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- VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would not be suppressed
- NM: Trial court’s finding of consent is reversed because the court engaged in its own internet investigation beyond what the parties provided
- Reason: No Warrant, No Suspicion, No Problem: Flock and Border Cellphone Searches Excluded From 4th Amendment Rules
- Reason: Flock’s Gunfire Alerts Raise a New Fourth Amendment Question
- N.D.Ohio: Car in driveway was on curtilage and plain view prohibited
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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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: Issue preclusion
N.D.W.Va.: QI for PC is a reasonable belief PC exists, not whether it actually exists
“In analyzing whether law enforcement officers have qualified immunity in a false arrest claim pursuant to § 1983, the issue is not whether probable cause actually exists but whether a reasonable officer in the officer’s position would have believed he … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Arrest warrant doesn’t require executing officer to check into PC for it
If there is an arrest warrant, the executing officer doesn’t have to look behind it to determine its validity. Other alleged probable cause for defendant’s stop is immaterial. United States v. Cox, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7551 (W.D.Ky. Jan. 14, … Continue reading
CA7: Perfunctory 4A claim was treated as Heck barred
Plaintiff’s perfunctory Fourth Amendment claim is Heck barred because he seeks to undermine his conviction. If it were more specific, maybe it would have overcome Heck, but this doesn’t. Raney v. Wisconsin, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 966 (7th Cir. Jan. … Continue reading
S.D.Cal. gives helpful explanation of application of Heck bar
A helpful explanation of the Heck bar to Fourth Amendment claims is Cordova v. Imperial Cnty. Narcotics Task Force, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3993 (S.D.Cal. Jan. 7, 2022).* Plaintiff lost her excessive force claim, and the defendants sought attorneys fees … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Arrest warrant permitted entry into def’s house to attempt to locate him
Defendant was on the lam, and officers, armed with an arrest warrant, entered his house thinking he’d returned there. He wasn’t but observations were made that led to a search warrant for the house. Motion to suppress denied. The arrest … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Stopping work on the traffic ticket when the drug dog arrived resulted in lengthening the detention without RS
“Officer Allen admits that he was not printing the police department’s copy of the first citation or processing the second citation during the drug sniff. Rather, he completely stopped his traffic-related mission as soon as Officer Wiebe arrived and worked … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: 2254 petr’s choice of remedy in state court still subject to Stone bar
2254 petitioner chose to attempt to exclude cell phone evidence in his state trial based on the claim it was not timely turned over and not that it was illegally seized. That was his choice, and the state did not … Continue reading
OH11: Plain view during FD response to fire leading to call to police was reasonable
Defendant’s house burned in a fire, and the fire investigator came in before the firemen left. Drugs were found in plain view and in a safe with an open door. The trial court suppressed, but the court of appeals reversed. … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: Not all 4A claims are Heck barred, but ptf here “has pled himself into a Heck bar”
“The Court acknowledges that not all Fourth Amendment claims are barred by Heck. Indeed, a civil rights claim may go forward before a conviction is invalidated where the civil rights violation ‘does not inevitably undermine a conviction.’ Booker v. Ward, … Continue reading
W.D.La.: Where the search was valid under the automobile exception, the officer’s subjective assessment is irrelevant
“Here, the facts known to Broussard at the time of the search—Dyson’s prior arrest for the illegal possession of a firearm and drugs, and the smell of marijuana emanating from the vehicle during the present stop—support a Terry pat-down search … Continue reading
CA1: Visitor’s backpack could be searched during a drug raid with SW
Appellant was a visitor with a backpack on the premises when a search warrant was executed, and the backpack was searched. The search was valid. “That Congo was not identified in the warrant as a co-conspirator is simply not relevant … Continue reading
W.D.La.: In a § 1983 suit over a SW, informer privilege prevents disclosure here
In a § 1983 suit over a search warrant, the defendants plead informer privilege to prevent disclosure of the CI that led to the search. Denied. Informant privilege stronger in civil cases than criminal. There was also significant other information … Continue reading
D.Kan.: § 1983 case over bad faith prosecution and search of cell phone barred by Younger
Plaintiff sued under § 1983 claiming that his prosecution is proceeding in bad faith and that his cell phone was wrongfully seized and searched. This is all barred by Younger v. Harris. Kabutu v. Short, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 238360 … Continue reading
CA6: 2254 petitioner’s argument state court “did not squarely address” his 4A argument still barred by Stone
“Tippins does not dispute that the state courts provided him a mechanism by which to present his Fourth Amendment claim. He instead argues that because the state courts did not squarely address the cases he raised on direct appeal, Powell … Continue reading
CA9: That CI could be accountable for falsity supports veracity
“Considering the totality of circumstances, the search warrant affidavit established probable cause that evidence or contraband would be found at Conard’s residence. The affidavit supplied sufficient indicia that the first confidential informant (‘CI 1′) was reliable. To begin, CI 1 … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: For Stone, the federal courts don’t second-guess the state court’s 4A decisions
“While those facts do not necessarily compel the conclusion that the warrantless search of the garbage tote was justified by the emergency exception, that is not the question before me. As stated, it is not this Court’s function to second-guess … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: 2254(d) “unreasonable application” review considered whether correct case law applied
In this 2254, the argument was that the state court’s application of law violated 2254’s “unreasonable” application standard, but it didn’t. The question was whether Michigan v. Long or Arizona v. Gant applies. “In sum, the State courts’ reliance on … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Evil intent irrelevant in excessive force case if it all still objectively reasonable
“Issues of motive and intent are essentially irrelevant in [an excessive force] case. The test in an excessive force case is an objective one. Thus, ‘[a]n officer’s evil intentions will not make a Fourth Amendment violation out of an objectively … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: Carpenter does not apply to private searches
Carpenter does not apply to private searches, citing United States v. Miller, 982 F.3d 412, 431 (6th Cir. 2020), and United States v. Ringland, 966 F.3d 731, 737 (8th Cir. 2020). Kleiser v. Chavez, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 232013 (W.D.Wash. … Continue reading