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- D.Minn.: Extending stop to run ALPR information on car was with RS
- 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
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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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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)
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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
IA: State failure to object to lack of Franks preliminary showing results in hearing, but def fails anyway
Defendant got a Franks hearing without an adequate showing, and the state didn’t object. So the court of appeals considers the showing at the hearing over the state’s objection, and defendant fails to show recklessness or intentional false statement or … Continue reading
D.N.J.: No 6A right to have counsel present at execution of a DNA warrant in the jail
There is no Sixth Amendment right for counsel to be present when a DNA sample is taken from defendant at the jail by warrant. United States v. Hubbard, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3661 (D.N.J. Jan. 9, 2023). CBP had reasonable … Continue reading
CA7: Ptf’s civil Franks claim survives SJ because it stated a claim
“Here, a reasonable jury could find that Buonadonna intentionally or recklessly included material false statements and withheld material exculpatory information. Buonadonna admits that he read the protective order and knew that it did not bar communication between Klein and Salatas. … Continue reading
CA6: Plastic bag on car console wasn’t obviously “dope” to justify automobile exception
The government argued that the search of defendant’s car was justified by the automobile exception because contraband was in plain view. The court disagrees. There was a plastic bag on the console, and the photographic evidence from inside the car … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: Extrinsic evidence is admissible in a Franks challenge
Extrinsic evidence of alleged falsity in a Franks challenge is admissible. United States v. Smith, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 234002 (S.D. Ill. Dec. 20, 2022). Questioning defendant about the presence of a firearm in his vehicle fell within the Quarles … Continue reading
CA6: Affidavit circumstantially supported nexus
There was nexus to defendant’s home as a base of operations for drug sales based on circumstantial evidence in the affidavit for warrant. United States v. Pointer, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 35506 (6th Cir. Dec. 20, 2022).* The search warrant … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: PC for admin. warrant became stale before it was sought
This administrative search warrant under OSHA became stale by the government’s delay in seeking it and litigation delays. Also, USMJs have jurisdiction to issue administrative inspection warrants. F.R.C.P. 72 objections do not apply to administrative warrants because they frustrate enforcement … Continue reading
WI: When statute or ordinance on which search was based is challenged, AG or city must be present
When challenging the constitutionality of an ordinance or statute as making a search and seizure unreasonable, defendant must join the city or notify the AG to participate. Without it, that’s waiver. “Because Raddemann has not shown compliance with Wis. Stat. … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Attic apt and treehouse not specified in SW, but searches there still reasonable
An attic apartment and a treehouse were not specifically within the terms of the warrant, but the search was still reasonable. United States v. Ayala, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 227976 (N.D. Cal. Dec. 19, 2022). Defendant didn’t timely challenge his … Continue reading
CA8: SW in CP case can include whole house, not just def’s room
In a child pornography case, the search warrant need not be limited to only defendant’s room. It can be the whole house. United States v. Schave, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 34757 (8th Cir. Dec. 16, 2022). Officers got a warrant … Continue reading
Cal.2: MJ smell associated with minors still RS for an offense
Officers ran an LPN and saw that the vehicle had expired tags. Driving next to the car, officers smelled burnt marijuana and knew that the users were minors which is still an offense under California law. That was cause for … Continue reading
TX14: PC for a cell phone requires more than a bare conclusion one was present or involved; no PC here
“A probable cause affidavit supporting a cell phone search must contain evidence of the requisite nexus with more than mere conclusory allegations. For example, the Court of Criminal Appeals recently held that generic, boilerplate language about cell phone use among … Continue reading
OR: Holding def’s ID for 30 minutes for no apparent reason was a seizure without RS
Retaining defendant’s ID for 30 minutes before even thinking about questioning his identity was a seizure without reasonable suspicion. State v. Orman, 322 Or. App. 707, 2022 Ore. App. LEXIS 1479 (Nov. 16, 2022). Defendant was not seized when he … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Franks hearing ordered over officer’s claim of smell of MJ
Defendant gets a Franks hearing even if to rebut the government’s claim the good faith exception applies. The affiant officer claimed there was an “overwhelming” smell of marijuana coming from defendant’s house as they approached for a knock-and-talk, which was … Continue reading
WV: Juvenile “pick-up” order issued on PC was equivalent of warrant for Payton purposes for entry into mom’s home
Entry on a juvenile “pick-up” order here “was founded upon probable cause to believe that her ‘health, safety and welfare’ demanded it …. was the functional equivalent of an arrest warrant and was lawfully issued.” Therefore, the entry was valid … Continue reading
D.Vt.: Def’s misidentification in original affidavit was later corrected and overall survives Franks challenge
There were omissions in the original affidavit for warrant about identification that were later cleared up in a subsequent affidavit for another. On the whole, probable cause remains no matter what. United States v. Mohamud, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 205560 … Continue reading
CA4: Omissions under Franks have to be shown “designed to mislead”
When challenging a search warrant under Franks for omission of information, the defendant’s burden is higher because affidavits for warrants never include all available information and don’t have to, and the omissions have to be shown “designed to mislead.” Defendant … Continue reading
FL2: Def counsel not ineffective where search evidence not objected to had no apparent prejudice to case
Defense counsel was ineffective in not moving to suppress one piece of evidence, but defendant can’t show he was prejudiced by it on the case as a whole. Szewczyk v. State, 2022 Fla. App. LEXIS 7180 (Fla. 2d DCA Oct. … Continue reading