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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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)
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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
Law360: ‘Good Faith’: Breonna Taylor And The Broad Search Standard
Law360: ‘Good Faith’: Breonna Taylor And The Broad Search Standard by Cara Bayles
W.D.Ark.: Stop for following too close was without PC when truck pulled in front of car and officer didn’t give time for def to widen the gap
Defendant’s stop for following too close was without probable cause and unreasonable because a truck pulled in front of him, and the officer didn’t give him time to back off before the stop occurred. United States v. Grant, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Mere desire to cross-examine about the drug dog’s bona fides isn’t a Franks issue
Merely wanting to cross-examine about the reliability of the drug dog isn’t a Franks challenge. There still has to be a “substantial preliminary showing” of a falsity, and desire to cross-examine isn’t it. United States v. Robinson, 2020 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
NC: Pocket knife on car console not RS to search
Pocket knife on the console of a defendant’s car was not reasonable suspicion to search his person. State v. Duncan, 2020 N.C. App. LEXIS 525 (July 7, 2020). Where initial stop was valid, smell of marijuana and defendant’s furtive movements … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: If handcuffing on RS to maintain status quo wasn’t reasonable, it doesn’t make the vehicle search unreasonable
“[W]hile waiting for the drug dog to arrive, Morphis placed Gibbs in handcuffs. It’s not clear from this record that that was justified. … But Morphis had reasonable suspicion to extend the stop to wait for the drug dog; and … Continue reading
OR: Warrantless seizure of house wasn’t shown to taint SW for house
Defendant’s house was seized to get a search warrant. Defendant does not show that the search warrant was tainted by the warrantless seizure. State v. Dehong, 305 Ore. App. 325, 2020 Ore. App. LEXIS 844 (July 8, 2020).* “Here, considering … Continue reading
MA: When seizing digital devices under SW, looking at camera pictures didn’t require exclusion where not mentioned in SW for camera
During a search of defendant’s house under a warrant that included seizing digital devices, the officer turned on a camera and scrolled through the pictures. When the warrant was sought for the camera, no mention was made, and inevitable discovery … Continue reading
NM: Stop for mere curiosity to run name was unreasonable stop under Strieff
Stopping defendant for mere curiosity to get his name and then run warrants was an unreasonable stop. When a warrant came up, it wasn’t attenuated under Strieff. “Here, Officer Hernandez testified that it was his practice when working the night … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Collective knowledge applies to traffic stops
The collective knowledge doctrine applies to traffic stops. United States v. Murray, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111040 (S.D. Ohio June 24, 2020). “Applying this [deferential] standard of review to the warrant application, the Court has reviewed the application and finds … Continue reading
Cal.1: Despite the pandemic, arrestees are entitled to a prompt judicial determination of PC
Despite the pandemic and court closures, arrestees are entitled to a prompt judicial determination of probable cause under Gerstein. Bullock v. Superior Court, 2020 Cal. App. LEXIS 575 (1st Dist. June 24, 2020). During a search of defendant’s house under … Continue reading
CA10: Flight from a stop permitted officer to chase def onto his property without a SW
“Officer Estrada’s reasonable suspicion ripened into probable cause when Shelton attempted to flee, thus giving rise to the exigent circumstances necessary for Officer Estrada to pursue Shelton onto the property without a warrant.” United States v. Shelton, 2020 U.S. App. … Continue reading
D.Colo.: Resisting a stop without RS is PC
Even if the stop was without reasonable suspicion, defendant’s resisting the officer was a separate crime that justifies with probable cause. United States v. Kazadi, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109060 (D. Colo. June 22, 2020). Defendant’s stop on a country … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Drug dog’s reliability doesn’t need to be shown in SW application
A search warrant application does not have to support the reliability of a drug dog used to establish the probable cause under Harris. The remedy is a motion to suppress. “As this Court reads it, Harris is a reiteration of … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Lack of officer reports of facts for PC to arrest goes only to their credibility, but they still were
There was ample probable cause for defendants’ arrest and stopping their car to do it despite the lack of reports. That goes to credibility, and the court finds it wanting. United States v. Davis, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105973 (D. … Continue reading
Cal.3: Odor coming from a car and a baggie of MJ isn’t PC of a crime in a recreational MJ state
Because of legalization of recreational marijuana in California: “In summary, the facts in this case comprised of a parked car missing a registration tag and having an expired registration, the odor of marijuana emanating from the car, the observation of … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Def’s efforts to cast innocent explanation to the facts articulated by the officer don’t undermine PC
While it is certainly possible the officer likely had a subjective intent to search, “‘[s]ubjective intentions play no role in ordinary, probable-cause Fourth Amendment analysis.’ Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 813 (1996). A showing that a police officer … Continue reading
CA2: Even if SW was issued without PC, GFE clearly applies
“Brennerman challenges the lawfulness of the search warrant of his Las Vegas apartment. Even assuming, for the sake of argument only, that the search warrant was unlawful, we conclude that the good faith exception to the Fourth Amendment’s exclusionary rule … Continue reading
TN: Issue of issuing magistrate’s jurisdiction moot by automobile exception
Defendant’s dispute over whether the judge issuing the search warrant had jurisdiction over the vehicle from which DNA was taken because it was located in a different county is moot. The officers had probable cause in investigating a bloody homicide, … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Affidavit was conclusory as to drugs at drug dealer’s home [but it’s easy to fix next time]
The affidavit for search warrant failed to show nexus between defendant’s alleged drug dealing a month earlier and his residence. “The only information included in the affidavit to support this conclusory belief is the fact that Defendant, who happens to … Continue reading