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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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
OH2: Drugs represented to be heroin in a controlled buy don’t have to be field tested to show PC
Failure to field test the purported drugs bought during a controlled buy doesn’t undermine the probable cause alleged in the search warrant. “Here, the fact that Glynn represented to the CS that the substance being purchased was heroin warranted suspicion … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: “probable cause does not require the best conceivable evidence”
“In defendant’s case, he was arrested for a violation of § 4.23(a)(1), permitting a BAC test as a search incident to arrest under Birchfield. Although there is a distinction between the concentration of alcohol in the blood and the degree … Continue reading
OH1: Smell of burnt MJ with nothing more doesn’t justify search of trunk
Smell of burning marijuana with no accouterments of drug usage or delivery didn’t justify a search of the trunk. There was no smell of raw marijuana. State v. Ulmer, 2020-Ohio-4689, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 3582 (1st Dist. Sept. 30, 2020):
S.D.Fla.: Arresting ptf for giving officer the finger after denial of access to city council meeting lacked arguable PC
Officer didn’t have arguable probable cause for arresting plaintiff outside a city council meeting plaintiff had been ordered out of when plaintiff gave the officer the finger. Qualified immunity denied based on the allegations of the complaint. McDonough v. Mata, … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine doesn’t apply in § 1983 cases in CA2
The fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine doesn’t apply in § 1983 cases in the Second Circuit. Therefore, illegally seized evidence can be considered for probable cause to arrest. Smith v. Degirolamo, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176310 (E.D. N.Y. Sept. … Continue reading
PA addresses smell of MJ in a new MMJ state: it’s a factor in RS, and not determinative of RS or PC
Under the Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Act, the smell of marijuana is only a factor in reasonable suspicion for a detention or probable cause for a search since many Pennsylvanians can now legally possess. There is no per se rule. Presentation … Continue reading
IA: All exculpatory evidence doesn’t have to be presented to issuing magistrate under Franks
“Case failed to make a preliminary showing to warrant a Franks hearing. See Baker, 925 N.W.2d at 615 (‘[A]n officer applying for a search warrant is not required to present all inculpatory and exculpatory evidence to the magistrate, only that … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Def’s “Twitter page is rife with references to drug dealing and weapon possession” and that was PC
Defendant’s “Twitter page is rife with references to drug dealing and weapon possession. Lewis’ prior relationship with Doaty, coupled with Doaty’s own statements, corroborated her information and made it sufficiently reliable to justify a search of his vehicle.” It was … Continue reading
CA8: Def’s pickup truck was involved in a shooting, and the officers developed PC that evidence would be in it or his house where it was parked
Surveillance video at the scene gave probable cause to believe that defendant’s pickup truck was involved in a shooting, and other physical evidence of the shooting hadn’t yet been found. “The address for Flournoy and Davis was a different unit … Continue reading
MA: SnapChat video of def with a firearm two days before SW was PC
A SnapChat video of defendant with a gun two days earlier was probable cause for a search warrant. Commonwealth v. Watkins, 2020 Mass. App. LEXIS 139 (Sept. 16, 2020). “Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint asserts a Fourth Amendment claim for unreasonable search … Continue reading
AL: IAC claim not stated for not challenging failure to deliver copy of SW to def
Defendant didn’t adequately plead an ineffective assistance of counsel claim for defense counsel not arguing that defendant wasn’t given a copy of the search warrant at the time of the search so he could challenge the search. Smith v. State, … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Nexus shown between Facebook account and offense, despite 19 paragraphs of boilerplate
The government showed nexus between defendant’s Facebook account and the crime under investigation to justify the warrant, despite 19 paragraphs of boilerplate. United States v. Mize, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166759 (S.D. Ohio Sept. 11, 2020):
CA9: Gerstein applies to immigration arrests
Gerstein applies to immigration arrests in this class action. Plaintiff was a U.S. citizen detained by ICE. Gonzalez v. U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 28827 (9th Cir. Sept. 11, 2020). There was probable cause for a … Continue reading
Cal.2d: New crime during alleged illegal detention won’t be suppressed
Defendant’s new crime during alleged illegal detention will not be suppressed. Here, he doesn’t even plead enough to get a hearing. People v. Chavez, 2020 Cal. App. LEXIS 858 (2d Dist. Sept. 10, 2020). There was a substantial basis for … Continue reading
CA10: Ptf didn’t have to show officer his ID and that wasn’t PC for arrest
“Mglej’s refusal to provide Deputy Gardner with his driver’s license or some other form of identification, then, as Deputy Gardner demanded, did not create probable cause to arrest Mglej under Utah Code § 76-8-301.5(1). Thus, sufficient to defeat summary judgment, … Continue reading
CA7: Civil claim for false arrest or detention on fabricated evidence is 4A claim
“A claim for false arrest or pretrial detention based on fabricated evidence sounds in the Fourth Amendment right to be free from seizure without probable cause.” Patrick v. City of Chicago, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 28380 (7th Cir. Sept. 8, … Continue reading
CA2: Arguable PC to arrest makes it valid
“Because the defendants had at least arguable probable cause to arrest Barnes for an open container violation, the search was also lawful. A search incident to arrest is lawful where the officer reasonably believed he had probable cause, regardless of … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Govt’s justification for protective sweep or exigency based entry were speculative so motion to suppress granted
The government contention a protective sweep or exigent circumstances justified the entry was speculative and lacked foundation. Motion to suppress granted. United States v. Lara-Mejia, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 156946 (M.D. Pa. Aug. 28, 2020). The automobile exception doesn’t apply … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: Govt’s affidavits knock-and-announce would be unsafe were unrebutted
Defendant pled in his motion to suppress there was a knock-and-announce violation, and the government responded with affidavits that knocking would be unsafe. Unrebutted, that’s enough to deny a hearing. United States v. Moore, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155454 (S.D. … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Articulable suspicion not needed to run a license plate
Articulable suspicion not needed to run a license plate. United States v. Thompson, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 154156 (D. Mont. Aug. 24, 2020). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not moving to suppress alleged overseizure of a doctor’s patient records where … Continue reading