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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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
MA: Not being on the rental agreement as a permitted driver not an offense under state law for arrest
Defendant was driving a rental car rented by his mother that limited driving to her alone. Still, that didn’t make defendant guilty of anything under state law, and impounding and inventorying the car was unreasonable. Commonwealth v. Campbell, 2016 Mass. … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: PC was shown, partly based on LEO’s expert opinion
There was probable cause for the search warrant in this case, partly based on a law enforcement officer’s expert opinion about drug trafficking. United States v. Lights, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130915 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 23, 2016). Another two Playpen cases; … Continue reading
NE: A DRE expert isn’t required to make stop have PC for a DWI arrest
It isn’t required that the state have a DRE specialist make an arrest to determine whether there is probable cause for defendant’s arrest. It is required that the officers exclude other possibilities for the appearance of intoxication. State v. Rothenberger, … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Smell of raw marijuana on the person is PC for a search
“In addition, in getting near to Jackson, Det. Garcia could smell unburnt marijuana on his person. Under these facts, the Court concludes that Det. Garcia had probable cause to arrest Jackson.” United States v. Jackson, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 124091 … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: Evasive behavior is a factor in RS
“Courts may consider a suspect’s evasive behavior in analyzing the existence of reasonable suspicion to believe that an individual is armed and dangerous.” United States v. Truesdale, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119967 (W.D.N.C. Sept. 2, 2016). The officer had reasonable … Continue reading
CA3: Officers did not ignore plainly exculpatory evidence in seeking a warrant for defendant’s arrest; QI applies
Plaintiff sued for false imprisonment based on his arrest held without probable cause by the state court. The district court denied qualified immunity, and the officers appealed. The officers did not ignore plainly exculpatory evidence, and, on the whole, there … Continue reading
DE: Nervousness alone isn’t RS to extend a stop
Defendant’s motion to suppress is granted. About all the officer could show was that defendant was nervous, and that’s not reasonable suspicion to extend this stop. The questioning of defendant about his travel plans wasn’t any aid to the state … Continue reading
Four on traffic stops
Defendant’s consent was voluntary although she had just driven 24 hours straight and she was not informed that she could refuse consent, given her age, education, and the short questioning period. The traffic stop of defendants was not improperly prolonged … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: “Reasonable cause” for production of taxpayer information from the IRS in a public corruption investigation is less than PC
“Reasonable cause” for production of taxpayer information from the IRS in a public corruption investigation is less than “probable cause.” USMJ denial of order overruled. In re United States for Taxpayer Return Information, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119895 (E.D.Ky. Sept. … Continue reading
NC: Failure to give inventory to target of search doesn’t lead to suppression
The inventory to be given to the person from whom stuff was seized has to be given, but a failure to comply doesn’t warrant suppression. It’s after the search so it doesn’t involve the right to be free from unreasonable … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Sweating and nervous def was not RS for a parole search
That defendant was sweating and nervous was not reasonable suspicion for a parole search. United States v. Hopkins, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117742 (N.D.Cal. Aug. 31, 2016). The government’s surveillance supports the conclusion there was probable cause for the search … Continue reading
D.Utah: True hot pursuit was shown for entry into def’s apartment
Defendant was wanted and he fled from a traffic stop to an apartment building. In hot pursuit, officers narrowed down the search to one of four on the top floor and cracked the door looking for him. The court concludes … Continue reading
W.D.La.: Postal workers have no REP in containers in postal buildings
Postal worker who left personal stuff in an unlocked locker had no reasonable expectation of privacy in it. Postal workers knew that they were subjected to searches of their belongings and containers on postal service property. United States v. Cluse, … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Child porn SW affidavit doesn’t need pictures attached: a description will do
The description “child pornography” is enough for the affidavit for a CP search warrant–the pictures themselves don’t have to be attached to prove it. United States v. Weatherman, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104878 (S.D. N.Y. Aug. 9, 2016). Based on … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: PC to arrest isn’t a high burden, and the govt can’t meet it here
“Here, the Government has adduced no testimony or other evidence explaining the basis of Defendant’s arrest or even identifying the officers who arrested her. The Government has also not introduced any evidence of the circumstances of Defendant’s arrest, including when … Continue reading
NC: Search of def’s person not justified just because of smell of MJ in car
The trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion to suppress evidence found during a search of his person as the deputy lacked probable cause to remove defendant from the vehicle and search his person. The State offered no evidence that … Continue reading
CA8: Apparent hidden compartment under trunk raised RS to PC
Defendant consented to a search of his car during a stop because of something dragging under the car. He was asked because he was nervous. In the trunk, the officer noticed the carpet was glued down, and that indicated to … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Information about the amorphous “they” wasn’t probable cause here
“For all these reasons, the Court is persuaded that probable cause requires more than what the agents in this case knew at the time of arrest. Here, the strongest evidence the agents had was that the broker reported ‘they’ were … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: PC doesn’t have to be shown, just objective reliance on the showing for the issuance of the warrant
The affidavit for the search warrant was a close enough showing of probable cause to make reliance on the affidavit objectively reasonable under the good faith exception. United States v. Melendez, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98940 (S.D.N.Y. July 28, 2016):
OR: Def’s prior similar crimes are valid consideration of PC on totality
A search warrant was issued for defendant for possession of a stolen motor vehicle. It was a valid consideration in the showing of probable cause that defendant had four priors for the same crime. State v. Newsted, 279 Ore. App. … Continue reading