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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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
CA7: Confrontation clause doesn’t apply in suppression hearings
The confrontation clause does not apply in suppression hearings. United States v. Bebris, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 20974 (7th Cir. July 15, 2021). The apartment’s search warrant was for evidence of drug sales from it. Those found there at the … Continue reading
TN: AT&T’s requirement cell phone record SWs go through FL office doesn’t deprive court of jurisdiction
The fact AT&T wants cell phone search warrant for a Tennessee cell phone to be served at West Palm Beach, Florida for its convenience does not make the warrant without jurisdiction. The digital information could be accessed from anywhere, but … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Any RS was dispelled before stop
The officer may have had reasonable suspicion as he approached the defendant, but, as he got closer, suspicion was dispelled. No reasonable suspicion for the stop. Motion to suppress granted. United States v. Chavous, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131326 (E.D. … Continue reading
ND: Reasonableness under Heien supported even though erroneous conclusion traffic offense occurred
Whether failure to signal while exiting a roundabout is a traffic offense is a valid reason for a stop or not, it was reasonable for the officer to conclude it was, and that justifies the stop under Heien. City of … Continue reading
CA8: Cell tower warrant to ID robbers was reasonable and with PC
Cell phone tower warrant in an effort to solve multiple robberies by identifying repeated phone use was reasonable when the question is a “substantial basis,” which there was. United States v. James, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 20336 (8th Cir. July … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: SI lacking PC is suppressed
Defendant was arrested and searched incident to arrest, and the court finds no valid basis for the search. He was too far away from and out of sight of the drugs the government was attempting to link to him. United … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: Def’s arrest away from the place of search was justified by PC
There was probable cause for defendant’s arrest away from the place of execution of the search warrant (Summers and Bailey). United States v. Pelayo, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126671 (W.D. Wash. July 7, 2021). When defendant opened his door, the … Continue reading
OR: Venn diagram of PC to a place or thing (nexus)
State v. Turay, 313 Ore. App. 45, 53, 2021 Ore. App. LEXIS 941 (July 8, 2021):
NC: Complete failure of SW affidavit to show or infer time voided it
The search warrant’s affidavit complete failure to specify the time couldn’t even be inferred from the totality, so the search warrant failed to show probable cause for issuance. State v. Logan, 2021-NCCOA-311, 2021 N.C. App. LEXIS 327 (July 6, 2021). … Continue reading
CA6: CI’s PC doesn’t have to be decided because there was good faith
The district court erred in finding no probable cause on information from defendant’s CI and no good faith exception. The CI was stopped one day out of jail driving a stolen motorbike that he said came from defendant. “In the … Continue reading
CA7: PC on the totality; kind of invoking Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Defendant’s post-conviction argument that there wasn’t probable cause as to the age of the child in his child pornography case fails because common sense dictates the age from the age of the parents. In addition, defendant’s own word choice for … Continue reading
RI: One-sentence description of alleged CP didn’t show PC
The twelve word one-sentence description of defendant’s alleged child pornography was insufficient to show probable cause. The court declines the state’s invitation to adopt the good faith exception without adequate briefing. State v. Reisner, 2021 R.I. LEXIS 87 (June 30, … Continue reading
Cal.2: Nest and surveillance camera on one’s own property to record ptfs’ loud parties didn’t violate their REP
Defendant’s cameras on their own property, including a Nest camera, that was intended to record plaintiffs’ loud parties did not invade their reasonable expectation of privacy, even if the Nest camera enhanced sound. Mezger v. Bick, 2021 Cal. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA8: A car with a flat tire is still inherently mobile for automobile exception
“The officers indisputably had probable cause to search Short’s vehicle, and an easily repairable flat tire did not cause the vehicle to lose its inherent mobility.” United States v. Short, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 19242 (8th Cir. June 29, 2021). … Continue reading
D.D.C.: One has to assert standing to challenge a Facebook warrant
The target does not assert standing to challenge the search warrant for this Facebook account, which he must. In re Information Associated with One Account Stored at Premises Controlled by Facebook, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120036 (D.D.C. June 4, 2021). … Continue reading
CA8: Officers had PC to arrest despite later investigation casting doubt and the criminal case getting dismissed
Officers had probable cause for plaintiff’s arrest for a sexual assault charge based on the totality of information, even though charges were later dismissed. Further later investigation cast doubt, but the officers weren’t reckless. Walz v. Randall, 2021 U.S. App. … Continue reading
ID: Nonpayment of fine warrant not based on PC for willfulness or ability to pay; writ of prohibition granted
A clerk’s affidavit of nonpayment said nothing about willfulness of nonpayment, and there was no showing of an “ability to pay analysis” for probable cause. Writ of prohibition against the contempt arrest is granted. Beck v. Elmore County Magistrate Court, … Continue reading
NY2: Date typo in drug field test report after search wasn’t material
Defendant’s motion to suppress was properly denied by the trial court. Defendant’s reliance on when a field test of the product of the search showed only a typographical error as to the date it was done and doesn’t undermine the … Continue reading
CA3: GFE saved CP search district court found lacked PC
Officers obtained a search warrant for defendant possessing child pornography based on his interest in unclothed children and taking pictures. The district court suppressed, but the good faith exception applies to save the search. The government appealed on both probable … Continue reading