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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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
CA10: GFE applies throughout: arguable PC overcomes allegation of lack of neutral detached magistrate, overbreadth, and even staleness
“This case calls for us to apply Leon where the judge who issued the search warrant was arguably not neutral and detached. Although we are unaware of any court applying the good faith exception in such circumstances, it is apparent … Continue reading
KS: State gets benefit of GFE in DUI cases in a post-McNeely stop but before state supreme court ruled
While McNeely was decided in April 2013 and defendant’s DWI stop was in September 2013, the state supreme court had not held the implied consent statute unconstitutional until later. Therefore, the good faith exception applied. State v. Kraemer, 2016 Kan. … Continue reading
AL SWs must be executed only by the officers to whom they are directed
Search warrants in Alabama have to be executed only by the officers to whom they are directed. Here, the warrant was to the Sheriff of Mobile County, but an officer of the Mobile PD executed it. This was invalid execution. … Continue reading
W.D.Okla.: Ping order not subject to exclusionary rule under ECPA
A cell phone ping order allegedly in violation of ECPA was not subject to suppression. The warrantless entry into the house was justified by exigent circumstances. United States v. Banks, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53876 (W.D.Okla. April 22, 2016). The … Continue reading
TN: GFE for McNeely issues has to come from state supreme court
Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals again declines to adopt a good faith exception for failure to comply with McNeely–that’s the state supreme court’s job. State v. Wilson, 2016 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 302 (April 21, 2016) (dissent).* An infant, through … Continue reading
M.D.Ga.: CI’s tip had sufficient detail with sufficient corroboration to be RS
“Although Cartwright does not appear to challenge the CI’s basis of knowledge for the tip, it is a factor that is considered in the reliability analysis. … Even so, that fact, considered alongside the other substantial factors, leads to the … Continue reading
TN: No GFE for warrantless blood draw where no exigency at all
In a warrantless blood draw case under McNeely, the state argued for a good faith exception, analogizing the state’s new statutory good faith exception, which the court finds inapplicable. There simply was no exigent circumstance in this case to dispense … Continue reading
LA2: GFE applies to GPS nearly two years before Jones; here, def fled and abandoned car
A GPS tracker was placed on defendant’s vehicle nearly two years before Jones, and he’d been under investigation for more than a year prior to that. Davis good faith would apply to the tracking, but that’s really not important: On … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Affidavit truly was “bare bones” on nexus, so no GFE
“It generalizes that ‘an individual’ may have information on his or her phone that connects him or her to a crime, co-defendants or victims, rather than specifically connecting Ramirez, the crime with which he was charged, or any known information … Continue reading
FL5: Pre-McNeely warrantless blood draw saved by GFE
A pre-McNeely warrantless blood draw was unconstitutional now but saved by the good faith exception because it was valid at the time it happened. State v. Liles, 2016 Fla. App. LEXIS 5427 (Fla. 5th DCA April 8, 2016). Arguing over … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Can’t prove judge issuing SW was a “rubberstamp” for the police when there was, in fact, probable cause
When arguing that the good faith exception does not apply, the “wholly abandoned his judicial role” exception needs an offer of proof. If, however, there is, in fact, probable cause, how do you prove that? You can’t. United States v. … Continue reading
TN: Failure to leave the SW not a “clerical error” subject to cure or GFE
In 2011, Tennessee adopted the Exclusionary Rule Reform Act with a statutory good faith exception that included “clerical errors.” Failing to leave a copy of the warrant at the place searched or with the householder is not a “clerical error.” … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: State exceptions to GFE don’t apply in federal court even where state judge issued SW
A Georgia state judge issued this search warrant, and it was supported by probable cause. In any event, the good faith exception saves it. Any exception to the good faith exception under Georgia law is irrelevant in a federal prosecution. … Continue reading
IN: Private university’s police dept serves police function; records thus public
Notre Dame’s police department serves a police function, therefore a public function, and it is subject to public records disclosure, even though the university as a whole isn’t. [So, no private search doctrine?] ESPN, Inc. v. Univ. of Notre Dame … Continue reading
D.Minn.: When lack of PC for SW is raised, this court looks to whether there was enough for reliance on SW to be objectively reasonable
Defendant argued lack of probable cause for search warrants for two vehicles and a computer, so the court goes first to good faith and analyzes the probable cause through that lens finding that reliance on the warrants with this much … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: Four corners rule does not apply to additional facts supporting good faith exception
Defendant’s original motion didn’t support standing but his brief did, and the court finds he was an overnight guest with standing. “At the outset, the court seriously doubts that the search warrant in this case was valid. While a magistrate’s … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Pre-Riley warrantless state search of cell phone was valid, so GFE applies
Defendant’s cell phone was searched without a warrant pre-Riley under California’s Diaz which expressly permitted warrantless cell phone searches. Therefore, that search was valid at the time under the good faith exception. United States v. Williams, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
IL: Warrantless blood draws pre-Neely are valid under GFE
Illinois law before McNeely permitted warrantless blood draws, and pre-McNeely searches would be valid under Davis good faith. People v. Harrison, 2016 IL App (5th) 150048, 2016 Ill. App. LEXIS 73 (Feb. 18, 2016). A 2254 petitioner gets a COA … Continue reading