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- VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would 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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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the 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: GPS / Tracking Data
DC: Probationer on GPS monitoring could be checked against crime data to connect him to crime without violating 4A
Defendant was on supervised release and was required to wear a GPS monitor. After a crime, probation officers checked to see if perchance any of their probationers were at the scene at the time, and defendant was. The examination of … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Dog alert satisfied CA3 standards because it was to specific place
The search of defendant’s U-Haul truck was justified by a dog alert. “Assuming arguendo that Third Circuit precedent supported defendants’ more taxing standard for what constitutes a positive and reliable alert, Trooper Hoy still had probable cause to search the … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Officers’ efforts to avoid towing vehicle on def’s arrest showed lack of pretext to search it
The government satisfied its burden in showing that the inventory of defendant’s car was reasonable and not for an investigative purpose. Important to that, they attempted to work with defendant to avoid towing the vehicle at all by getting a … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Driver’s cell phone search in 2017 NYC truck attack on pedestrians attributed to ISIS was with PC and was particular
The defendant in the 2017 New York City truck attack attributed to ISIS moved to suppress his cell phone search, primarily on the ground that ubiquity of cell phones alone isn’t enough. There was more. The court credits the FBI … Continue reading
CA10: SW not needed to obtain GPS location information from parolee’s GPS monitor
Defendant was on community supervision with GPS monitoring. He does not contest that, just the fact the location information was obtained without a search warrant. The probation-parole search exception doesn’t require a search warrant to obtain that information. United States … Continue reading
IL: GPS monitoring of food trucks to keep them 200′ from restaurants was reasonable
The City of Chicago requires GPS monitoring of food trucks to make sure they stay 200′ away from a regular restaurant or in food truck zones is reasonably related to the city’s interest in promoting viability of restaurants in the … Continue reading
Boston Globe: Top court in Mass. to review controversial technology police use to track cars
Boston Globe: Top court in Mass. to review controversial technology police use to track cars by Matt Rocheleau: Massachusetts’ highest court will soon review the legality of controversial surveillance technology that state and local law enforcement use to track vehicles … Continue reading
IA: Def’s prior stashing of burglary proceeds at home was nexus in this SW application
Nexus was shown to the house searched because defendant was known to have stashed burglary proceeds there before. [A good lack of standing argument could have been made and was unnecessary.] State v. Adams, 2019 Iowa App. LEXIS 574 (June … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Not putting in affidavit after controlled buy that CI was searched doesn’t void the SW
The officer’s failure to include in the affidavit that the CI was searched before going in is a matter for the issuing judge to consider. “Here, the lack of information regarding the credibility of the purchasers as well as the … Continue reading
MO: SW for a house includes the garden in the curtilage
The search warrant for defendant’s home authorized a search of defendant’s garden because, under Jardines, the curtilage is considered part of the house itself. State v. Daggett, 2019 Mo. App. LEXIS 843 (May 28, 2019). A state court’s 2017 cell … Continue reading
CA5: GFE wasn’t raised or litigated below so it’s not considered on appeal
The district court’s findings on the search were not clearly erroneous. The good faith exception wasn’t raised in the district court, and not on appeal so it’s waived. United States v. Taylor, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 14644 (5th Cir. May … Continue reading
CA8: Two CIs and officer’s observations provided PC for GPS tracking
Two tipsters and an officer’s observations of hand-to-hand deals led to a GPS warrant for defendant’s vehicle. It was issued with probable cause. Defendant wasn’t entitled to a Franks hearing over the CIs. United States v. Bradley, 2019 U.S. App. … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Warrantless downloading GPS from an installed device on a car violated Jones
Defendant bought a Lexus from a used car dealer that had a GPS installed to track it, apparently to repossess it if necessary. He was warned on the purchase contract. Still, the government needed a search warrant to get access … Continue reading
NC: Failure to object to satellite-based monitoring in trial court was waiver
Defendant didn’t raise the constitutionality of satellite-based monitoring in the trial court, so it’s waived for appeal. He also can’t bring it up by certiorari. State v. DeJesus, 2019 N.C. App. LEXIS 384 (May 7, 2019). Reasonable suspicion developed at … Continue reading
CA6: Tracking warrant was issued with PC
The tracking warrant here was issued on probable cause. “Courts have upheld vehicle-tracking warrants based on much weaker factual allegations than these. See, e.g., United States v. Faulkner, 826 F.3d 1139, 1145 (8th Cir. 2016) (upholding a vehicle-tracking warrant where … Continue reading
Denver Post: Holy police tech, Batman! Denver officers can now shoot your car with a GPS tracker if you try to flee
Denver Post: Holy police tech, Batman! Denver officers can now shoot your car with a GPS tracker if you try to flee by Elise Schmelzer Police leaders hope technology will minimize the number of dangerous chases So: installation by exigency. … Continue reading
ABAJ: GPS ankle monitors can call and record people without consent; do they violate 5th Amendment?
ABAJ: GPS ankle monitors can call and record people without consent; do they violate 5th Amendment? by Debra Cassens Weiss:
Business Insider: Your iPhone keeps a detailed list of every location you frequent
Business Insider: Your iPhone keeps a detailed list of every location you frequent — here’s how to delete your history and shut the feature off for good by Paige Leskin:
MA: Prolonged GPS monitoring as punishment for CP conviction was unreasonable under Grady
Prolonged GPS monitoring for punishment for child pornography, a non-contact offense, was unreasonable under Grady v. North Carolina because the state’s interest was only marginal compared to the interest of the offender. Commonwealth v. Feliz, 481 Mass. 689 (Mar. 26, … Continue reading
MA: Probation GPS monitoring can be accessed after the fact to prove def’s location in a new crime
Defendant was on probation and had GPS monitoring as a condition. It was reasonable for the state to access the historical GPS data later when defendant was suspected of a crime. Commonwealth v. Johnson, 481 Mass. 710 (Mar. 26, 2019). … Continue reading