBI Exceeded GPS Tracking Warrant, But Convictions Survive by Porter Wells: Duo of bank robbers ‘à la Bonnie and Clyde’ tracked by GPS Violating warrant terms not same as violating Fourth Amendment
N.D.Ga.: Def showed no standing in a rented getaway car that they didn’t get back into before arrest where the car was rented with fake ID
Failure to attach search warrant to amended motion to suppress was abandonment of the motion. As to a rental car that was to be the getaway car in a robbery, rented with fake ID, defendant lacked standing. Moreover, there was … Continue reading
CA7: Exclusionary rule does not apply to revocation of federal supervised release
The exclusionary rule does not apply to revocation of federal supervised release, applying Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole v. Scott, 524 U.S. 357 (1998). United States v. Phillips, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 2799 (7th Cir. Jan. 28, 2019). CSLI … Continue reading
CA2: Where PC was a close question, the court instead decides GFE applies
“The existence of probable cause in this case presents a close question. We need not decide the issue, however, because we conclude that, even assuming probable cause was lacking, the good faith exception applies.” The government was forthright in disclosing … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Def used two houses, and his drug operation was from one; the SW for the second was still valid under GFE despite lack of nexus
Defendant conducted a drug operation from what the court called the 1st Premises, and he lived in the 2nd Premises, apparently avoiding keeping any drugs there. When he went out to do a drug deal, he’d stop at the 1st … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Passenger’s conduct and answers during traffic stop provided RS
The passenger’s conduct here showed reasonable suspicion to continue the stop. United States v. Torres, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10590 (D. N.M. Jan. 23, 2019). The government obtained CSLI in 2015 for 57 days of defendants’ cell phones, and the … Continue reading
NE: GFE applied to CSLI obtained two years before Carpenter
Defendant’s CSLI was obtained two years before Carpenter with an order under the Stored Communications Act to connect him to a murder. Carpenter was decided while on appeal. The court follows every other case on the issue and applies the … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: PC shown for records of the last number a murder victim called
Defendant’s cell phone number being the last number a murder victim called was at least a minimally sufficient basis for a search warrant for cell phone records to see who it was. It was also at least supported by the … Continue reading
CA6: Carpenter decided after notice of appeal didn’t apply to defendant
CSLI was admitted at trial without objection. Carpenter was decided after the notice of appeal. On plain error review, there is no error because the CSLI was lawfully obtained at the time and the good faith exception applies. United States … Continue reading
CA6 sustains Playpen warrant under GFE
Playpen warrant was valid under good faith exception. United States v. Moorehead, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 639 (6th Cir. Jan. 9, 2019).* Defendant was not entitled to discovery of the exploit code used in the NIT warrant to locate him. … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Part of CI’s criminal history wasn’t disclosed, but enough was; CI was corroborated, and there was PC
The affiant didn’t withhold enough of the CI’s criminal history to be misleading. Not all of it was disclosed, but enough was to show he was part of the criminal milieu. And even if the withholding was significant, there was … Continue reading
D.V.I.: Court doubts legal authority for border searches from mainland to VI, but GFE applies
The court doubts the legal basis for customs searches of people traveling nonstop from the U.S. mainland to the Virgin Islands because there is no international travel. Reliance on the V.I. Code doesn’t provide any real help to the government. … Continue reading
CA11: Questioning during stop exceeded Rodriguez, but it was before that, so GFE applies
The stop was reasonable, and the questioning of the motorist was valid at the time it happened (December 2013). Under Rodriguez, however, the stop was unlawfully extended. Under the good faith exception, the detention was still valid. United States v. … Continue reading