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)
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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
CA8: Pre-Jardines dog search at the door saved by Davis good faith; Jardines had been already argued
A drug dog alerted at defendant’s door. After the motion to suppress was filed, but before it was heard, Jardines was decided. Because Eighth Circuit precedent allowed the use of a dog at the door prior to Jardines, the Davis … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Pre-Riley search incident of cell phone saved by Davis GFE
Pre-Riley search incident of cell phone was valid in the Fifth Circuit under the Davis good faith exception. The defendant’s trial concluded eight days before Riley was decided, and he raised the issue. United States v. Spears, 2014 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
WaPo: Riley won, but will Riley benefit from it?
WaPo: Riley won, but will Riley benefit from it? by Orin Kerr: The Supreme Court gave a big victory to criminal defendants last week when it held in Riley v. California that the police need a warrant to search a … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: GFE applies to overbreadth questions, too
A child pornography warrant was not overbroad as to the computers and a Dropbox account. Even it if was, the offending portion would be severed. Here, nothing was seized under the allegedly overbroad phrase. And, even if it was, the … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: The day after Riley, Davis GFE saves a warrantless cell phone search despite no controlling case; this is just wrong
In February, the USMJ found the warrantless search of defendant’s cell phone unreasonable, but in Davis good faith [despite the lack of controlling law in support?]. The day after Riley, the USDJ finds that the search of a cell phone … Continue reading
Cato: Police Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse (re: Heien v. North Carolina)
Cato: Police Ignorance of the Law Is No Excuse (re: Hein v. North Carolina) by Ilya Shapiro: To execute any search or seizure, a police officer must reasonably suspect that a crime has been or is being committed based on … Continue reading
OH5: Not necessary to have issuing magistrate at suppression hearing as witness; what does that add?
The trial court didn’t abuse its discretion in quashing the subpoena for testimomy from the issuing magistrate because it would add little or nothing to the suppression hearing. State v. McElfresh, 2014-Ohio-2605, 2014 Ohio App. LEXIS 2549 (5th Dist. June … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Failure to sign affidavit for SW after being sworn not a Fourth Amendment violation
The failure of the officer to sign the affidavit after he was sworn did not void the warrant. It actually was issued on “oath or affirmation.” United States v. Williamson, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77703 (D. Kan. March 18, 2014), … Continue reading
D.S.D.: “Good faith is not a magic lamp for police officers to rub whenever they find themselves in trouble.”
Warrantless entry was not “sanitized” by an ex post facto search warrant. “‘Good faith is not a magic lamp for police officers to rub whenever they find themselves in trouble.’” Leon involved no police misconduct; this case does. United States … Continue reading
KS: Failure to corroborate anonymous informants was a complete lack of PC for GFE
A police car was stolen and left in a ditch apparently with blood and hair left on it. Three anonymous calls linked defendant to the theft. He first agreed to come in and give samples and then didn’t show. A … Continue reading
D.C.Cir. finds good faith exception applies to warrant, and probable cause was not even considered
The reliability of the informant’s tale does not need to be decided here because the good faith exception applies [without a word of why]. United States v. Matthews, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 10522 (D.C. Cir. June 6, 2014). Defendant in … Continue reading
TX11 declines to follow Davis good faith exception for Jones GPS violation
A GPS device installed on mere reasonable suspicion with a court order was invalid under Jones. Texas’s limited good faith exception does not recognize the Davis good faith exception. State v. Jackson, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS 5861 (Tex. App.–-Eastland May … Continue reading
OH8: Negligent dispatcher reported car as stolen that wasn’t; dispatcher’s negligence not attributable to searching officer
A negligent dispatcher reported the vehicle the juvenile was in as stolen, and it was stopped and searched. The information turned out to be wrong. Still, the search of the car was in the officer’s good faith reliance on the … Continue reading
SC: Informant not properly supported; showing of PC fails under GFE
The affidavit for the search warrant was false in that it omitted that the informant was really an agent of the police in this endeavor, but it wasn’t material enough for Franks. The crux of the case is that the … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Inventory in aid of car forfeiture was valid
Defendant was arrested at home for money laundering. A protective sweep of the premises revealed a Lamborghini and Ferrari in the garage, and they were seized for forfeiture. An inventory of the vehicles in aid of the forfeitures was proper. … Continue reading
AZ: GPS on another’s vehicle targeting def as driver gave standing; no GFE where no prior state authority
Officers placed a GPS on another person’s vehicle knowing that defendant would be driving it, and he was the target. That gave him standing. The good faith exception doesn’t apply because there was no binding state precedent that said GPS … Continue reading
KS: Trash pull lacked nexus to house; buying fertilizer not PC for a grow operation
Officers did a trash pull because a person living at the target address bought “perlite soil conditioner and liquid fertilizer from the Green Circle Garden Center.” (They were running LPNs of people buying that stuff.) In the trash bags was … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: Warrantless seizure of text message from cell phone valid under GFE
Without a case in point, warrantless seizure of a text message from a cell phone which was Overt Act 8 in the indictment was not unreasonable under the good faith exception. Defendant relies on Wurie, which is from the First … Continue reading
CA11: Pre-Jones GPS valid by good faith exception
Because there was clear precedent that GPS monitoring before Jones was valid, and at least by the Davis good faith exception, the GPS here was valid, too. During the pendency of this appeal, other cases so held. United States v. … Continue reading