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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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--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
CO: Davis GFE applies to a pre-McNeely DUI blood draw
Because state law said it was proper at the time, Davis good faith applies to a warrantless blood draw “problematic” under McNeely. People v. Barry, 2015 Colo. App. LEXIS 95 (January 29, 2015):
N.D.Ill.: Davis good faith is objective, so the gov’t doesn’t really have a burden of proof
The court previously held that use of defendant’s garage door opener to locate his place did not violate the Fourth Amendment. After Riley, the defendants moved for reconsideration, and the court first found Riley inapplicable and, even if it was, … Continue reading
CA7 & Cal.1: GPS placed in 2011 saved by GFE; one case a triple murder
When the GPS was put on defendant’s car in 2011 before Jones, binding precedent said that it was lawful, so the good faith exception applies. United States v. Taylor, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 601 (7th Cir. January 14, 2015); People … Continue reading
WY: No prejudice from this violation of nighttime search rule; GFE also applies
The state violated the nighttime search rule by executing this search warrant at 10:18 pm rather than before 10 pm, but the officers claimed not to know the exact time. There was no showing in the search warrant papers for … Continue reading
TX2: Under the Texas exclusionary rule, good faith reliance on a statute does not prevent suppression of evidence
Defendant’s BAC test should have been with a warrant under McNeely. Under the Texas exclusionary rule, good faith reliance on a statute, here the implied consent law, does not prevent suppression of evidence. Texas doesn’t follow Davis. Burks v. State, … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Third-party doctrine well entrenched and SCA shows Congress isn’t changing it, yet
All things considered, the third party doctrine is well established in SCOTUS precedent, and the court declines to depart from it. In addition, the Stored Communications Act, remaining unchanged, is evidence that Congress intends it to remain that way. Cell … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Officers’ limits and good faith saved technically overbroad document SW
The Medicare fraud limitation in this document search warrant was only stated in a couple of paragraphs of the things to be seized, so it was technically overbroad. The officers’ conduct of the search, however, was limited and done in … Continue reading
OH10: Trial court’s findings supporting GFE are lacking where it found no PC; remanded
The trial court found the affidavit didn’t show probable cause, but its findings on whether it was so inadequate that the good faith exception shouldn’t be applied were lacking. Remanded; the appellate court declines to make that determination first. State … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: CSLI collection was shown to be with cause; def likely didn’t even have standing
Defendant used the cell phone of another in this alleged criminal enterprise, and it is doubtful that he has standing to complain of the cell site location information collection. Even if he did have standing, it was all obtained by … Continue reading
WI: McNeely retroactive and abrogates prior law, but GFE saves prior blood draws
McNeely applies retroactively in Wisconsin, but the state gets the benefit of a Davis-type good faith exception [without citing Davis]. The lead case is State v. Kennedy, 2014 WI 132, 2014 Wisc. LEXIS 954 (December 26, 2014), where a car … Continue reading
CA6 applies GFE to a warrantless search to save the gov’t from a waiver issue
The court found the entry to defendant’s backyard invalid in 2012 (United States v. Fugate, 499 Fed. Appx. 514 (6th Cir. 2012)) because of waiver of an argument by the government. The case was remanded for a determination of whether … Continue reading
LA5 botches GFE by equating it with a defense need to prove “bad faith”
The probable cause for the search warrant was a controlled buy, but the defendant claimed the CI wasn’t shown to be otherwise credible. [That’s not required in a controlled buy.] The good faith exception applies because the defendant didn’t allege … Continue reading
GA: Riley applied to a case not yet final; no GFE because no prior binding authority
A cell phone search in a DUI stop was suppressed under Riley, even though the search occurred long before Riley. The defendant was still litigating, and he hadn’t yet even been convicted. Also, no good faith exception for the muddled … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: No GFE where SW issued on bare conclusion of officer and CI
Here, the approval of the search warrant was mere ratification of the conclusion of the officer, so there was no probable cause and no good faith exception. United States v. Rutherford, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166917 (S.D. N.Y. December 2, … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Cell phone PC and particularity; GFE applies to cell phone warrant execution
Defendant was a guard at Riker’s Island prison complex, and he was arrested in a drug conspiracy. When a cell phone is removed from a person at the time of arrest and a search warrant is sought, the government doesn’t … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: GFE applies to foreign search by Cambodia National Police turned over to U.S.
Defendant was charged in the Central District of California with international travel to have sex with a minor in Cambodia. He was also charged in Cambodia, and that case led to a Cambodian Supreme Court decision remanding the search question. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: 30 day cell phone GPS tracking order requires PC and particularity
A 30 day cell phone GPS tracking order requires probable cause and particularity; otherwise it is a general warrant. Intercepted calls, however, led to a search warrant for his house. The search of the house has a different basis, and … Continue reading
Cal.1st: McNeely DUI warrant requirement is subject to the Davis good faith exception
The McNeely DUI warrant requirement is subject to the Davis good faith exception. People v. Jones, 2014 Cal. App. LEXIS 1083 (1st Dist. November 26, 2014): Prior to McNeely, all binding judicial precedent in this state, both at the Supreme … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: “No harm, no foul” on no exclusion for illegal cell phone search mentioned
An officer involved in the case conducted an illegal warrantless, albeit limited, search of defendant’s cell phone, realized it was wrong, and then stopped and didn’t tell the case agent or anyone else what he’d done. Later, he “came clean” … Continue reading
OH: At the time the GPS was installed, SCOTUS authority at least “suggested” in Knotts and Karo that it was constitutional, and that’s good enough for government work
At the time the GPS was put on defendant’s car, SCOTUS authority at least “suggested” in Knotts and Karo, before GPS was even envisioned, that it was constitutional, and that’s good enough for government work. The Davis good faith exception … Continue reading