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)
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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
M.D.Pa. Delay in searching cell phones wasn’t unreasonable because def was in jail out of possession anyway
The delay between seizing defendant’s cell phones and searching them wasn’t unreasonable considering he was in jail and would have had no access to them anyway. United States v. Carey, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1150 (M.D. Pa. Jan. 6, 2020). … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Attacking only GFE when court found both PC and GFE states no 2255 claim
The district court before conviction held that the search warrant was based on probable cause and the good faith exception would apply. In his 2255, defendant argues that defense counsel was ineffective for not better arguing the good faith exception. … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Dog sniff of car left parked on street was reasonable
The police used a dog to sniff around a car parked on the street that they believed belonged to defendant but defendant disavowed. No search warrant was needed. United States v. Davis, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 219490 (E.D. Tenn. Dec. … Continue reading
CA8: Def was subjected to two patdowns, and both were reasonable and with separate RS
The arresting officer had probable cause to stop the vehicle in which defendant was riding based on the officer’s credible testimony that he believed the vehicle was speeding and that he had observed two possible traffic violations with the vehicle’s … Continue reading
D.Me.: DEA affidavit for SW for dealing MJ doesn’t need to exclude state MMJ purposes
The affidavit for search warrant said that multiple informants saw drugs being kept and dealt from defendant’s house and that there was a big safe in there. That’s probable cause. Omission of the possibility defendant was engaged in possession of … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: The fact it was ambiguous whether def’s images were CP or not doesn’t nullify PC for the search
It was ambiguous whether the images that officers believed were on defendant’s computer qualified as child pornography, but the question for probable cause is reason to believe and not sufficient evidence to convict. Even so, the good faith exception applies. … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: [For the 10,000th time,] the standard of review of PC is whether there is a “substantial basis” for finding PC, not whether there actually is
“‘[T]he task of a reviewing court is not to conduct a de novo determination of probable cause, but only to determine whether there is substantial evidence in the record supporting the magistrate judge’s decision to issue the warrant.’ United States … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Stopping the wrong guy wasn’t unreasonable; there was still probable cause
Stopping the wrong guy wasn’t unreasonable here. “The Court finds that the officers reasonably mistook Defendant for Mr. Pacheco. Defendant not only matched Mr. Pacheco’s description, but the officers also witnessed Defendant leaving an apartment Mr. Pacheco was known to … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: A mere general statement in motion to suppress SW lacks PC doesn’t preserve the issue
Defendant’s general argument that probable cause was lacking for the search warrant in this case was inadequate to preserve the issue. Even considering the merits, there was probable cause. United States v. Dolson, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 216913 (W.D. N.Y. … Continue reading
D.Md.: Even with MJ decrim, smell of MJ from a vehicle is still PC by statute and state case law
According to the state courts and statute, the smell of marijuana from a van was still probable cause in Maryland despite decriminalization. The search of the vehicle and a backpack within was thus lawful. United States v. Palacio, 2019 U.S. … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Officer who knew def’s LPN was expired didn’t have to look again before calling it in the next time he saw the car
The officer knew a week earlier that defendant’s LPN was expired. He saw defendant and called it in without looking, and it came back expired. That was still probable cause and justification for a stop, and looking again wasn’t required. … Continue reading
CA9: There was PC for the warrant for the premises, and officers were not unreasonable in continuing the search for an hour when they learned their target didn’t live there
Officers got a search warrant for a mobile home, and found out when they executed it that their target didn’t live there. The search warrant was based on informant hearsay that was reliable enough for the search warrant to issue. … Continue reading
CA11: The lack of even arguable PC for ptf’s arrest denies the officer QI
This is a Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim. “The district court, upon a close analysis of the elements of the crimes alleged, determined that the facts proffered by Detective Brashears are insufficient to establish probable cause, or even arguable probable … Continue reading
LA4: Def’s entering and leaving a drug house wasn’t RS on its own
“Turning to the facts of this case, we also find the officer’s observation of defendant entering and exiting a residence that was reasonably suspected as being used for narcotics transactions to be insufficient to support a reasonable suspicion of participation … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Govt doesn’t show PC to connect defs to weapons to force DNA swabs
“A federal grand jury indicted Corry Blue Evans and various members of his family on multiple offenses including extortion, money laundering, and bank fraud. Pending before the Court is the government’s motion for an order to compel Corry Blue Evans … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Using Western Union for money transfer creates no REP in WU’s records
Western Union’s production of money transfer records was a classic third-party record situation where there was no reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Escobedo, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208067 (D. Mont. Dec. 2, 2019). Defendant’s inconsistent story about whether … Continue reading
OH5: Officer doesn’t need to be able to quote a statute in court to issue a ticket for violation of it
Even if the officer had an ulterior motive for defendant’s stop, it was based on probable cause of a traffic offense. The fact the officer couldn’t quote the statute in court doesn’t show that the stop was unreasonable or without … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: SW for CP here lacked all PC, and GFE doesn’t apply
Defendant was believed by the police to have been involved in sexual abuse of children, and he had strange eBay purchases and messages for used childrens’ underwear and pictures of children wearing them. The search warrant ultimately issued was for … Continue reading
OR: Officer had subjective PC, but it wasn’t objectively reasonable on totality; suspicious, yes, PC, no
The officer subjectively had probable cause to believe defendant was in possession of drugs, but it was not objectively reasonable on the totality. “Applying those standards here, we conclude that, even when viewed through the lens of Haugen’s training and … Continue reading