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)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
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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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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
E.D.Mich.: No PC for the warrant, but it wasn’t “so lacking” in PC that the GFE wouldn’t apply
There was no probable cause for issuance of the search warrant, but it wasn’t “so lacking” in probable cause because there was at least something. “The officers, therefore, acted in good faith in executing the warrant because, although the affidavit … Continue reading
TX5: Pre-Jardines dog sniff was apparently valid at the time and wouldn’t be suppressed
Defendant’s home was subjected to a dog sniff a year before Jardines. Relying on that, the trial court suppressed. Because enough Texas cases held similar searches were valid prior to Jardines, the court concludes that the exclusionary rule would not … Continue reading
Cal.5: Detaining visiting non-probationer during probation search was unreasonable
Defendant was visiting a friend when the friend’s PO showed up for an unannounced search. Defendant was detained, too. His detention was unreasonable. People v. Gutierrez, 2018 Cal. App. LEXIS 282 (5th Dist. Mar. 29, 2018). This defendant challenged the … Continue reading
CA7: State’s use of state’s “John Doe” proceedings was shown to be in good faith
In the court’s second view of Wisconsin’s unique John Doe proceedings, the Seventh Circuit decides only the good faith exception and concludes that the reliance on state law and compliance with the Stored Communications Act was all in good faith. … Continue reading
CA5: GFE applies to Texas DPS officers accessing E911 data to locate his phone with a court order (third opinion in case)
The good faith exception applies to Texas DPS officers accessing E911 data to locate his phone with a court order. [This is the third opinion in the case, and rehearing en banc was denied on a 7-8 vote.] United States … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: The sole fact of being a drug trafficker doesn’t provide nexus to house; something has to be shown, and it wasn’t and GFE doesn’t apply
Being a drug trafficker is not enough to search defendant’s home. The government had to show nexus, and it never did anywhere in the affidavit for search warrant. The affidavit for the search warrant was, in fact, so lacking in … Continue reading
CA10: GFE applied to cell phone SW in KS where phone was actually searched in MO
Search incident did not justify seizure of defendant’s cell phone when he was arrested because he’d been separated from the cell phone. The government’s claim that officers seizing the cell phone were proceeding under “direction of” defendant’s PO is rejected … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Affidavit for CP didn’t show PC, but GFE still applies
The affidavit for this child pornography search warrant was conclusory as to alleged sexual activity of minors and did not show probable cause. It was, however, not so devoid of a showing that it wasn’t reasonable to rely on it … Continue reading
FL5 following FL SCt: Davis GFE doesn’t apply to pre-Riley cell phone searches
On remand from the state supreme court, the Davis good faith exception does not apply in Florida to cell phone searches occurring before because there was no settled law, following Carpenter v. State, 228 So. 3d 535 (Fla. 2017). Burton … Continue reading
CA10: The GFE question is “whether the affidavit is so facially deficient that reliance on a warrant issued in response to that affidavit cannot have been in good faith”
The question is not just probable cause; it’s whether it was reasonable for the officer to rely on a warrant that is not facially deficient. United States v. Knox, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 4791 (10th Cir. Feb. 27, 2018):
M.D.Fla.: SW’s particularity had a reference back to “property connected with the above listed crime(s)” and that’s particular
Despite renting a hotel room in a false name, defendant had standing to challenge the search of the room because he rented it and he was sleeping there and had his stuff there. The search warrant was based on an … Continue reading
KY: Police use of license plate reader violates no REP
Police use of a license plate reader that led to finding a warrant on the owner violated no reasonable expectation of privacy. Traft v. Commonwealth, 2018 Ky. LEXIS 68 (Feb. 15, 2018). In a state wiretapping case over the legal … Continue reading
CA3: Playpen SW violated Rule 41 and 4A, but GFE saves the search
Playpen search warrant violated Fourth Amendment, but the good faith exception saves it. “For the reasons discussed below, we hold that the NIT warrant violated Rule 41(b). As a result, the magistrate judge not only exceeded her authority under the … Continue reading
ID: Hot pursuit onto curtilage led to abandonment of bag of meth
Defendant was speeding, and he was followed by the police. He failed to signal and turned into a long driveway that turned to unpaved, and the officer followed and defendant never slowed despite the police car having its lights on. … Continue reading
CA4: Playpen SW sustained
Playpen warrants (where the seized server was in the Eastern District of Virginia) were valid, and the good faith exception applied because it wasn’t readily apparent that the USMJ exceeded his or her jurisdiction or that that would be a … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Facebook SW failed to show nexus to alleged hate crime, but GFE applies
Defendant is charged with a hate crime, and the government believed that he was involved with a group. The search warrant for his Facebook account failed to show nexus to get access to the non-public pages just because the group … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Affidavit for SW was wholly deficient in showing nexus, and GFE does not save it
The affidavit for the search warrant for defendant’s house failed to show nexus to his house, and the affidavit on nexus was so deficient it doesn’t satsify the good faith exception. About all there was on the document was the … Continue reading
TN proposes rule change to codify GFE it recently adopted
In re Amendments to the Tenn. Rules of Crim. Procedure, 2018 Tenn. LEXIS 2 (Jan. 9, 2018):
AZ: Passenger in a vehicle has standing to contest GPS surveillance of vehicle, but here GFE applies because pre-Jones
The passenger in a vehicle subjected to GPS monitoring even for a few days and on public roads has standing to contest the monitoring. Here, however, the GPS device was placed in February 2010, more than two years prior to … Continue reading
OH10: State law requirement of preserving additional testimony to get SW not violation of 4A; complete failure of PC means no GFE; the state has no 4A rights
Prior holding on complete failure of probable cause wasn’t cross-appealed by the state and remains law of the case. Ohio’s Rule 41 that includes that additional testimony besides the affidavit has to be transcribed and made part of the record … Continue reading