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
WI: Mistake of law on how many taillights have to work led to suppression
One unlit bulb in a taillight system that was otherwise visible 500′ was unreasonable. This is a mistake of law. State v. Brown, 2014 WI 69, 2014 Wisc. LEXIS 483 (July 16, 2014). Driving 25 then 20 in a 50 … Continue reading
MA: Cruz on smell of burnt MJ after decrim applies to smell of unburnt MJ, too
Because of decriminalization of one oz or less of marijuana in Massachusetts, the smell of unburnt marijuana alone is also not probable cause for search of a car. Commonwealth v. Overmyer, 469 Mass. 16, 11 N.E.3d 1054 (2014): In Commonwealth … Continue reading
CA10: Heck and SoL barred claim that 2007 arrest undermined conviction
Plaintiff sued over his 2007 arrest to undermine his murder conviction. “As the district court correctly held, Mr. Williams’s complaint implicates the validity of his conviction and sentence and therefore is barred under Heck v. Humphrey, 512 U.S. 477 (1994). … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Question is PC for a stop, not whether the defendant actually violated the law
The stop was valid. “Whether Flores actually violated the law is immaterial. The question is only whether Deputy Broce had probable cause to suspect that Flores was committing a traffic violation.” The officer could ask defendant to produce what created … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Considering suppression being tried, not attacking just one officer’s credibility wasn’t IAC
Defense counsel was reasonable in not impeaching officer at suppression hearing with his disciplinary history considering the issue being tried. The issue for the suppression hearing was whether it was reasonable for the officers to believe defendant was where he … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Warrant for whole single family dwelling was not overbroad in a CP case
Search warrants are directed at places, and it doesn’t matter that several people live there. This was a single family dwelling, so the warrant wasn’t overbroad for identifying the whole home as a place to search in a child pornography … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Police merely entering a hospital room to talk is not a “search”
There was no Fourth Amendment violation from an officer coming into defendant’s hospital room to talk to him because it wasn’t a search. Even so, defendant consented to the officer’s presence. United States v. John, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86369 … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: False evidence for an arrest states a claim for relief
Plaintiff was a jail guard, and he was prosecuted for assaulting an inmate. Two years after the prosecution started he won. It was determined that the basis for the arrest was on knowing use of false evidence that he did … Continue reading
Three § 1983 cases: CA10: No PC for search, no good faith for officer relying on another’s conclusion of PC
Plaintiff was stopped for speeding and “perceived inconsistencies” in her story led to a request to search, her refusal, and then her two hour detention, drug dog and car search. No drugs were found. There was no probable cause for … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Seeing a split of authorities, the court concludes lifting a suspect’s shirt is a search requiring PC
Defendant’s shirt was lifted by the officer to look for a potential weapon. The court finds here that it was without reasonable suspicion. Considering various federal cases from circuit and district courts, there is a split of authority. The court … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: Probable Cause, Constitutional Reasonableness, and the Unrecognized Point of a “Pointless Indignity”
Probable Cause, Constitutional Reasonableness, and the Unrecognized Point of a “Pointless Indignity”, Josh Bowers, 66 Stan. L. Rev. 987 (2014). Abstract: A police officer needs probable cause to make an arrest. But, almost always, he needs no more. In this … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Corroboration of publicly known facts provided by CI here was enough
“The only facts that were independently corroborated by Detective Duquette were: (1) that Dixon lived at the Home, and (2) that he had previously been incarcerated in federal prison for selling illegal drugs and had been released in 2010.” “Here, … Continue reading
D.Utah: Domestic disturbance call of man with gun justified entry
The officer’s entry into the home on a domestic disturbance call where defendant was allegedly armed and wouldn’t come out was based on exigency and his wife’s consent. United States v. Avalos, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78886 (D. Utah June … Continue reading
KS: Exigency permitted officers to enter home when DUI suspect needed to go inside
Defendant was detained in his driveway for DUI and potential violation of an order of protection, which were both jailable offenses. He wanted to go inside to put his kids to bed, and it was not unreasonable for officers to … Continue reading
LA4: Stop without cause in high crime area suppressed
Defendant was driving in a high crime area, but his stop was utterly without legal justification, so the drugs found are suppressed. State v. Greenberry, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 1410 (La.App. 4 Cir. May 28, 2014). Defendant’s driving and condition … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: “there is no magic number of ‘trash runs’ to be conducted prior to the issuance of a search warrant.”
“As to Defendant’s challenge of a single trash run at forming probable cause, there is no magic number of ‘trash runs’ to be conducted prior to the issuance of a search warrant.” Here, there was enough from one to make … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: A line by line dissection of a search warrant affidavit is inappropriate
A line by line dissection of a search warrant affidavit is inappropriate; what does it say as a whole with a common sense reading. “Brummett’s interpretation strains linguistic reality.” It was not so lacking in probable cause that the exclusionary … Continue reading