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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Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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State courts (and some USDC opinions)
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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General (many free):
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F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
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
Privacy Foundation
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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
CA10: A drug dog “alert, as opposed to a final indication, is sufficient to establish probable cause.”
The district court credited the dog handler that the dog alerted. “To the extent that Goldberg brings a legal challenge, this court has held that an alert, as opposed to a final indication, is sufficient to establish probable cause.” United … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Anonymous 911 call was corroborated enough for Navarette
The anonymous 911 call about flashing a gun at children satisfied Navarette. The officer was a mile from the place mentioned in the report and arrived shortly thereafter and saw the person the call reported. While the 911 caller could … Continue reading
CA6: Def doesn’t show arrest was delayed to facilitate better protective sweep
The protective sweep finding defendant’s guns on execution of his arrest warrant was reasonable. Defendant does not show that the officers intentionally delayed his arrest with the purpose of exploiting a protective sweep. United States v. Cammon, 2021 U.S. App. … Continue reading
CA7: Claim of lack of PC for arrest not insulated from later review by a judicial finding of PC for trial
Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claim they were arrested without probable cause survives the state trial court finding enough to hold them for trial. “The Supreme Court held that a Fourth Amendment theory based on lack of probable cause survives a judicial … Continue reading
GA: 4A claim had to be raised at agency hearing level to preserve for appeal
Failure to object on Fourth Amendment grounds at the agency level before the zoning board in a zoning administrative case was waiver for appeal. Forsyth County v. Mommies Props. LLC, 2021 Ga. App. LEXIS 145 (Mar. 11, 2021). “The first … Continue reading
CA6: No suppression remedy for no-knock violation
The remedy for a no-knock violation is not suppression of the evidence—it’s a § 1983 action for violating the Fourth Amendment. Moreover, “An issuing judge need not eliminate every alternative explanation to find a ‘fair probability’ that contraband will be … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Tent in an open field might have had REP, but it was open to view inside and plain view applied
Assuming defendant’s tent in an “open field” area had a reasonable expectation of privacy (as the Ninth Circuit would hold), the tent was open and the officer could see in. There was no curtilage to the tent in an open … Continue reading
OH1: Order to get out of car doesn’t unreasonably extend a traffic stop
An officer’s order to get out of the car during a traffic stop does not expand the stop, and it is reasonable. Agreeing in the trial court that the stop was valid bars litigating it on appeal. State v. Jackson, … Continue reading
CA2: Three judges approved of these SWs, there was PC and GF
“Here, the state judge who issued the warrant interviewed the cooperating witness in camera. Two federal judges reviewed the state judge’s notes and also found probable cause for the issuance of the warrant. Hence, three judges independently found there was … Continue reading
CA1: SWs are directed at places, too, and def didn’t need to be connected in the affidavit
Defendant made a Franks challenge. Removing the allegedly offending material still left probable cause. Defendant’s argument then was that the remainder still didn’t point to him, but that’s not the law: Search warrants are directed at places, too, not just … Continue reading
PA: With MMJ, smell of MJ alone isn’t PC for search of a car; more required
Because of medical marijuana being law in Pennsylvania, the smell of marijuana in a car alone is no longer enough for probable cause. More is required. Commonwealth v. Grooms, 2021 Pa. Super. LEXIS 79 (Feb. 24, 2021):
GA: Contraband in plain view on def’s property didn’t justify warrantless entry to seize it
Officers’ entry onto abandoned property next door to defendant’s place to get a better view of his place was reasonable. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy there or in the view from there. However, they saw contraband in plain … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: No co-conspirator standing in GPS cell phone tracking
One co-conspirator has no standing in GPS tracking of his co-conspirator’s cell phone. The officers also had probable cause to search their car based on: knowledge they were cell phone store burglars, a Snapchat video with defendants having numerous cell … Continue reading
HI: No PC shown for blood search warrant; no alcohol smell and disorientation was likely from head trauma
The state did not attempt to exhaust any possibilities that defendant’s disorientation wasn’t caused by likely head trauma because there was no probable cause otherwise that defendant had consumed alcohol. The search warrant for blood should not have issued. State … Continue reading
OK Indian territory, McGirt v. Oklahoma, and the GFE
For a century, state officers investigated offenses on land that McGirt v. Oklahoma found were actually Indian lands. The good faith exception applies. The officer couldn’t have been expected to know that SCOTUS would finally hold as it did, and … Continue reading
CA3: Warrant for roving wiretap didn’t have to call device a “cell site simulator” when it fully described it
The government obtained a roving wiretap for defendant’s cell phone with a cell site simulator. In the warrant application, they described in detail what a cell site simulator was, but it never said the words “cell site simulator.” It doesn’t … Continue reading
CA10: Failure to specify CI’s criminal history didn’t make affidavit “bare bones” or justify a Franks hearing
Defendant was suspected of thefts of equipment from oil fields. An Oklahoma state investigator applied for a GPS warrant for defendant’s vehicle. The warrant was issued on probable cause with nexus, and the good faith exception applies. “Smith argues on … Continue reading
CA3: Failure to factually plead lack of PC or malice for a 4A malicious prosecution claim makes it fail
Karkalas v. Marks, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 3868 (3d Cir. Feb. 11, 2021):
D.N.M.: Tracing IP address to def does not require affiant exclude all other Internet users in area
Defendant was charged with stalking a former boss. A disguised email was traced by metadata to defendant’s router. His computer was searched, and the email was found. The question of probable cause for the search warrant does not require the … Continue reading