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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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Congressional Research Service:
--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
TX1: Davis GFE does not apply because of statutory exclusionary rule
“[T]he judge-made Davis exception to the judge-made federal exclusionary rule does not create an exception to the Texas exclusionary rule adopted by the Texas Legislature. Because the search warrant in this case was not based on probable cause, the Texas … Continue reading
OH9: Ordering a person out of a car at gunpoint after a stop is a seizure
Ordering a person out of a car at gunpoint after a stop is a seizure even if based on an alleged furtive movement. The stop was based on a robbery report, and this vehicle was more than a half mile … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Court order for CSLI under SCA not “clearly unconstitutional”
A court order on probable cause for CSLI information under the SCA was not clearly unconstitutional and good faith would apply in any event. [It it’s issued on probable cause, what’s the problem?] United States v. Letellier, 2015 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: CSLI order issued before binding CA4 case was with good faith
A USMJ issued an order for CSLI, and, for the sake of argument, the court assumes it was without probable cause and it was before United States v. Graham (“Graham II”), 796 F.3d 332 (4th Cir. 2015). Reliance on the … Continue reading
Cal.4: Dispatch told officer that def was on probation for one crime, but it actually had expired; he was, however, on probation for something else; GFE applied
The officer here responded to a suspicious activity report and found a stolen trailer in defendant’s yard with a piece of pipe on it. He inquired of dispatch and was told defendant was on probation for brandishing a weapon. He … Continue reading
Two on Davis good faith exception; one a 20 year old cold case
In a cold case rape and murder that came from retesting defendant’s DNA 20 years after the crime, a search incident that was valid in 1985 was now saved by Davis good faith. State v. Adams, 2015-Ohio-3954, 2015 Ohio LEXIS … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Plain view supported seizure of records outside scope of search warrant
In a Medicaid fraud document search warrant, some documents found were outside of the scope of the warrant, but they satisfied the plain view doctrine that their potential incriminating nature was immediately apparent and they were found in the course … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: SW application failed to show nexus to def’s house, and GFE can’t apply
This search warrant’s application failed to show nexus, even by inference. This is significant, and it makes it a “bare bones” affidavit not subject to the good faith exception. United States v. Spillman, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128878 (E.D.Ky. September … Continue reading
The Nation: Think Police Can’t Use Illegally Obtained Evidence Against You? Think Again.
The Nation: Think Police Can’t Use Illegally Obtained Evidence Against You? Think Again. by Paul Butler: Hudson v. Michigan is one in a series of cases in which the Roberts Court has blessed police officers with extraordinary power. This power … Continue reading
CA9: Vague uncorroborated anonymous tip could not support warrant, which was also overbroad, and the good faith exception cannot apply
Officers received a vague anonymous tip relayed through an apartment manager about a tenant having ten pounds of marijuana. They were able to somehow link it to defendant, and they did a knock-and-talk. Defendant admitted to being a medical marijuana … Continue reading
CA6: If it’s a close case on nexus to a drug dealer’s home, the GFE is good enough for government work
While the proof of nexus to defendant’s house was thin, the USMJ could reasonably draw the inference that defendant’s base of operations for his drug sales was his house. “It is a close question whether Agent Fitch’s affidavit sets forth … Continue reading
CA8: Rodriguez loses on remand to Davis GFE [the ultimate perversion of good faith: the guy whose case made the rule loses, too]
WaPo: Volokh Conspiracy: Rodriguez wins, Rodriguez loses by Orin Kerr (United States v. Rodriguez, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 15675 (8th Cir. September 3, 2015):
MN: Davis good faith exception applies to police conduct prior to McNeely in DUI warrants
Davis good faith exception applies to police conduct prior to McNeely in DUI warrants. State v. Lindquist, 2015 Minn. LEXIS 469 (August 19, 2015):
NJ: A vacated warrant not yet removed from computer system could not be relied on in good faith (3-3)
Affirming the Appellate Division by an equally divided vote: the arresting officer’s good faith belief that a valid warrant for defendant’s arrest was outstanding cannot render an arrest made in the absence of a valid warrant or probable cause constitutionally … Continue reading
CA8: No REP in public areas of a store; telephonic warrant relied on in good faith; tribal judge not shown to not be neutral and detached because she had spoken out on def’s store
Defendant’s convenience store was arguably open, and he didn’t show that it was closed, for an officer to come in and observe synthetic marijuana for sale. He thus did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The officer obtained a … Continue reading
CA4: Cell site location information requires a search warrant or other court order; but GFE applies this time
Cell site location information requires a search warrant or other court order. The government, however, gets a good faith argument for reliance on the Stored Communications Act. [Not so the next time.] United States v. Graham, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Is a USMJ neutral and detached when the target of the search warrant the judge just signed is allegedly having an affair with the judge’s husband but the defense can’t prove the judge knew?
Is a USMJ neutral and detached when the target of the search warrant the judge just signed is allegedly having an affair with the judge’s husband but the defense can’t prove the judge knew? True or not, that has no … Continue reading
CA4: Objectively reasonable reliance on NCIC readout supported arrest on an outdated warrant still in system; NCIC’s errors ignored
NCIC showed a warrant was outstanding, and defendant told the officer it was quashed. Yet, it still was in the system. The officer checked various databases from his car computer, and he found nothing that showed that the warrant wasn’t … Continue reading
MD: Davis good faith saves a search incident of a cell phone 3 years before Riley was decided, even though no state case ever said so
Search incident of defendant’s cell phone two and three years before Riley was decided was in Davis good faith based on Robinson [even though no state or Fourth Circuit case had said so]. Demby v. State, 2015 Md. LEXIS 490 … Continue reading
D.Md.: Blanket suppression reserved for flagrant cases; this isn’t
The search warrant didn’t specify that cash was subject to seizure, but it reasonably falls within evidence of the subject matter of the search warrant. To exclude the cash would be a “hypertechnical” suppression argument. Moreover, blanket suppression is reserved … Continue reading