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- CA8: Def’s 20 prior arrests helped show voluntariness of consent
- TX1: No standing to challenge seizure of ketamine off co-def, but PC was lacking for his own arrest
- KS: 13 days pole camera surveillance violated no REP
- E.D.Va.: WaPo reporter’s SW was overbroad and 1A protected
- CAAF: GFE applies to cell phone’s geolocation data because of substantial basis for the search authorization
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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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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)
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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: GPS / Tracking Data
W.D.Wis.: The court can take judicial notice of the reliability of GPS for probable cause
The court can take judicial notice of the reliability of GPS for probable cause. Here the question was probable cause for the arrest of a bank robbery suspect based on GPS tracking of the bait money. United States v. Mitchell, … Continue reading
Gov’t Technology: Is Your Phone’s GPS Protected by the Fourth Amendment?
Gov’t Technology: Is Your Phone’s GPS Protected by the Fourth Amendment? by the Free Press, Kinston, N.C. In North Carolina, the answer is no.
TN: A court order for GPS with PC doesn’t have to be a “search warrant” to be valid
The court order for a tracking device (GPS) was based on probable cause. There is no requirement that it be a “search warrant” as long is it is based on probable cause and is issued by a neutral and detached … Continue reading
CA7: CI’s prediction of route of travel confirmed by GPS planted with SW was PC
CI’s prediction of defendant’s route of travel with heroin was corroborated by GPS placed on defendant’s car with a warrant. United States v. Reaves, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 13745 (7th Cir. August 6, 2015). A citizen informant called DC Metro … Continue reading
CA4: Even GPS failed to prove a conspiracy, thereby requiring a wiretap
Even GPS tracking is not the end all be all of criminal investigation. GPS was shown to be an inadequate technique to tie together a conspiracy in needing a wiretap. United States v. Eccleston, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 13376 (4th … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Officer’s failure to learn about Jones GPS ruling warranted suppression; “When police exhibit ‘deliberate,’ ‘reckless,’ or ‘grossly negligent’ disregard for Fourth Amendment rights, the benefits of exclusion tend to outweigh the costs.”–Davis
The officer’s failure to learn about Jones justified suppression of planting a GPS device nearly two years after it was decided. Officers have a duty to keep up with the law to claim good faith. Defendant’s disclaiming a cell phone … Continue reading
IN: Car’s GPS device protected under Riley; SW required
A vehicle’s GPS device is not a container subject to search under the automobile exception. It contains personal data, and it is akin to a cell phone, and a warrant is required under Riley. Wertz v. State, 2015 Ind. App. … Continue reading
OR: Seizure of cell phone was seizure of the person, but with RS
Seizure of defendant’s cell phone converted the consensual encounter into a stop, but it was with reasonable suspicion. State v. Hayes, 272 Ore. App. 1 (June 24, 2015). The defendant here tried to extrapolate the use of GPS on somebody … Continue reading
CBS New York: N.Y. State Senator Proposes Using GPS Implants To Track Violent Convicts
CBS New York: N.Y. State Senator Proposes Using GPS Implants To Track Violent Convicts NYCLU Calls Saratoga Lawmaker’s Suggestion An Overreaction To Upstate Prison Break.
E.D.N.C.: Charged, but yet unproved, conduct can appear in a search warrant affidavit
There were four GPS warrants on the defendant’s car, owned by his wife, June-October 2014, renewed in state court every 30 days. The court can’t conclude they were started on stale information since it referred to an ongoing drug operation. … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Search of trash container on driveway where public was impliedly invited was not violation of curtilage
The court agrees that an entry into the curtilage to search a trash container would implicate Jardines, but it finds here that the entry onto the front part of the defendant’s property to the trash container was still the area … Continue reading
MI: Lifetime GPS monitoring of a sex offender is a search, and it is reasonable on a balancing of interests
Lifetime GPS monitoring of a doctor convicted of criminal sexual contact with a patient under 13 was a search under Grady, but it was reasonable. It is reasonable on balancing the government’s interest in keeping up with sex offenders and … Continue reading
IL finds Karo/Knotts strong enough to invoke Davis good faith to a pre-Jones GPS installation (creating a conflict)
The GPS device in this case was put on defendant’s vehicle three years before Jones. Karo and Knotts were strong enough an indication that it was lawful that the Davis good faith exception would be applied to save the search. … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: Finding an FBI Tracker Won’t Support Civil Suit
Courthouse News Service: Finding an FBI Tracker Won’t Support Civil Suit by Jake Linger:
CA9: No prohibition to placing GPS on car at night
A tracking order was issued with probable cause, and there’s no special requirement that a GPS device can’t be placed at night, compared to the nighttime search requirements. United States v. Brock, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 7195 (9th Cir. April … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: Only two hours of warrantless GPS monitoring doesn’t offend Jones
Two hours of GPS monitoring didn’t implicate Jones’s reasonable expectation of privacy standard because it wasn’t long term. Defendant didn’t own the vehicle with the GPS device on it, but he was an authorized driver, and that gives him standing. … Continue reading
CA10: For pre-Jones GPS good faith to apply, Knotts and Karo are enough
In a pre-Jones GPS case, even though there was no authority from this circuit, two SCOTUS cases seemingly authorized warrantless GPS: Knotts (1983) and Karo (1984). Thus, the Davis good faith exception would be applied. “We also note that several … Continue reading
ID erroneously puts burden of proof on driver in DL suspension cases to prove stop was not valid
In DL suspensions in Idaho, the burden is on the driver to show a lack of justification for the stop, not on the state to prove that it was valid. “The hearing officer properly concluded that Wernecke failed to prove … Continue reading
SCOTUS per curiam: Grady v. North Carolina: Satellite based monitoring of sex offenders implicates the Fourth Amendment; reversed for reconsideration under Jones
North Carolina’s satellite based monitoring (SBM) of sex offenders is designed to effect a government search of the location of sex offenders under Jones. It matters not that it is in the context of a civil case. The state court … Continue reading
Ars Technica: Is a lifetime of involuntary GPS monitoring constitutional?
Ars Technica: Is a lifetime of involuntary GPS monitoring constitutional? by David Kravets: When the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that affixing GPS devices to vehicles to track their every move without court warrants was an unconstitutional trespass, the outcome … Continue reading