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- CA3: Ptf was arrested on an apparent but recalled warrant, then officers confirmed it and let him go; the arrest was reasonable
- N.D.Ohio: Failure to serve state SW within state mandated time not 4A violation
- NY1: Gunshot through floor from apartment above was exigency
- Reason: Most Civil Forfeiture Victims Never See the Inside of a Courtroom
- CA8: Admission of anonymous tip that led to stop violated Confrontation Clause
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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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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (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: Franks doctrine
D.Conn.: Failure to disclose prior likely unconstitutional entry into def’s property in SW affidavit was material
The search warrant here was based on an unconstitutional prior entry to photograph firearms, and the issuing magistrate wasn’t told about that. That was material. Motion to suppress granted. United States v. Mahama, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 145463 (D. Conn. … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: iCloud SW was particular as to subject and time
This iCloud warrant was based on probable cause and was particular and had a specific time limit. “Certain of the categories of evidence authorized for seizure by the February iCloud Warrant may appear overbroad in isolation but are sufficiently particular … Continue reading
CADC: Ptf’s arrest on mistaken identity was still reasonable
The District Court correctly granted qualified immunity to an officer who detained plaintiff due to a mistaken identity fugitive warrant because there was no showing that any reasonable official in the defendant’s shoes would have understood that he was violating … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Without showing no PC on remainder of affidavit, Franks challenge fails
Defendant’s Franks challenge fails because he doesn’t show that the affidavit does not show probable cause on the remainder. United States v. Chappell, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140479 (E.D. Mich. Aug. 7, 2024).* The officers apparently didn’t know that the … Continue reading
MD: No fixed distance for SI; here, handcuffed def’s coat
Officers entered with an arrest warrant and found defendant in bed. He was handcuffed. Getting his clothing to dress him, a gun was found in a coat. This was valid as a search incident, despite his being handcuffed. Also, there … Continue reading
CA7: Franks does not apply to emergency cell phone pings
During the George Floyd murder unrest, defendant told an acquaintance he was traveling to Wisconsin with a machine gun to kill and loot. The acquaintance told law enforcement. They obtained ping information based on exigency, which was valid. Also, Franks … Continue reading
TX: Court of Appeals required state to show more than necessary to show cell phone nexus; remanded
“To the extent that the court of appeals read our opinion in Baldwin necessarily to require, as a prerequisite of probable cause, that an affidavit must establish (1) use of the cell phone either during, or immediately before or after, … Continue reading
CA8: When PC and GFE are the district court’s holding, challenging only PC on appeal means affirmed
When the district court holds that the warrant is valid both on probable cause and good faith, only challenging probable cause on appeal means that the alternative basis is sufficient to affirm. United States v. Bryant, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
D.Mass.: No discovery of covert Shapchat accounts for lack of materiality
Officers set up covert Snapchat accounts to communicate with defendant. He’s not entitled to discovery about that for Brady or Franks purposes because he can’t show materiality. United States v. Stroup, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132483 (D. Mass. July 26, … Continue reading
MT: No REP from look in apt window from common area of apt complex; not his curtilage
Officers did not violate defendant’s reasonable expectation of privacy by looking in the window of his apartment from a common area in his apartment complex. It was not his curtilage. City of Whitefish v. Zumwalt, 2024 MT 153, 2024 Mont. … Continue reading
CA3: No per se irreparable injury from 4A violation
The Third Circuit does not find per se irreparable injury from a Fourth Amendment violation, recognizing a conflict in the circuits. Del. State Sportsmen’s Ass’n v. Del. Dep’t of Safety & Homeland Sec., 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 17214 (3d Cir. … Continue reading
UT: Def satisfied “shocking the conscience” standard for recording a telephone call while under a protective order and he couldn’t fully respond
The court finds officers baiting defendant into a recorded phone call where he was under a protective order and could not adequately respond “shocked the conscience” and would be suppressed. State v. Lewis, 2024 UT App 96, 2024 Utah App. … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: SW affidavit does not have to negate affirmative defenses under Franks
Under Franks, an affidavit for a search warrant does not have to negate a possible affirmative defense. United States v. Pascoe, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119992 (W.D. Ky. July 9, 2024). There was probable cause for defendant’s arrest for DUI … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Def was entitled to discovery of body camera footage of how a search was conducted
Defendant was entitled to discovery of body camera footage of how a search was conducted. United States v. Moore, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119486 (S.D. Ohio July 2, 2024). The fact a Sixth Circuit judge dissented on a similar issue … Continue reading
KS: Extending stop on a hunch lacked RS
“LaGuardia argues that Officer Opperman lacked reasonable suspicion to extend the stop from a crash report to a DUI investigation. He claims that the officer investigated LaGuardia for DUI only because he abandoned his vehicle after the accident in snowy … Continue reading
NE: Return of property denied where post-conviction time hadn’t run
Defendant’s motion for return of property is denied because the time hasn’t run for post-conviction and it still may be needed by the state. State v. Assad, 317 Neb. 20 (July 5, 2024). Defendant did not present a real Franks … Continue reading
NC: Wife had sufficient common authority over cell phone to consent to seizure and search
Defendant allowed his cell phone to be used by everyone in the family, including his child to watch YouTube videos. His wife had sufficient common authority to consent to a seizure and search. State v. Duran-Rivas, 2024 N.C. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA3 en banc: Driving to controlled buys from house gave PC for house
Controlled buys that defendant drove to still gave probable cause for search of his house. The probable cause bar isn’t that high. United States v. Sanders, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 15832 (6th Cir. June 28, 2024) (en banc) (an unnecessarily … Continue reading