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
OH5: PC is determined on the totality, not each isolated fact
Defendant’s challenge to probable cause for the search warrant isolates each fact. Applying the totality of circumstances, there is probable cause. State v. Beightler, 2019-Ohio-2946, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 3037 (5th Dist. July 18, 2019).* Defendant doesn’t meet the Franks … Continue reading
Cal.1: Application of community caretaking function doesn’t require police to know who is inside; just that somebody reasonably might be
The community caretaking function was satisfied here: “Although in the present case the officers were not aware of a specific, known individual who might be in danger or might pose an imminent threat to others, as in some of these … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: No evidence defendant “is a collector of child pornography,” so no PC; remanded for factual determination of GFE
The government did not show probable cause to believe that child pornography was on defendant’s electronic devices. The officer’s experience is one thing, but no facts suggest that defendant “is a collector of child pornography.” The record is inadequate to … Continue reading
MA: PC was shown for cell phone search on admission there were timely videos that could help explain
There was probable cause for a search warrant for photos and videos on defendant’s cell phone in a home invasion case based on all the evidence in the case to that point and, pointedly, admission there were videos on the … Continue reading
CA6: When PC is shown for the SW, what’s not there really doesn’t matter
There was probable cause on the totality for this search warrant. Defendant’s attack on what’s not there doesn’t help him. United States v. Jones, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 20851 (6th Cir. July 15, 2019). There was a factual basis for … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Trash pull alone isn’t enough for PC, but here there was more
A trash pull alone should not be enough for probable cause to search a house. Here, there was more of complaints of neighbors of people coming and going at all hours. “Investigators confirmed this complaint during their own surveillance of … Continue reading
D.R.I.: CSLI warrant lacked PC and GFE not applied
In what may be a first, the District of Rhode Island suppresses both CSLI and an apartment search warrant for lack of probable cause and then declines to apply the good faith exception. United States v. Ramos, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
W.D.Ark.: Speaking Spanish isn’t even a factor in RS or PC for a vehicle search
The fact the driver of a car spoke Spanish was not reasonable suspicion or probable cause because at least 10% of the U.S. population speaks Spanish. The search of the car was without probable cause, and the exclusionary would be … Continue reading
CO: Officer’s statement there was PC for a SW was irrelevant at trial
Whether there was probable cause for a search warrant is irrelevant at trial and should not be admitted. This was a part of defendant’s cumulative error argument. Howard-Walker v. People, 2019 CO 69, 2019 Colo. LEXIS 573 (July 1, 2019). … Continue reading
PA: Scope of search argument not preserved below
The scope of search authorized under the warrant wasn’t preserved below, so it’s waived for appeal. Commonwealth v. Handley, 2019 PA Super 201, 2019 Pa. Super. LEXIS 638 (June 28, 2019). The affidavit for search warrant was not “bare bones” … Continue reading
LA2: State law at time required PO be present at search, and he wasn’t; suppressed
Defendant’s probation officer wasn’t present for his probation search, and that was required at the time by state law (since changed but prospectively). Still, that voided his probation search. State v. Carter, 2019 La. App. LEXIS 1152 (La. App. 2 … Continue reading
CA7: Drug stakeout led to stumbling upon CP in plain view
Officers were in a park looking for a drug meet up. They incidentally noticed defendant’s car and his actions suggested he might be doing drugs. They approached him and smelled marijuana coming from the car, but he was in the … Continue reading
C.D.Ill.: Def’s name and address aren’t constitutionally required to be in the SW
Defendant’s 2255 claim that his name and address weren’t in the search warrant doesn’t state any ground for relief because neither is constitutionally required. Lopez v. United States, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105807 (C.D. Ill. June 25, 2019). The affidavit … Continue reading
GA: Def was properly allowed at trial to cross-examine searching officer about contents of affidavit despite the affidavit not coming into evidence
Defendant was allowed to cross-examine the investigator concerning the contents of the search warrant application to impeach. The trial court’s not permitting the actual affidavit into evidence wasn’t prejudicial. Hawkins v. State, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 377 (June 24, 2019). … Continue reading
OH4: In applying GFE, court isn’t bound by the “four corners” rule because Leon requires “all the circumstances” be considered
The affidavit for search warrant was lacking probable cause, but it wasn’t “so lacking” that the good faith exception did not apply. Also, the “four corners” rule doesn’t bar a trial court from considering “all the circumstances” in deciding whether … Continue reading
D.Minn.: A court order doesn’t have to be called a “search warrant” to be one; CSLI order issued with PC
The CSLI order in this case was based on probable cause. It didn’t say “search warrant,” but it doesn’t have to to be one. In any event, the good faith exception was satisfied. United States v. Stachowiak, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
MA: SW in ongoing criminal enterprise was based on “powerful evidence”
“A Superior Court judge erred in granting a criminal defendant’s pretrial motion to suppress evidence seized by police from the defendant’s home and place of business, where the affidavit in support of the search warrants contained sufficient information to justify … Continue reading
D.N.M.: When PC is based on an IP address, any computer or cell phone on the premises can be the subject of the SW
Any computer or cell phone on the premises can reasonably be believed to have connected to the internet. “Nevertheless, Ms. Laurezo does not cite to any authority that requires a search warrant based on an IP address being used to … Continue reading