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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F.R.Crim.P. 41
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
Privacy Foundation
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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
C.D.Cal.: Even if Carpenter reverses, Davis GFE will apply to searches occurring before
Even though CSLI is before SCOTUS in Carpenter, this court had sustained seizure of CSLI before, so, even if Carpenter reverses, the Davis good faith exception will sustain this seizure. United States v. Brown, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126504 (C.D. … Continue reading
CA8 upholds Playpen warrant strictly on GFE despite Rule 41 violation
Playpen warrant upheld purely on good faith exception of Davis and Herring. Rule 41 was violated, but the court finds the costs of exclusion outweight deterrence, particularly where the rule was modified to permit such later warrants. United States v. … Continue reading
IL sustains arrest for firearm where statute authorizing arrest was later declared unconstitutional
Defendant was stopped under a statute later declared unconstitutional. Distinguishing prior authorities applying state law, the court holds that the “void ab initio” doctrine does not apply here, and the arrest, valid at the time, did not require suppression of … Continue reading
CA10 assumes Playpen warrant violated Rule 41 and upholds it solely on GFE
Assuming that Playpen search warrant for child pornography in this case issued in the Eastern District of Virginia was unlawful, the good faith exception would still apply to them. There was no reason the officers would not rely on them … Continue reading
FL declines to to apply Davis GFE where cell phone search issue was being actively litigated all over
Where everybody knew that the law wasn’t settled at the time of the search of defendant’s cell phone before Riley because the issue was being litigated everywhere and in this state, the state doesn’t get the benefit of the Davis … Continue reading
PA can’t decide (tie vote) whether GFE permits use of product of a search where the underlying probable cause proves completely false
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirms on an equally divided vote whether suppression is required under the state constitution where the officer relied in good faith on an affidavit that turned out to be completely wrong. The opinion supporting affirmance notes … Continue reading
CA7: State court following Davis GFE for pre-Jones GPS hardly unreasonable application of federal law under § 2254(d)
District Court [inexplicably] granted CoA for appeal of Wisconsin planting a GPS device a year before Jones which the state court of appeals held was saved by Davis good faith exception. State v. Oberst, 2014 WI App 58, 354 Wis. … Continue reading
TN: TN SCt has to adopt Herring under exclusionary rule; Ct.Crim.App. can’t
Despite the Tennessee Supreme Court’s recent changes in exclusionary rule jurisprudence, the court has not yet adopted Herring on good faith reliance on an out of date list. This court will not do it–that court has to. State v. McElrath, … Continue reading
TN: Blood draw without consent was valid at the time it happened; therefore valid
Obtaining defendant’s blood draw without consent was a practice authorized by binding appellate precedent at the time it occurred. Therefore, the denial of defendant’s motion to suppress was appropriate because the officer was acting under a good faith belief that … Continue reading
MO: Systemic negligence in officer’s preparation of SW affidavits showed GFE couldn’t be relied upon
On remand from State v. Robinson, 454 S.W.3d 428 (Mo. App. 2015), the only evidence in the record showed that the officer who prepared the affidavit was systemically negligent in the preparation of search warrant affidavits, and that precludes application … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: SW affidavit was so bare bones it never showed nexus or particularity; no GFE
The affidavit for search warrant here failed to show nexus between defendant’s house and drug dealing. There was some suspicion involving others and a stale anonymous tip never corroborated. Nothing implicated defendant except that one co-defendant was driving defendant’s van … Continue reading
AR: Officer’s three week old knowledge of def’s suspended DL was RS for a stop
Reasonable suspicion doesn’t require certainty of facts. Here, the factual belief was that defendant’s DL had been suspended weeks earlier. Williams v. State, 2017 Ark. App. 291, 2017 Ark. App. LEXIS 301 (May 10, 2017). There was enough probable cause … Continue reading
D.Minn. USMJ finds Playpen warrant constitutionally defective and no GFE
“Accordingly, the NIT warrant is void ab initio. Without an identifiable warrant exception (the Government offers none and the Court is aware of none) the Court concludes that the NIT warrant’s violation of Rule 41(b) and 28 U.S.C. § 636(a) … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Complete failure of showing nexus fails PC and GFE
The affidavit for the search warrant completely failed to show nexus to defendant’s house and drugs. Complete lack of nexus does not support the good faith exception either. United States v. Rios-Uscanga, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68991 (D.Minn. March 13, … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: 791 days of GPS tracking of a parolee suppressed
Back on December 29th was this post: E.D.N.Y.: 791 days of GPS tracking of a parolee to catch others in a DTO was [somehow] not unreasonable. On review, Judge Weinstein finds that intense tracking violated the Fourth Amendment and there … Continue reading
MD: Issue on appeal more nuanced and different that one presented to the trial court
Defendant’s issue on appeal is more nuanced, yet not the same as the one argued before the trial court, so there is no authority to decide it. So, the court does for the sake of argument, and it finds nexus. … Continue reading
TN: No consent to blood draw where def pulled out of car at gun point and told his blood was being taken
Defendant did not freely and voluntarily give his actual consent because he was pulled over by police officers, ordered out of his car at gun point, read the implied consent form, and informed that officers would hold him down and … Continue reading
Texas finally adopts the Davis good faith exception to its statutory exclusionary rule
Texas finally adopts the Davis good faith exception to its statutory exclusionary rule to a pre-Jardines dog sniff in a wide ranging and scholarly opinion surveying all the federal circuits on Davis and attenuation. McClintock v. State, 2017 Tex. Crim. … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Cell phone + drug case = PC to search cell phone
Drug dealers commonly use cell phones to ply their trade, and that was stated in the affidavit for the search warrant. The USMJ signed the warrant for cell phones, too. Accordingly, the search warrant was executed in good faith. United … Continue reading