Archives
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Recent Posts
- MO: When officers came with an arrest warrant, def’s admission he had a firearm justified the entry
- PA: Shining flashlight into hole in a shoebox was a search; there was a REP in the closed box
- CA5: Accidentally shooting the man who disarmed the shooter from a residence was not a constitutional violation
- CA9: False evidence to arrest violates due process
- CA6: The SW affidavit here was thin, but it wasn’t completely bare bones, so GFE applies
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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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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: Franks doctrine
AK: Omission was maybe reckless but PC on the remainder
The officer’s omission of the CI’s criminal charges from the affidavit for the search warrant was reckless at worst, but the totality of the affidavit showed the CI’s potential motives for providing information. Moreover, there was probable cause even without … Continue reading
CA10: Parolee’s § 1983 claim he was wrongfully arrested on parole doesn’t state a claim because he’s always “in custody”
Plaintiff’s claim that he was unreasonably arrested for a parole violation before actually getting on parole is rejected because a parolee is still in custody no matter what. “Similarly, there is no authority to support Mr. Neilsen’s argument that an … Continue reading
Reason: Grand Jury Indictments Paint a Picture of Deadly Deceit in Houston Narcotics Division
Reason: Grand Jury Indictments Paint a Picture of Deadly Deceit in Houston Narcotics Division by Jacob Sullum (“The charges, which grew out of a lethal 2019 raid based on a fraudulent search warrant affidavit, suggest that cops routinely built their … Continue reading
MI: Flint water crisis case states claim for due process violation of bodily integrity
The suit over the City of Flint water crisis stated a claim, inter alia, for a due process violation of bodily integrity. Mays v. Snyder, 2020 Mich. LEXIS 1351 (July 29, 2020) (plurality). The A.F. Ct. Crim. App. erred in … Continue reading
D.Ore.: Illegibility of judge’s signature on SW not 4A violation
Just because the state trial judge’s signature was illegible doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. The judge’s name was stamped below. United States v. McElroy, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132608 (D. Ore. July 24, 2020). Franks challenge fails: “Thus, the bottom … Continue reading
CA6: Def showed no REP in package with a fake name sent to his house
Defendant showed no reasonable expectation of privacy in a package addressed to a fake name at his address. United States v. James, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 22766 (6th Cir. July 21, 2020). Defendant failed to show that the challenged statements … Continue reading
CA8: Mistake of name in SW affidavit deleted by district court wasn’t material
The affidavit for search warrant here originally used the name “Aaren” but the officer found “Taylor” could be the last name, and the affidavit was changed for that. It turned out that there were two people. The district court properly … Continue reading
PA: State waived challenge to def’s reliance on state constitution
The state waived its challenge to the defendant’s reliance on the state constitution by failure to litigate it below. Waiver claims have to be applied evenhandedly between the state and defendants. Commonwealth v. Wolfel, 2020 Pa. LEXIS 3797 (July 21, … Continue reading
CA6: Not telling officers during arrest and transport of pre-existing injury gives them QI
“Detroit police arrested Baxter Jones for disorderly conduct. They transported Jones, who uses a wheelchair, in a modified cargo van. Jones says riding in the van aggravated his spinal injuries and hurt his shoulders and hands. The district court denied … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Mere desire to cross-examine about the drug dog’s bona fides isn’t a Franks issue
Merely wanting to cross-examine about the reliability of the drug dog isn’t a Franks challenge. There still has to be a “substantial preliminary showing” of a falsity, and desire to cross-examine isn’t it. United States v. Robinson, 2020 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Motion to suppress denied for lack of specificity
Defendant’s motion to suppress is denied for lack of specificity. United States v. Zuniga-Garcia, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122220 (D. Minn. June 24, 2020). There was probable cause for the search warrant, despite the claimed Franks violation which was not … Continue reading
CA3 still doesn’t adopt standard of review for Franks challenges
The Third Circuit notes that it has yet to adopt a standard of review for Franks claims; see United States v. Pavulak, 700 F.3d 651, 665-66 (3d Cir. 2012); and it doesn’t have to here because, whichever applies, defendant loses. … Continue reading
MA: When seizing digital devices under SW, looking at camera pictures didn’t require exclusion where not mentioned in SW for camera
During a search of defendant’s house under a warrant that included seizing digital devices, the officer turned on a camera and scrolled through the pictures. When the warrant was sought for the camera, no mention was made, and inevitable discovery … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Late night stop, no DL, digital scale on floor is RS
This late night stop was reasonably extended because the driver didn’t have a DL on him and there appeared to be a digital scale on the floor. United States v. Henry, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 115939 (D. Minn. May 20, … Continue reading
D.Del.: Mere denials of the facts doesn’t make a Franks claim
Just saying in a motion to suppress the defendant “‘denies telling law enforcement that additional drugs could be found within his apartment’ and ‘disputes the accuracy’ of the statement that officers detected the odor of burnt marijuana in the apartment” … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Drug dog’s reliability doesn’t need to be shown in SW application
A search warrant application does not have to support the reliability of a drug dog used to establish the probable cause under Harris. The remedy is a motion to suppress. “As this Court reads it, Harris is a reiteration of … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Inevitable discovery obviated def’s Franks challenge
A Franks hearing wasn’t required because the court finds that, even if Franks could be satisfied here, the evidence was inevitably found. United States v. Chapline, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104509 (W.D. N.Y. June 12, 2020). It was reasonable to … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Whether officer should have believed CI was lying not a Franks issue
Defendant contends that the affiant officer should have known that the CI was lying because of a motive to falsify, but doesn’t say how the officer would have known or did know. That’s insufficient for Franks. Another CI was not … Continue reading
NJ: Destruction by policy of audio of telephonic SW application required suppression even without bad faith
This case proceeded on a telephonic search warrant where the application was recorded as required by law. The recording, however, was destroyed in 90 days under the department’s records retention policy. While the destruction wasn’t in bad faith, the recording … Continue reading
Three on Franks
Defendant’s Franks challenge was properly rejected because assuming the challenged information was out of the affidavit, probable cause still exists. United States v. Carrasco, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 17553 (9th Cir. June 4, 2020).* In a civil rights case, the … Continue reading