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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: Protective sweep
OR: CI privilege doesn’t require production of CI for in camera review if there is PC
While “Defendant does not challenge the trial court’s further determination that the affidavit contained sufficient information to establish the CI’s reliability and credibility,” he faults the trial court for not having the CI produced for in camera review. The identity … Continue reading
MD: Michigan v. Long protective frisk of a car includes looking under floor mats
Defendant was driving in a high crime area and engaging in activity suggesting a drug transaction. When officer stopped his vehicle, he acted suspiciously and made furtive movements. The Michigan v. Long protective sweep of a car includes lifting the … Continue reading
CA10: Protective sweep conducted without RS others present; SW suppressed
Officers came to arrest defendant in his home. They conducted a protective sweep of the entire premises without reason to believe anyone else was present. Their plain views made it into a search warrant, and the search is suppressed. United … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Furtive movement toward car during stop justified protective frisk of car
Defendant’s furtive movements toward his car and his agitated state justified a protective frisk of the car. United States v. Vaccaro, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 205804 (E.D. Wis. Sept. 18, 2017), adopted, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 204625 (E.D. Wis. Dec. … Continue reading
TX2: No exigency shown for warrantless blood draw in DUI case
The state failed to prove exigent circumstances for a warrantless blood draw from the defendant. There were other officers around and a warrant could have been sought. State v. Sanders, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 11674 (Tex. App. – Ft. Worth … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Drive-by shooting led to emergency ping order which led to valid protective sweep
“Defendant lacks standing to challenge the sweep of Ms. Wells’ home. At best, Defendant was a frequent visitor to the home where he babysat children and worked on cars in the yard. Those limited connections to the home are insufficient … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Threshold arrest of defendant in his underwear justifies a protective sweep
A threshold arrest of defendant in his underwear justifies a protective sweep because he’d have to get his clothes. United States v. Rodriguez-Madera, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 196636 (D. P.R. Nov. 28, 2017):
CA9: Long protective weapons search wasn’t justified by RS weapons could be found
“Although Officers Ellis and Prince may have reasonably believed that Perryman and his cousin, Anthony Perryman (“Anthony”), were dangerous, the evidence does not support the district court’s conclusion that the officers reasonably believed that Perryman or Anthony would gain immediate … Continue reading
D.Me.: Officer’s comments and actions on body recorder belie any need for protective sweep
Officers went to defendant’s mobile home on a knock-and-talk based on an attempt to buy a gun two weeks earlier that was denied because the address given didn’t match the driver’s license. At the door of the mobile home, the … Continue reading
GA: Protective sweep of a house after a street fight and stabbing outside and a brief standoff with a cut def was reasonable
A protective sweep of defendant’s house right after his arrest was reasonable. Officers responded to a 911 call about a street fight and a possible stabbing. A dying victim was found in the street, and another victim was in hysterics. … Continue reading
OH1: Warrantless search of def’s cell phone in kidnapping investigation was reasonable and justified by exigency
The warrantless search of defendant’s apartment, his person, and his cell phone was justified by exigent circumstances under the Fourth Amendment because the still-missing kidnapping victim’s life was in danger. The police reasonably believed that his phone had been used … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Once a protective sweep is over, officers have to leave or they separately violate the 4A by staying
Officers lacked a reasonable basis for believing that there was anyone else in the apartment to conduct a protective sweep. Staying too long after the protective sweep is a separate constitutional violation. “Accordingly, even if the protective sweep had been … Continue reading
TX: Officer’s training and experience must be considered in the totality of RS
The court of appeals failed to consider and credit the officer’s training and experience in considering the totality of circumstances that the officer had reasonable suspicion under the Fourth Amendment to continue to detain defendant after the purposes of the … Continue reading
CA1: No RS for a protective sweep just because def was suspected of drugs
The government had no evidence of violence or reason to believe that there was anybody else in the apartment to justify a protective sweep. The crime alone, suspected drug trafficking, didn’t provide it. United States v. Delgado-Pérez, 2017 U.S. App. … Continue reading
NC: Seizure of shotgun during protective sweep for misdemeanor probation arrest was unreasonable
Defendant was arrested without incident in his living room for a violation of misdemeanor probation, and there was a protective sweep of other rooms looking for others, and a shotgun was seen. The protective sweep was valid, but the seizure … Continue reading
IN: Officer safety concerns not shown for search of juvenile’s back pack for asking to borrow cell phone
The juvenile in this case was in a Kroger parking lot late one Sunday morning asking to use cell phones. The police were called, and he was found with two backpacks and the police suspected he was a runaway. A … Continue reading
OH2: No testimony supported RS for protective sweep; two cars in driveway alone wasn’t enough
Two cars in the driveway doesn’t translate into two people in the house. The protective sweep of defendant’s house was unreasonable because the officers identified no facts at all to indicate a reasonable belief someone else was there: no sounds … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Protective sweep of garage and upstairs was valid; plain view sustained, but search of closed bag suppressed
“[T]he court finds that extending the protective sweep to the garage and the second floor was within the bounds set forth by the Supreme Court in Buie and the First Circuit in United States v. Winston, 444 F.3d 115, 120 … Continue reading
CA8: Protective sweep justified by one’s furtiveness, gun history for def, sounds of others inside
Here, there was plenty of articulable facts that added up to reasonable suspicion for a protective sweep because of one person’s apparent furtiveness, a gun history for the arrestee, and the sounds of others inside. United States v. Alatorre, 2017 … Continue reading