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
IN: Long term missing person report and house in disarray justified emergency entry
A missing person report which included no birthday call for the only time in the person’s life with a house in disarray here justified a warrantless entry into the house to see what was going on. The entry was valid … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: PC shown for records of the last number a murder victim called
Defendant’s cell phone number being the last number a murder victim called was at least a minimally sufficient basis for a search warrant for cell phone records to see who it was. It was also at least supported by the … Continue reading
IN: Advice of Pirtle rights before search of safe under SW not required
Because officers did not ask defendant for the combination to his safe to search it under a warrant, he was not required to have the Indiana Pirtle advisement before they searched it. Brown v. State, 2019 Ind. App. LEXIS 14 … Continue reading
CA6: Carpenter decided after notice of appeal didn’t apply to defendant
CSLI was admitted at trial without objection. Carpenter was decided after the notice of appeal. On plain error review, there is no error because the CSLI was lawfully obtained at the time and the good faith exception applies. United States … Continue reading
CA1: MNT on newly discovered evidence search might be unreasonable needs to show that it would have changed outcome
Defendant filed a motion for new trial after his appeal based on a Giglio claim that certain information, which he is found to merely speculate about, would show that an illegal search occurred before he was indicted. His argument fails … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: Def’s warrantless arrest in a casino by tribal officers was without PC; warrantless search of his car in parking lot suppressed
Tribal officers at a casino near El Paso watched on surveillance video defendant touch a rifle in his car but not pull it out when he was being harassed on the parking lot. They had reasonable suspicion to encounter him … Continue reading
D.S.C.: CI not sufficiently corroborated for PC for a vehicle search
Defendant was stopped for an alleged window tint violation, but the officer also relied on information from a CI from days before the stop that he thought was probable cause. The government had a dog sniff during the stop, but … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: The affidavit for a search warrant does not need to allege a specific statute was violated
The affidavit for a search warrant does not need to allege a specific statute was violated as long as the issuing magistrate can conclude that a criminal offense likely occurred. The facts alleged determine the scope of search. United States … Continue reading
OR: Using cell phone while driving is PC for a stop
Pushing buttons on a cell phone while driving was probable cause for a stop. State v. Pham, 295 Ore. App. 322, 2018 Ore. App. LEXIS 1572 (Dec. 14, 2018).* Defendant questions a representation of the officer in the probable cause … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Coded language on wiretap supported issuance of SW for house; inference of drug dealing was apparent
Evidence from the wiretap in coded language strongly supported the inference that defendant had drugs in his house. United States v. Flynn, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209546 (D.Mass. Dec. 12, 2018).* Defendant was outside of his car walking away when … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: 4 month delay in producing evidence from iPod doesn’t warrant dismissal
The fact something was extracted from defendant’s iPod in April but not turned over to the defense until August isn’t a ground to dismiss. United States v. Taylor, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206364 (W.D. Wash. Dec. 7, 2018). There was … Continue reading
MA: Def’s clothes can be seized and searched for trace evidence on arrest for murder
When defendant was arrested for kidnapping and murder, exigent circumstances justified seizing and then searching defendant’s clothes for trace evidence of the crime. Commonwealth v. Parker, 2018 Mass. LEXIS 807 (Dec. 7, 2018). A dead body near defendant’s apartment with … Continue reading
KS: Even with roadside Miranda violation, PC still exists under the 4A without the statement
Defendant’s statement at the side of the road was taken in violation of Miranda and should have been suppressed. This does not affect, however, the Fourth Amendment analysis of whether there was probable cause because there was without the statement. … Continue reading
KY: License plate reader alert justified stop
A license plate reader told the officer that defendant’s car insurance needed to be verified because it was not on file, and that was a reasonable basis for the stop. Lynem v. Commonwealth, 2018 Ky. App. LEXIS 299 (Dec. 7, … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Failure to challenge CSLI before Carpenter wasn’t IAC
Defendant’s verdict was the day Carpenter was decided, and his defense lawyer hadn’t challenged the CSLI before that. Defense lawyers don’t have to forecast changes in the law. “ Even following Carpenter, the Second Circuit has declined to suppress cell … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Anonymous crimestoppers report was uncorroborated and did not provide probable cause
An anonymous crimestoppers report was uncorroborated and did not provide probable cause for a search. United States v. Allgood, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 200729 (W.D. Tenn. Nov. 28, 2018):
E.D.Mich.: It was a reasonable inference for the USMJ that persons who possess firearms usually do so at home
It was a reasonable inference for the USMJ that persons who possess firearms usually do so at home. Therefore, there was probable cause for the search warrant. United States v. Bland, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199111 (E.D. Mich. Nov. 26, … Continue reading
CA9: PC was so lacking for two tracking warrants that GFE does not apply
Probable cause for two tracking warrants was so completely lacking that it was unreasonable to rely on them, and the good faith exception does not apply. United States v. Lopez-Zuniga, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 33096 (8th Cir. Nov. 26, 2018):
W.D.N.Y.: PC was a close call, so the court finds GFE applies instead
Probable cause is a close call here. The USMJ found probable cause and that the good faith exception applied. On review of the R&R, the court applies only the good faith exception to find the search valid. United States v. … Continue reading