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: Probable cause
CA11: RS included talking on phone during stop when repeatedly told to hang up
Defendant’s excessive nervousness, denial that some of the contents of the car were even his, and repeatedly talking on the phone with someone the officer suspected was coaching him what to do and say even after being repeatedly told to … Continue reading
TN: “Highly likely” information is sufficient for PC
The provider of the IP address could not tell police for certain that defendant had the particular IP address at the particular time sought, but they could opine it was highly likely. That’s certainly enough for probable cause. Defendant’s certified … Continue reading
IL: Def’s personal relationship to premises to be searched is relevant and has to be viewed in the context of the totality
Nexus for the premises was shown in the search warrant affidavit. Defendant’s personal relationship to the premises is relevant and has to be evaluated in context of the totality. On sufficiency of the evidence, however, defendant’s conviction is reversed for … Continue reading
NY4: Smell of PCP alone is PC
“New York is no outlier on this issue. Indeed, as far as we can discern, every single court in the United States to ever consider this precise issue has come to the same conclusion as Darby and Sanchez: a trained … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Smell of MJ on def’s person not PC to search his car
The officer had no suspicions of defendant before drawing his gun on him. The smell of marijuana on defendant’s person, but not his car, was not probable cause for a search of the car. The officer testified he was quite … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Def already lawfully arrested suffered no separate 4A violation by being taken to ATF, too
Defendant already lawfully arrested wasn’t unreasonably seized by also taking him to ATF for further questioning. United States v. Rodriguez, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158008 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 20, 2021). The affidavit showed “ample probable cause” and the Franks challenge is … Continue reading
ND: Search of passenger’s person for smell of MJ in car was unreasonable
Defendant’s patdown as a passenger on smell of marijuana was reasonable during the stop, but a search of his person was not. There was no justification for a search of his person. State v. K.V. (In the Interest of K.V.), … Continue reading
CA7: Franks issue moot by other PC
A warrant wasn’t needed to seize a cell phone, but one was to search it, and they had one. Attacking the CI’s credibility fails as an issue, Franks or otherwise, because there is other probable cause for the warrant. United … Continue reading
CA8: Three controlled buys via cell phone was PC for wiretap
Nexus and probable cause for a cell phone wiretap is the same standard as under the Fourth Amendment. “The CS performed three controlled buys by communicating with the cellphone number that was wiretapped. Further, the CS identified the number as … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: Blood in car transporting shooting victim to ER justified SW for it
Defendant was driven to an ER after 2 am for having been shot. Out in the ER parking was the car with blood and guns in it. A state judge issued a search warrant for the car, and that resulted … Continue reading
PA: Exclusionary rule applies to PA probation revocation proceedings
The exclusionary rule applies to probation revocation proceedings in Pennsylvania. Having suppressed in the underlying criminal case, the court should have suppressed on the violation of probation. Commonwealth v. Parson, 2021 PA Super 151, 2021 Pa. Super. LEXIS 487 (July … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Ptf shows Franks violation for leaving out important mitigating information; officer also had apparent motive
Defendant satisfied his Franks burden of showing a material false statement in support of the probable cause showing for the warrant. That information undermined the probable cause. As to the good faith exception, this is what the exclusionary rule is … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: You post to Facebook at your peril; there is no REP in Facebook “friends”
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in Facebook posts, no matter who reads them, “friend” or not. Defendant posts to Facebook at his peril. Moreover, he already lost this in the Sixth Circuit. Farrad v. United States, 2021 U.S. … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Flight is part of the RS calculus
Defendant fled from a police stop, and he wasn’t seized until the police laid hands on him. The hunch he was carrying a gun was correct. “First, as Officer Nash was attempting to exit his marked police car to engage … Continue reading
Reason: FBI Seized $900,000 From Safe Deposit Box on ‘Pure Conjecture,’ Federal Judge Says
Reason: FBI Seized $900,000 From Safe Deposit Box on ‘Pure Conjecture,’ Federal Judge Says by Eric Boehm (“Reason has joined a new legal effort seeking to force the government to unseal warrants justifying the FBI’s seizure of more than 600 … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: That PC is debatable isn’t a lack of PC
There was a substantial basis for the state judge to issue this search warrant. A USMJ came to a different conclusion. That it is debatable doesn’t show a lack of probable cause. United States v. Mitchell, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: SW for person is not limited like a protective sweep
A search warrant for a person is not limited as a protective sweep. It was not unreasonable to look under box springs. United States v. Johnson, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132835 (W.D.Tenn. July 16, 2021). The protective sweep in the … Continue reading