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)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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
CA5: There is no “contemporaneity between the evidence supporting probable cause and the arrest.”
There is no “contemporaneity between the evidence supporting probable cause and the arrest.” It’s up to police discretion when to arrest. Essentially: Staleness doesn’t apply to PC for arrest. United States v. Clark, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 7959 (5th Cir. … Continue reading
CA3: Payton’s “reason to believe” language from Payton/Steagald amounts to probable cause, noting conflict
Payton’s “reason to believe” language from Payton/Steagald amounts to probable cause, such that officers who have an arrest warrant for a suspect have to show “probable cause” that the suspect resides at or is present at a particular address before … Continue reading
N.D.Fla.: FBI had PC there was CP on electronic storage media hidden in plastic bags in a woodpile
“[A]pplying the totality of the circumstances test the Court has little difficulty concluding there was sufficient probable cause to search the electronic storage media provided to the F.B.I. For starters, a simple examination of the items to be searched evidences … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Def’s apparently grabbing a package launched over the border fence was RS
Border Patrol officers at Nogales watching over the border saw a launching device to throw bundles over the border fence, and they tried to see where the packages landed to round them up. Defendant was seen matching the description of … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Unusual traffic patterns at def’s house was probable cause of drug dealing
The unusual traffic patterns at defendant’s house led to probable cause to believe that the car leaving had drugs acquired inside. United States v. Hernandez-Ortiz, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 49658 (D. Neb. March 8, 2016),* adopted 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
IN: Smell of burnt MJ in a house isn’t PC to believe the occupant is a drug dealer
The smell of burnt marijuana during a search of house is not probable cause to believe that the house contains marijuana for distribution. While it might be in a car, it’s not for a house. Also, a key fob was … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Affidavit truly was “bare bones” on nexus, so no GFE
“It generalizes that ‘an individual’ may have information on his or her phone that connects him or her to a crime, co-defendants or victims, rather than specifically connecting Ramirez, the crime with which he was charged, or any known information … Continue reading
CA8: Protective sweep of a camper was reasonable because another was inside when def was arrested
Defendant was supposed to sell methamphetamine from his camper at a campsite to an undercover officer, but he declined, so the officer attempted to arrest him outside the camper on an outstanding warrant and he fled. He went to the … Continue reading
TX13: Police search of iPod didn’t exceed private search; warrant valid
Defendant worked at a DQ and he cleaned a bathroom. Later, another employee found an iPod in the bathroom, and turned it in to a supervisor. It was looked at to determine ownership, and it was locked up until the … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Police received a tip of sex trafficking a minor; talking to the minor on the phone was PC
In a search of a hotel room and arrest for sex trafficking of a minor, officers talked to the minor by telephone and that was sufficient to provide probable cause without much need for corroboration. Here, there was a tip … Continue reading
TN: Passing the FST didn’t negate PC; bloodshot and watery eyes, smelled of alcohol, admitted to 3 beers
Passing the FST didn’t negate probable cause. The officer observed defendant speeding, and, when the officer approached defendant he smelled alcohol, defendant had bloodshot and watery eyes, and defendant told the officer he had consumed three beers. State v. Silva, … Continue reading
Cal.2d: Even if Civil Code § 56.26 on medical record privacy had been violated, evidence not excludable in medical disciplinary proceeding
Even if Civil Code § 56.26 on medical record privacy had been violated, it would not exclude evidence in a medical board proceeding for violating billing standards. The subpoena is enforced as limited by time period. Fett v. Medical Bd. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Def was told he wasn’t under arrest but he could have been; search incident valid
Defendant was stopped for a traffic offense, and he was told he was being placed in handcuffs because the officer was unaware of who he was and that that did not mean he was going to jail. A patdown produced … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Guilt by association here clearly wasn’t enough for a cell phone and CSLI search warrant, and GFE doesn’t apply
The cell phone and CSLI warrant were truly lacking in probable cause as to defendant. There was but a passing reference to him in an effort to show guilt by association, and that clearly was not a sufficient showing of … Continue reading