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- S.D.Ohio: Affidavit alleged only that drug dealers use cell phones, and that’s not PC; but GFE saves it
- Reason: Iowa Voters Don’t Want Police or Flock Tracking Their Cars. Politicians Are Still Catching Up.
- Reason: The Founders Warned Against Secret Arrests. ICE Is Testing That Principle.
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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"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
CA3: Affidavit for SW was fair on its face and showing of PC, so officer gets QI for execution
The officers had qualified immunity for execution of a search warrant application that was fair on its face. It could be relied upon by a reasonable officer. Olson v. Ako, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 6958 (3d Cir. Mar. 20, 2018):
TN: After def’s arrest for assault with a knife, the apparent weapon was seen in plain view in def’s car
Defendant had been arrested after a stop for aggravated assault with a knife. When the officer looked in the car to secure it, he saw a knife in plain view, and its seizure was reasonable. State v. Stanley, 2018 Tenn. … Continue reading
CA6: Def’s car was still “mobile” for automobile exception despite the fact he was in jail
Defendant’s car was still “mobile” for Fourth Amendment purposes under the automobile exception despite the fact he was in jail. Thus, the defective search warrant is moot. United States v. Spillman, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 6950 (6th Cir. Mar. 19, … Continue reading
CA8: No standing to challenge a DEA administrative subpoena just used to identify his storage unit for a dog sniff
Defendant had no standing to complain that a DEA administrative subpoena was used to identify the storage unit that was his so the DEA could use a drug dog on his storage unit. Defendant’s plain error argument that a tracking … Continue reading
W.D.La.: Use of key fob to find def’s car in Walmart parking lot wasn’t unreasonable search
Using defendant’s key fob to find his car in a Walmart parking lot was not an unreasonable search because there was no reasonable expectation of privacy in which car was his, following United States v. Cowan, 674 F.3d 947 (8th … Continue reading
NY3: Call from DEA to stop def was based on their PC
The officers stopping defendant received a call from the DEA to stop him because he was involved with a place they were searching, having just left with a backpack as the DEA was arriving. The stop was based on their … Continue reading
OH4: PC shown by inference that def had drugs in hotel room; officers don’t have to see a drug transaction to have PC
An actual drug transaction doesn’t have to happen for officers to have probable cause defendant likely had drugs in his hotel room. The investigation here developed logical inferences that’s what defendant was doing, and there was a nexus between his … Continue reading
CA7: Circumstances justified inference def’s car was getaway car in a robbery, and that was PC
There was probable cause that a getaway car was involved in a robbery. “Here, in contrast, the Mercedes’s conduct cannot be confused with innocent behavior. While it is true that police did not know the occupants of the Mercedes were … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: SW materials can be considered in determining whether to detain
“When considering same together with the Bond Report, the indictment, and police reports and search warrant documents, the Court alternatively finds that the Government established by clear and convincing evidence that Defendant is a danger to the community. See Perry, … Continue reading
GA: While state database showed def’s car uninsured, his proof of insurance on phone app was enough to show lack of PC for impoundment
The officer here was running LPNs to see if cars passing through an intersection were insured. Defendant’s car came back uninsured based on the state database. Once stopped, however, defendant showed an app on his phone that showed he obtained … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: It’s not prosecutorial misconduct to present evidence allegedly unlawfully seized to a GJ
It’s not prosecutorial misconduct to present evidence allegedly unlawfully seized to a grand jury. That was settled in Calandra in 1974. United States v. Boston, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23751 (E.D. Mich. Feb. 14, 2018). “Accordingly, the court finds that … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: Cell phones tool of trade of border smugglers, too
“That drug smuggling operations use cell phones to contact each other, to give direction and instructions, that they use scouts and multiple vehicles to cross drugs, are all well-known strategies. [¶] It is also well-known that smugglers will buy cars … Continue reading
AR: State’s auto insurance database isn’t up to date, but missing insurance record is still PC for a stop
A computer check showed defendant’s vehicle insurance was cancelled, although the database was admittedly often not current with this warning: “The insurance information is provided by the Department of Finance and Administration. Valid insurance policies may exist that are not … Continue reading
CA6: SW for house where CP was created and sex trafficking occurred wasn’t stale after two months
Defendant was convicted of creating child pornography and sex trafficking minors. The search warrant was issued two months after the last act, but the list of acts (photography of CP; beatings) that occurred in defendant’s residence and the things sought … Continue reading
DE: Def’s crossing the unmarked center of a highway for a couple of seconds wasn’t RS
“Here, Trooper Freeman testified that ‘the only basis for the stop’ was that Defendant veered into the left lane on a roadway that did not have solid lines. Speed was not a factor. Absent any testimony or video evidence concerning … Continue reading
W.D.La.: No clear authority says a state court tracking warrant can’t track a car into another state; GFE applies
There is no authority shown that a state court tracking warrant on a vehicle could or could not track the vehicle into another state. Therefore, the good faith exception would apply. United States v. Taylor, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17816 … Continue reading
ID: Hot pursuit onto curtilage led to abandonment of bag of meth
Defendant was speeding, and he was followed by the police. He failed to signal and turned into a long driveway that turned to unpaved, and the officer followed and defendant never slowed despite the police car having its lights on. … Continue reading
CA7: Summary judgment for gov’t premature in case alleging frame up by crime lab analyst
Summary judgment was improperly granted for the government in a FTCA case that plaintiff was framed by knowingly false testimony from an arson lab analyst. Remanded. Bunch v. United States, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 2283 (7th Cir. Jan. 30, 2018). … Continue reading
CA9: Taking children from parents without exigency or court order violated 4A and right to family unity
When Arizona state social workers removed plaintiffs’ children from the home without judicial authorization and without a reasonable belief they were in danger or exigency, they violated plaintiffs’ rights to family unity and the Fourth Amendment. The right was clearly … Continue reading