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: GFE applies even if no PC, which was “hotly contested”
The good faith exception supports this search warrant, even if there wasn’t probable cause after a trash pull, an issue not decided. The existence of probable cause was “hotly contested.” United States v. Morales, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 3260 (11th … Continue reading
CA6: SW for CP was completely lacking and GFE didn’t apply; no basis at all to search cell phone
A state search warrant was issued for alleged child porn on defendant’s computer and cell phone, and the district court suppressed for a clear lack of probable cause. The computer search required too many inferences to make probable cause. The … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: This trash pull didn’t produce direct drug evidence or corroborate CI, so PC lacking
“The evidence supporting probable cause in this case, assuming its accuracy and reliability, consists of (a) an unspecified “high” number of people visiting for very short periods during an unspecified time frame and (b) trash containing five plastic bags with … Continue reading
OR: Outstanding warrant on passenger alone doesn’t justify frisk of driver
The fact the passenger had an outstanding warrant didn’t show reasonable suspicion for a frisk of the driver for officer safety. State v. Goguen, 308 Ore. App. 706, 2021 Ore. App. LEXIS 75 (Jan. 27, 2021).* “We agree with the … Continue reading
CA8: Officer wins two § 1983 cases in same day from E.D. Mo., Cape Girardeau
The officer had cause for defendant’s stop for a broken taillight and then found a warrant for his arrest. “Wood also alleges that after the fact, Wooten fabricated evidence about the arrest (and then invoked his Fifth Amendment right about … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: PC a close call, so GFE applies
“Ultimately, the Court need not decide which side of the Ramirez-Merriweather line [of probable cause] this case falls. It suffices to say that, especially because the search warrant affidavit makes no mention of any communications involving Jackson’s cell phone, it … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: SW affiants should err on side of more information, not less
“[T]he warrant affidavit established probable cause to search the Residence, based on a combination of the smell of marijuana emanating from the Residence and the marijuana stem recovered in the trash pull. The affidavit reveals that three different MNPD officers … Continue reading
CA4: Not every fact an affiant knows needs to go in a SW affidavit for Franks
The omission of some facts didn’t make out a Franks violation. Affiants for search warrants are not required to itemize every fact they know and omission of some, the nonmaterial, doesn’t make out a Franks violation nor undermine the probable … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Seeking “four corners review” of affidavit for SW isn’t a proper motion to suppress
A generalized motion to suppress merely seeking “four corners review” of probable cause is insufficient. “Defendant’s failure to specify the basis for his suppression motion and provide any argument in support thereof warrants denial alone.” “Defendant’s motion also fails because … Continue reading
CA4: When lower court decides both PC and GFE, on appeal either one can be decided
When the district court decides both probable cause for issuance of the warrant and the good faith exception applies, the court of appeals need only decide one; here good faith. “Because our review of the record demonstrates that the affidavit … Continue reading
A.F.: Particularity and avoiding general warrants in electronic searches
“In charting how to apply the Fourth Amendment to searches of electronic devices, we glean from our reading of the case law a zone in which such searches are expansive enough to allow investigators access to places where incriminating materials … Continue reading
D.Md.: Despite recreational MJ use in state, smell of MJ before that was PC
At the time of the encounter with the Maryland police, the smell of marijuana on the person was probable cause. That changed later, but the search of the person was valid when it happened. Moreover, possession of marijuana is still … Continue reading
CA6: PC for ptf’s arrest and prosecution defeats malicious prosecution claim, despite his acquittal
“This is one of those cases. A witness told Detective Keith Roberts that her former boyfriend, Eugene Baker, and one of Baker’s friends whom she knew as ‘Desean’ had robbed and murdered a competing drug dealer. After this witness identified … Continue reading
MO: Computer check showing LPN expired was RS despite apparent valid sticker
There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop based on a computer check of his LPN which showed it had expired. The sticker, however, showed it was current. The officer could make the stop to check whether it was counterfeit, something … Continue reading
CA11: Standing required for 41(g) motion for return of property
The district court did not abuse its discretion in declining equitable jurisdiction under Rule 41(g) for lack of a threshold showing of standing and justiciability. United States v. Stoune, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 1178 (11th Cir. Jan. 15, 2021). The … Continue reading
CA10: 4A imposes no duty for officer to seek out a video to confirm PC officer already has
Before an officer files a criminal complaint, there is no constitutional duty to review potential video of the occurrence. The video here wasn’t quickly accessible to the officer. Here, there was probable cause and this other constitutional claim is not … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Running wants or warrants on a sex offender involved in a stop didn’t violate 4A
Running wants or warrants on a sex offender involved in a stop didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. United States v. McCowan, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6500 (D. Nev. Jan. 13, 2021).* The affidavit for the search warrant shows probable cause. … Continue reading
CA8: Direction to stay in car during a traffic stop wasn’t a seizure
Direction to defendant to stay in his car during a stop was not a separate seizure. United States v. Warren, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 701 (8th Cir. Jan. 12, 2021). There was probable cause for defendant’s arrest. Officers bought drugs … Continue reading
OR: With recreational marijuana, the smell alone isn’t RS or PC
Because possession of recreational marijuana is legal in Oregon, the smell alone is not reasonable suspicion. Here, however, there was reasonable suspicion based on additional facts of attempted concealment. State v. T.T. (In re T.T.), 308 Ore. App. 408 (Jan. … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Littering from a livery cab justified stop and search of the cab
A littering offense from a livery cab in NYC justified a stop of the cab and entering it for further evidence of the crime. That resulted in a plain view. United States v. Abreu, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1945 (S.D. … Continue reading