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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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)
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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: Probable cause
NE: “Probable cause may be based on commonsense conclusions about human behavior.”
There was probable cause for this search warrant for defendant’s cell phone found where a window peeper dropped it in flight from being seen at the window. The warrant was particular, and video of a sleeping woman being sexually abused … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Cell phone passcode was provided by consent; alternatively, inevitable discovery applies
Defendant consented to providing his passcode to his cell phone. Even if not, it was admissible because of inevitable discovery. United States v. Morales, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104053 (E.D.Mo. June 10, 2022).* “Defendant’s contention that his right to due … Continue reading
W.D.Okla.: An alleged victim’s vague claim a group of men ‘were after him’ is not RS
“Applying these standards, and giving deference to all inferences Officer Nitzky could reasonably have drawn in favor of the credibility of Mr. Ingram’s complaint, the Court concludes that the detention and search of Defendant at the Denny’s on December 14, … Continue reading
AR: SW for evidence linking to a homicide in another county found clothes worn seen in video
In a homicide investigation, officers showed probable cause for defendant’s house for evidence of the murder where the victim was abducted, driven 75 miles, and her body dumped in another county. Defendant was on video surveillance where the abduction occurred, … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: 4A violations are for suppression, not dismissal
“Searches and seizures in violation of the Fourth Amendment do not require dismissing an indictment; instead, the remedy is suppressing the evidence at trial.” United States v. Ramirez-Aleman, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77436 (S.D.Cal. Apr. 26, 2022). Defendant officers have … Continue reading
CA11: Def’s innocent explanation for his behavior still left PC
Defendant’s innocent explanation for his behavior still left probable cause. United States v. Clark, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 11504 (11th Cir. Apr. 28, 2022). Defendant was arrested two weeks after a string of robberies, and his cell phone was taken … Continue reading
NY3: Pleading guilty after suppression hearing but before decision is waiver
Pleading guilty after the suppression hearing but before it was decided is waiver. People v. Lende, 2022 NY Slip Op 02581, 2022 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2476 (3d Dept. Apr. 21, 2022). The stop here was with reasonable suspicion. Officers … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: Def had REP in bag in car but no standing in rest of search of car
While defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the car he was in, he retained a reasonable expectation of privacy in his bag in the car. United States v. Grice, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72586 (W.D.Tex. Apr. 20, 2022). … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Guest of renter of hotel room had standing
A guest in a hotel room had standing because the renter permitted him to stay there. As for the merits of the search, inevitable discovery applies. United States v. Stein, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71316 (E.D.Va. Apr. 18, 2022). Officers … Continue reading
D.Me.: Search under state bail condition was with RS and alternative ground
Defendant was on a state bail condition that authorized warrantless searches. In a traffic stop, the officer had at least reasonable suspicion of drug activity in the vehicle. The search was reasonable under both. As to the bail condition, there … Continue reading
NM: Motion to suppress checkpoint stop too general to put state on notice
“We conclude Defendant’s motion was insufficiently particular to alert the metropolitan court or State that the grounds for suppressing evidence related to the checkpoint’s illegality.” “Defendant’s motion, rather, was based upon the State lacking reasonable suspicion to detain Defendant. The … Continue reading
WY: Flight broke any causal connection between unlawful stop and later search of person
Evidence supporting defendant’s charges was admissible under the attenuation doctrine. His flight and the circumstances surrounding his flight broke the causal connection between the alleged unlawful police conduct and the evidence supporting his charges. Also, where the trial court denied … Continue reading
D.Colo.: A vehicle search for MJ that might have been legally possessed under CO law was still potentially a violation of federal law, and federal law controls
The probable cause analysis for arrest and search is the same. Defendant’s car was searched under the automobile exception in Colorado, and a quantity of marijuana was found. Federal law controls here (Virginia v. Moore), not state law and whether … Continue reading
NC: Potential for destruction of car keys was not exigency here
Defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in a house he was visiting along with others late at night. When the police knocked, he answered the door, and that connoted some control over the premises. His disclaimer of ownership of … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Photographs taken before SW issued or the SW are not suppressed, they had nothing to do with getting the SW
Metadata in photographs of defendant’s property show that they were taken before the search warrant was issued. The search warrant was going to issue anyway, and nothing relied upon the photographs. Denied. United States v. Jefferson, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Visual surveillance of a car in a parking lot is not a search; no REP in the license plate
Visual surveillance of plaintiff’s car in a parking lot is not a search. “Mr. Porter alleges that Investigator Tucci committed an unreasonable search by conducting surveillance of his vehicle in a parking lot and by looking up his plate and … Continue reading
OH11: Dragging out the stop a few minutes to allow drug dog to arrive made it unreasonable
In a state where the appellate courts are overly solicitous of police calling for drug dog sniffs in traffic stops, this court finds the stop prolonged for the drug dog to get there without reasonable suspicion. Neyhard v. State, 2022-Ohio-1098, … Continue reading