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
N.D.Ga.: No REP in a pole camera’s view in a public place
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy as to a pole camera on business property in a public area. United States v. Gbenedio, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83682 (N.D. Ga. Mar. 29, 2019). The alleged fact of a telephone call … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: PC is not “more likely than not”
Probable cause is not “more likely than not.” It was present here. “[A]s the Seventh Circuit has explained, ‘[p]robable cause * * * does not require evidence sufficient to support a conviction, nor even evidence demonstrating that it is more … Continue reading
PA: Smell of burnt marijuana during a traffic stop is not PC to search the trunk of the car
The smell of burnt marijuana during a traffic stop is not probable cause to search the trunk of the car. Commonwealth v. Scott, 2019 PA Super 154, 2019 Pa. Super. LEXIS 459 (May 10, 2019):
D.Minn.: No nexus whatsoever between offense and evidence sought and place to be searched; therefore, no GFE
There was no nexus shown at all between the affidavit for the search warrant between the evidence sought and the place to be searched. The good faith exception doesn’t rescue the search here because the affidavit is, in fact, so … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Def’s argument that cast PC for SW more as BRD “misapprehends the import and purpose of search warrants in two fundamental ways”
Defendant’s argument on lack of probable cause misses the mark because it’s cast in terms more like beyond a reasonable doubt of criminal activity and not merely probable cause. There was probable cause. United States v. Milliner, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: State’s MMJ law doesn’t create immunity from car search on PC
The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act does not create immunity from a search when an officer has probable cause to believe that a vehicle has marijuana in it. United States v. Hinds, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72379 (E.D. Mich. Apr. 30, … Continue reading
D.Colo.: MMJ facility subject to IRS summons for back taxes can’t show summons was unreasonable
Petitioner is a medical marijuana facility under investigation by the IRS for selling product in violation of state law and not paying the taxes on it. (This was for tax years pre-recreational sales.) The IRS showed that the summonses were … Continue reading
NY1: Def denied opportunity to participate in hearing for body samples required reversal
A suspect from whom body samples (like DNA) are being taken is entitled by due process to participate in the search warrant issuance process. Here, he wasn’t. Reversed. People v. Goldman, 2019 NY Slip Op 02976, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. … Continue reading
CA9: Call from jail to def’s cell phone advising him to have another flee was PC for phone
A jail phone call to defendant’s cell phone telling him to tell another to flee was probable cause for a search of the phone. United States v. Carter, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 10906 (9th Cir. Apr. 12, 2019).* Officers acted … Continue reading
ND: Trash search corroborated anonymous tip and provided PC
Acting on an anonymous tip that defendant had obtained a fair amount of marijuana and brought it back to town, police did a trash search and found significant corroborating evidence that he’d have marijuana in the house. The court distinguishes … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Omission of def’s acquittal in a somewhat related case before the SW was issued was a Franks violation, but adding it in still leads to PC
The affidavit for search warrant omitted that defendant had been tried and acquitted of incest shortly before. Recasting the affidavit to include that fact, however, still leads to probable cause. “The Court determines that probable cause remains even after the … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Yes, there were flaws in the warrant application, but it still showed PC on the totality
The search warrant permitted a search of things on the curtilage like a camper, vehicles, shed, and a garage all in close proximity to the house. The affidavit has its flaws, but it’s good enough on the totality to show … Continue reading
MO: No REP in third-party communications with Google and Craiglist
Defendant “fails to demonstrate that he had a legitimate expectation of privacy in the communications he voluntarily delivered to unknown third parties using Google and Craigslist.” State v. Demark, 2019 Mo. App. LEXIS 446 (Apr. 2, 2019). The search warrant … Continue reading
D.Md.: Recorded call about a murder was PC for search of phone for evidence of the call
A recorded telephone call with the defendant allegedly discussing a murder supported probable cause to search his cell phone for evidence of the call. United States v. Worthy, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 56275 (D. Md. Apr. 2, 2019). Defendant was … Continue reading
TX: Warrantless seizure of blood drawn at hospital for diagnostic purposes unreasonable
The trial court properly granted defendant’s motion to suppress challenging the State’s seizure and search of vials of his blood drawn at a hospital for medical purposes. The government’s testing constituted a warrantless search of his blood sample in violation … Continue reading
N.D.Fla.: 2254 doesn’t give jurisdiction over state law search and seizure claims
Defendant’s habeas claim that state law wasn’t followed in issuing a search warrant doesn’t state a 2254 claim. [Aside from Stone v. Powell, of course.] Roland v. Sec’y, Dept. of Correction, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40581 (N.D. Fla. Mar. 13, … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: An observation in the premises before SW was sought was excluded from consideration and PC still existed
A walk through of defendant’s premises before seeking a search warrant resulted in observation of digital scales and that observation got into the search warrant application. Excluding that still resulted in probable cause. United States v. Baker, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Citizen informants saw shooting, and video surveillance caught image of def’s car at the time, and that was PC for arrest
Citizen informants saw a shooting from a vehicle and area video surveillance caught an image of defendant’s car. Police looked, and he was convicted felon. There was thus probable cause for defendant’s arrest. United States v. Cotto, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading