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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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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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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
CA7: Pre-Carpenter CSLI was valid in good faith reliance on SCA (Davis not cited)
Defendant’s pre-Carpenter CSLI gathering was challenged under the theory that the SCA statute was unconstitutional. It was done in good faith reliance on the statute under Krull v. Illinois, and there would be no exclusion. (Davis good faith is not … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Warrantless CSLI obtained three years before Carpenter would not be excluded under Davis
Warrantless CSLI obtained three years before Carpenter would not be excluded under Davis. United States v. Blake, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 141895 (D. Conn. Aug. 20, 2018). “Here, Rivarola does not explain what, if anything, further investigation by his prior … Continue reading
S.D.Ind. erroneously states there is a “presumption of good faith reliance” on a SW
Assuming there is no probable cause, the court instead decides the question of application of the good faith exception, erroneously putting the burden on the defendant to overcome the good faith exception, not putting on the government to prove the … Continue reading
CA2: 2011 CSLI seizure by SCA order valid under GFE
Defendant was convicted of international parental kidnapping. CSLI was obtained in 2011 by an order under the SCA without probable cause. The good faith exception applies. United States v. Zodhiates, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 23278 (2d Cir. Aug. 21, 2018):
CA11: CSLI order was based on six week old precedent from this court; Davis GFE applies
This court held six weeks before the government obtained its SCA order for defendant’s CSLI that was the legal way to do it. Therefore, the good faith exception applied. “Here, the Government complied with the requirements of the SCA in … Continue reading
OH2: Officer’s good faith mistake, if it was one, that def possessed a concealed weapon (a long sword), bars application of the exclusionary rule [court erroneously shifts burden]
Police got a call about a man wielding a sword, and they stopped defendant. There was probable cause for him possessing a concealed long sword [how?]. Even if the officer was wrong, it wasn’t really wrong. “Short contends that Officer … Continue reading
NJ: Dash cams videos not “records required to be kept” for FOIA but remanded for whether there is a common law right of access
Dash cam videos are not public records under the state open records law because they are not required by law to be kept. There might, however, be a common law right of access, and the case is remanded for a … Continue reading
CA3 applies Davis GFE to Byrd on remand, and he loses
On remand from Byrd v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 1518, 200 L. Ed. 2d 805 (May 14, 2018), the Third Circuit applies the good faith exception to standing because the law at the time in the circuit was that … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: GFE applies without deciding PC (but the court actually does)
Without considering probable cause, the affidavit is not so “bare bones” that it couldn’t be relied upon. [Again, this court too subliminally decides the probable cause question while disavowing that it is doing so.] It was for child pornography and … Continue reading
OH5: GFE applies although affidavit for SW showed no nexus to house
The affidavit for the search warrant identified the suspects and what was to be searched for, but it said nothing about nexus to defendant’s house. Yet, the court finds that the search warrant was not bare bones based on supposition, … Continue reading
W.D.Mich.: In a prison male group strip search, def female guard doesn’t show QI from how it was done
In a prison group strip search, “Defendant has failed to properly support her motion for summary judgment with relevant evidence showing the existence of a legitimate penological need for the group strip search and why her presence inside the Chapel … Continue reading
CA11: GFE applies to particularity, too
The good faith exception applies to the particularity of this search warrant. It was reasonably narrow, and even if it could be narrowed more, it wasn’t obviously overbroad. United States v. Alford, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 21581 (11th Cir. Aug. … Continue reading
CA7 decides Franks IAC claim on merits: there is PC and the GFE applies; the issuing magistrate was not intentionally or recklessly misled
Defendant raised a Franks IAC claim, and the Seventh Circuit deals with the merits of the claim to determine that there was no Fourth Amendment violation, therefore no IAC. The district court concluded there was no probable cause but the … Continue reading
CA6 declines to decide a clear 4A PC issue that would result in affirmance just to decide on good faith
The search warrant was based on three controlled buys out of defendant’s house. Instead of just saying that that is probable cause, which it obviously is (although the panel kind of merely suggests it might be a close call by … Continue reading
OK: Trial court’s granting motion to suppress without even considering GFE on state’s request was an abuse of discretion
The trial court abused its discretion in granting the motion to suppress the search warrant without even considering the good faith exception after the state raised it. State v. Haliburton, 2018 OK CR 28, 2018 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 28 … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Carpenter doesn’t apply to CSLI gathered 17 months before under GFE
In January 2017, defendant was in a car where the driver was arrested, and he was detained too. Calls were made from their cell phones to tell the codefendant’s father to “clean out” the house before a search warrant arrived. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Carpenter doesn’t apply where CSLI was obtained nearly a year before
The SCA request for CSLI was issued here nearly a year before Carpenter. The good faith exception applies, and there will be no exclusion. United States v. Williams, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129639 (E.D. Mich. Aug. 2, 2018):
N.D.Ill.: Cell phone SW in white collar case also for proof of perjury was a virtual computer search but it was still one issued on PC
In an investigation into job promotion and hiring fraud in the Cook County Circuit Clerk’s office, a cell phone search warrant was issued, and it was with probable cause. “Because the affidavit established probable cause to believe that Beena’s cell … Continue reading
D.N.M.: GFE applies to CA10’s Ackerman that NCMEC is not a private searcher
In United States v. Ackerman, 831 F.3d 1292 (10th Cir. 2016), the Tenth Circuit held that NCMEC was not a mere private actor when it opened emails. Defendant’s search was 2012, and the court applies the good faith exception. At … Continue reading