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)
ACLU on privacy
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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
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
SCOTUS: QI immunity granted where there was arguable PC on the totality for arrests and no case in point saying there wasn’t
On the totality of circumstances, it was reasonable to infer probable cause to arrest plaintiffs for unlawful entry for being in an otherwise vacant building for a party. The actions of the partygoers suggested they knew they had no right … Continue reading
D. Md.: Def’s 2255 supplemental Franks challenge has a failure of a proffer of evidence
Defendant had a Franks challenge and lost. One 2255 claim is that if defense counsel investigated more, it would have been a better Franks motion, but he fails to state what else would have been found to make it better. … Continue reading
LA2: No REP in text messages in another person’s cell phone
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in text messages in another person’s cell phone. State v. Young, 2018 La. App. LEXIS 110 (La. App. 2 Cir. Jan. 18, 2018). Defendant was on parole and his parole agreement required he … Continue reading
D.S.D.: General description of a handyman’s tools as “miscellaneous tools” did not make the inventory “defective”
General description of a handyman’s tools as “miscellaneous tools” did not make the inventory “defective.” United States v. Bruce, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7387 (D.S.D. Jan 17, 2018). “Although the affidavit in the instant case could have provided more information … Continue reading
D.Conn.: “observation of a small amount of marijuana not clearly labelled for medicinal use creates probable cause that evidence of illegal drug activity would be found within the car”
“Because Officer Diaz had reason to believe that a gun would be found within the Defendant’s car prior to the stop, his observation of a small amount of marijuana not clearly labelled for medicinal use creates probable cause that evidence … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Shots fired call led to stop on RS but seeing empty shell casings in car was PC
A shots fired call led to the stop of defendant’s car. The officer’s seeing spent shell casings inside was probable cause, and the reasonable suspicion calculus of extending the stop doesn’t apply. United States v. Cooper, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Finding CP image hash values on a computer is PC for search
The finding of child pornography hash values on a computer is probable cause for further search of the computer. United States v. Sherlock, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1321 (M.D. La. Jan. 4, 2018).* Playpen warrant sustained, and there was no … Continue reading
OH3: Narc told patrol officer def was drug suspect, and patrol officer ran DL and found it was suspended; stop valid despite pretext claim
A patrol officer was told that defendant was a drug suspect. He was told because he had stopped defendant before and was familiar with him. He ran defendant’s name through the state computer and it showed that defendant had no … Continue reading
OH10: State law requirement of preserving additional testimony to get SW not violation of 4A; complete failure of PC means no GFE; the state has no 4A rights
Prior holding on complete failure of probable cause wasn’t cross-appealed by the state and remains law of the case. Ohio’s Rule 41 that includes that additional testimony besides the affidavit has to be transcribed and made part of the record … Continue reading
NJ: Failure of affidavit for SW to say which apartment was def’s was fatal error under state const.
There was a reasonable basis for finding probable cause that drug sales were occurring from defendant’s house, but the affidavit for the warrant failed to show which apartment in a 30 unit complex was his. Since New Jersey doesn’t recognize … Continue reading
CA9: Officer’s peek into backpack seeing cocaine before getting SW didn’t taint the search; plenty of PC before the peek
Officer’s peek into backpack seeing cocaine before getting a search warrant for it didn’t taint the search. There was plenty of probable cause before the peek. “The agents disclosed in the warrant affidavit that they had looked inside the backpack … Continue reading
WaPo: Jury rules against family subjected to SWAT raid over loose-leaf tea
WaPo: Jury rules against family subjected to SWAT raid over loose-leaf tea by Radley Balko
MA: PC was shown for searching def’s cell phone for messages to and from murder victim; SW’s overbreadth was cured by searchers’ limiting scope of search
Probable cause was shown to search defendant’s cell phone for text messages and calls from the murder victim. The victim’s phone wasn’t found, and it was logical there could be information on the phone and the victim’s was taken to … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Officers had PC defendant had CP and not just child nudity
Defendant argued that the alleged child pornography was mere child nudity, and thus not a crime. “The Court concludes that the information contained in each of the four warrant applications was sufficient to permit the reviewing magistrate judges to conclude … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: During the knock-and-talk def was not “in custody” for Miranda purposes
During the knock-and-talk at defendant’s apartment, he was not “in custody” for Miranda purposes, and his statements could be used against him. United States v. Butler, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 201765 (W.D. Mo. Nov. 16, 2017), adopted, 2017 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
IL: When lack of PC for arrest is raised, the state can rely on hearsay to establish it
When the defendant challenges probable cause for arrest, hearsay is admissible to show it. People v. Horine, 2017 IL App (4th) 170128, 2017 Ill. App. LEXIS 743 (Dec. 5, 2017):
W.D.N.Y.: Sealed indictment attached to affidavit for SW helped show PC for issuance
The affidavit for the search warrant attached defendant’s sealed indictment. Together they showed probable cause. Defendant doesn’t get a Franks hearing because of the omission that he was in the military. United States v. Owens, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199143 … Continue reading