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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)
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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
W.D.Mo.: Def volunteering he had a warrant justified extending stop; driver’s statement passenger hid a gun was RS
Defendant volunteered early in the stop that he had a warrant out for him, and that alone justified continuing the stop. The driver of the vehicle told the officer that defendant put a gun under the seat, and that justified … Continue reading
N.D.Ala.: Fifth Amendment “public safety exception” creates exigency for protective sweep for weapon in hands of felon
The Fifth Amendment “public safety exception” for statements about firearms can also create exigent circumstances for a protective sweep for the gun. Defendant had a second degree murder warrant issued for him in 2015 for a 2008 murder in Buffalo. … Continue reading
NY2: Def was accosted on the street without reasonable suspicion, and def’s flight and abandonment was precipitated by unlawful police action
Defendant fled from the police and dropped a gun. His being accosted was without reasonable suspicion and his flight was not reason to arrest. Dropping the gun while being chased is suppressed. “Detective Lunt’s experience with gang activity, his awareness … Continue reading
TX11: Invalid portion of warrant properly severed, but the cocaine was still admissible
Texas JP’s can’t issue evidentiary search warrants by statute. This was partially that and mostly for cocaine. The trial court properly severed the invalid portion and suppressed, and the cocaine was properly admitted. Van Spotwood v. State, 2015 Tex. App. … Continue reading
LA1: Protective sweep of outdoor grill invalid when def arrested 20′ away
Defendant saw the narcs pull up and he walked toward them and was arrested in the street. Nobody else was in his yard. A protective sweep lifting the top of his barbecue grill when he was more than 20′ away … Continue reading
MA: Def readily submitted to arrest and came out; entry for protective sweep not reasonably justified
Defendant readily submitted to the police and came outside to be arrested. While the arrest warrant was for a defaced firearm, a protective sweep on that basis alone was unreasonable. Commonwealth v. Colon, 2015 Mass. App. LEXIS 171 (Oct. 26, … Continue reading
OH2: Looking under an air mattress for a person was valid in a protective sweep
Officers in hot pursuit chased two men to a house, and the door was locked. They “knocked” and got no answer, retrieved a battering ram, and broke in. A protective sweep of the house revealed plenty of drugs in plain … Continue reading
S.D.Iowa: Looking for gun serial number exceeded scope of protective sweep and is suppressed
DHS officers executed a search warrant on an empty house looking for a 2×4″ object (an I-551 stamp). They didn’t find it. In the course of the search, they opened an Xbox box in a closet and found a handgun. … Continue reading
GA: No factual support for police conclusion a protective sweep was justified
The evidence here does not support the trial court’s findings that a protective sweep was justified. Two officers entered the house after defendant and he was subdued, and inside there was the defendant and two others. There was no suggestion … Continue reading
IN: A protective sweep was justified when officers were told they were alone in a house and another man was glimpsed
Officers acting on a drug tip conducted surveillance of a home. They finally came for a knock-and-talk and were admitted by somebody with apparent authority. Once inside, officers were told the people they saw in the living room were all … Continue reading
NH: State failed to prove basics of protective sweep here
The state neither preserved nor proved that a protective sweep was required of this house. They claimed to be looking for a “cohort” of defendant who was possibly there, but there was no indication that this person was violent or … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: A sweep upstairs was justified by voices, even though it turned out to be a TV set
The officer’s testimony about exigent circumstances is credited. It was also reasonable for an officer to go upstairs for a sweep after hearing a voice, even though that voice turned out to be from a television set. United States v. … Continue reading
C.A.A.F.: Protective sweep of base house believed to be empty was unjustified under Buie
In a controlled delivery of a box of marijuana to an address on Fort Campbell, Kentucky, officers got a verbal search authorization from the on duty base magistrate. The box was left on the porch because no one was home. … Continue reading
AZ: 911 hang up call justified entry onto curtilage and look in windows when no one answered door
Police received a 911 hang up call, and the call back was unanswered. They are treated as emergencies, and two officers responded. No one answered the door, so they went to a window to look in, and a marijuana plant … Continue reading
NH: Protective sweep applies to vehicles
Because defendant was known to have weapons and associated with violent persons, a protective sweep of his SUV was permissible under the Fourth Amendment and the state constitution. State v. Francis, 2015 N.H. LEXIS 38 (May 12, 2015). Hand-to-hand drug … Continue reading
CA3: Three connected cases
When the officer went to an apartment in response to a shots fired call, and defendant came running out knocking the officer over, that was reasonable suspicion to detain him. The crack in his hand was dropped. United States v. … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Protective sweep was justified just after door opened on knock-and-talk, but court doesn’t even tell us why
Thirteen police came to defendant’s house, and four came on the porch for a knock-and-talk. His wife answered and opened the door three feet. She stepped back and officers entered to conduct a protective sweep. After explaining the reasonable suspicion … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Apt was small enough that protective sweep was valid, even to balcony
While the record isn’t clear, the apartment here appears to be small enough that a protective sweep validly covered all the space inside, including the balcony near where defendant was arrested. United States v. Washington, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43617 … Continue reading