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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"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
OH6: Smell of raw marijuana from house was PC
The officers’ smell of raw marijuana at a house was probable cause. This is different than the case of burnt marijuana not justifying a search of the trunk of a car. In an IAC claim, defendant didn’t plead any evidence … Continue reading
CA8: While § 922(g)(3) requires an “unlawful user” of drugs in possession of firearms, the question is only PC for seizure; statute is not vague
The government doesn’t need proof beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant was an “unlawful user” of controlled substance to seize firearms around drugs with probable cause. And that doesn’t make the § 922(g)(3) vague. United States v. Figueroa-Serrano, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
CA5: IP address accessing bank accounts for alleged fraud was PC as to that address
“Based on these facts, it was not unreasonable for law enforcement to believe there was probable cause that evidence of the scheme would be found at Traore’s residence nearly a year after the bank account was last accessed from his … Continue reading
Cal.3: In a recreational MJ state, more is required for a car search than just possession of some marijuana
Possession of a legal amount of recreational marijuana isn’t probable cause for search without more. “Therefore, pursuant to Lee, there must be additional evidence, beyond mere possession of a legal amount of marijuana, to support a reasonable belief the defendant … Continue reading
W.D.La.: Furtive conduct before getting in car justified stop of car
Defendant’s furtive activity before the stop observed on a parking lot and during the stop was reasonable suspicion. United States v. Pierre, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147127 (W.D. La. July 17, 2020).* Defendant admitted to there being drugs in the … Continue reading
Cal.: PC shown for SW for murder crime scene
The affidavit for the search warrant of a trailer and curtilage as a crime scene showed probable cause to believe evidence could be there. People v. Suarez, 2020 Cal. LEXIS 5355 (Aug. 13, 2020). Defendant’s appeal raised a substantial question … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: PC supports arrest even if officer cites wrong statute
It doesn’t matter that the officer didn’t cite the right offense as long as the facts of probable cause support any offense. United States v. Simmons, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 145562 (N.D. Ga. June 15, 2020):
N.D.Ill.: Reasonable reliance on apparent authority is good faith in itself
Reasonable reliance on apparent authority to consent is good faith. “And relying on consent in good faith is circular and redundant. Whether there is apparent authority to consent already addresses the officers’ good-faith belief in the consenters’ authority. Put differently, … Continue reading
CA7: “Extensive police corroboration” of CI’s story was PC
Defendant’s appellate argument the CI’s information wasn’t probable cause is rejected. “[T]he extensive police corroboration detailed in the affidavit strongly supports the issuing judge’s probable cause determination. … [¶] Next, on the second and third factors, Bonz had firsthand knowledge … Continue reading
Cal.3: Plain view of possession of more than a recreational amount of drugs was PC
Defendant’s detention was reasonable, and, during the stop, three large bags of marijuana were seen on the floor of the car. Possession of under an ounce is legal, but this was more than an ounce, so continuing the detention for … Continue reading
AK: Omission was maybe reckless but PC on the remainder
The officer’s omission of the CI’s criminal charges from the affidavit for the search warrant was reckless at worst, but the totality of the affidavit showed the CI’s potential motives for providing information. Moreover, there was probable cause even without … Continue reading
CA3: Suspended DL arrest was valid despite fact it was later dismissed in state court
Defendant’s arrest for driving on a suspended license was valid and with probable cause despite the fact he later got the charge dismissed. Bahgat v. Twp. of E. Brunswick, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 24326 (3d Cir. Aug. 3, 2020). Officers … Continue reading
CA11: A cell phone with 2kg of heroin and cash is PC for the phone
“[L]aw enforcement officers had probable cause to obtain a warrant to search the cell phone because it was found in a truck with two kilograms of heroin and $24,000 of loose currency during the investigation into the heroin-distribution conspiracy.” CoA … Continue reading
CA10: Factual basis for trial for unreasonable use of deadly force in shooting at a fleeing car
There was a factual basis for trial that it was apparent the use of deadly force here was unreasonable and unnecessary in shooting at a fleeing car. Reavis v. Frost, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 23731 (10th Cir. July 28, 2020).* … Continue reading
FL3: PC for arrest isn’t governed by substantive law of constructive possession
The standard for probable cause is not high, and it isn’t even a preponderance of the evidence. Thus, the substantive law of constructive possession on who is where in relation to the evidence seized doesn’t govern arrest. J.J. v. State, … Continue reading
CA7: Smell of burnt MJ along with def’s reaction when asked was PC
“Because the totality of the circumstances, including the smell of burnt marijuana and Kizart’s reaction and behavior when Russell asked Kizart about the trunk, provided probable cause to search his car’s trunk, we Affirm the denial of the motion to … Continue reading
MD: With decriminalization of MJ, smell alone is not PC
The decriminalization of marijuana in Maryland, the odor of marijuana, without more, is not probable cause. Smell alone doesn’t tell the quantity. Lewis v. State, 2020 Md. LEXIS 348 (July 27, 2020):
CA6: Tasering resisting suspect is reasonable
Tasering a resisting suspect is reasonable, and the video shows it. Siders v. City of Eastpointe, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 23454 (6th Cir. July 24, 2020).* The controlled buy off defendant was clearly probable cause for the search warrant, so … Continue reading
CAAF: Devolution of M.R.E. 311(a) authority is a functional test; Lt.Col. overseas, and Maj. in charge of everything else
Devolution of authority from a commanding officer at a military installation from one to the Executive Officer during a six month deployment is governed by a functional analysis under M.R.E. 311(a). Here, the Major had authority in the absence of … Continue reading