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- D.Utah: Minor detours to writing up a traffic ticket didn’t unreasonably extend this stop; the dog was quickly on its way
- KY: Despite lack of nexus, SW sustained under GFE
- CO: DNA could be seized from trash
- CA8: Nebraska statute allowing SWs to cross state lines doesn’t violate 4A
- WA: Sweat patch as condition of release violated state constitution’s privacy provision
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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)
--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: Ineffective assistance
D.P.R.: Def’s 2255 claim was based on a fact litigated below and at the trial on the merits; the jury’s determination on credibility can’t be challenged now
In his 2255, defendant claims counsel was ineffective for not moving to suppress on the automobile search or consent search grounds. This was contrary to his defense at trial and the original suppression motion that the officers planted the gun, … Continue reading
KS: Def’s stop when she was unconscious in a car was valid as a public safety stop
Defendant was unconscious in a car slumped over at the wheel at 2 am, unresponsive to a spotlight on her. This was valid as a public safety stop. State v. McKenna, 2020 Kan. App. LEXIS 7 (Jan. 31, 2020). “A … Continue reading
FL5: Appellate counsel in direct appeal was ineffective for not arguing automobile exception wasn’t applicable; if it had been argued, court would have reversed
In defendant’s original appeal, appellate counsel argued only that the search incident doctrine applied and he failed on that issue. On post-conviction, however, new counsel argued that the automobile exception should have been argued and that it did not apply … Continue reading
CA11: No justification is needed for a jail booking strip search
No justification is needed for a jail booking strip search. [The court alludes to what might possibly be some factual justification but doesn’t say that it was.] Watkins v. Pinnock, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 1881 (11th Cir. Jan. 22, 2020). … Continue reading
OH12: Not challenging reliability of drug dog not IAC without showing result would change
Defendant doesn’t show that the outcome would be different if defense counsel had challenged the certification and reliability of the drug dog. State v. Wash, 2020-Ohio-152, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 131 (12th Dist. Jan. 21, 2020). “Accordingly, the court finds … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: No constitutional requirement that the SW be served on the target of the search, so the missing attachment didn’t matter
There is no constitutional requirement that the search warrant be served on the target of the search, so the missing attachment didn’t matter. “As stated above, the record demonstrates with reasonable certainty that a warrant stating with particularity the items … Continue reading
D.N.J.: What witnesses to call at a suppression hearing is strategic call under Strickland
Defendant wasn’t prejudiced by not calling his codefendant wife at the suppression hearing. Her declaration was already before the court, and nothing more could be added. What witnesses to call, even in a suppression hearing, is a Strickland strategic decision. … Continue reading
CA11: Two CoAs denied same day
Defendant lost his search issue on appeal. On 2255 he argues that it could have been argued better. [The opinion doesn’t say how.] It he lost on the merits of a Fourth Amendment claim, that’s binding on 2255 for lack … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Allegedly not understanding a potential 4A claim isn’t grounds to set aside plea months later
“On the record before the Court, Mr. Rivera’s belatedly asserted misapprehension regarding possible Fourth Amendment claims does not provide a basis for permitting him to withdraw his guilty plea.” [The court doesn’t even mention the merits of such a motion.] … Continue reading
CA10: Walking up to def sitting on parked car to talk to him wasn’t a stop
Walking up to defendant sitting on his parked car and talking to him, without blocking the path of the car and no police lights, was not a seizure. State v. McCall, 2020-Ohio-84, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 69 (10th Dist. Jan. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: The unusually talkative have no special right to be Mirandized
“Because the officers knew that he had a tendency to talk about the case, Williams-Bey argues, Officer Roddy should have given him his Miranda warnings, rather than entertaining his question. Again, Williams-Bey provides no legal authority to support this contention.” … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Using drug dog in the patrol car didn’t prolong the stop
There was a factual basis for the stop, and the drug dog at hand did not prolong the stop. After the alert, defendant then consented to the search of the vehicle. United States v. Navarro, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3062 … Continue reading
TN: Defense counsel not ineffective for recommending guilty plea where motion to suppress denied and case would have gone to trial on other counts even if granted
Defendant challenges on post-conviction his counsel being ineffective in recommending a guilty plea after the motion to suppress was denied. Even if it had been granted, defendant was going to trial on other counts, and he can’t show that defense … Continue reading
NC: Reasonable force can be used for a DUI blood draw under SW when def refuses
Officers had a search warrant for defendant’s blood while he was in the hospital for an accident. Relying on United States v. Bullock, 71 F.3d 171 (5th Cir. 1995), the court concludes that reasonable force can be used to take … Continue reading
CA11: Domestic disturbance call with a report of shots fired permitted a warrantless entry and then a protective sweep for victims
A domestic disturbance call with a report of shots fired permitted a warrantless entry and then a protective sweep for victims: “Based on the 911 call reporting gunshots and a domestic disturbance, combined with Peacock’s initial observations upon arriving at … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Habeas pet’r doesn’t show case outcome would be different if motion to suppress had been litigated
To prevail on a Fourth Amendment IAC claim, there are essentially three things to prove, not just two: (a) defense counsel failed to litigate a search issue (b) that not only would have prevailed on the search issue, (c) but … Continue reading
OH8: Malpractice ptf already lost on the merits of Franks claim in direct criminal appeal, defense counsel didn’t commit malpractice handling it
Plaintiff is an inmate pro se pursuing a legal malpractice claim against his criminal defense counsel. The defendant lawyer gets judgment on the pleadings based on the fact the conviction was affirmed on the ground that the defense counsel’s challenge … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: The fact it was ambiguous whether def’s images were CP or not doesn’t nullify PC for the search
It was ambiguous whether the images that officers believed were on defendant’s computer qualified as child pornography, but the question for probable cause is reason to believe and not sufficient evidence to convict. Even so, the good faith exception applies. … Continue reading
CA5: COA previously granted in 2255 appeal is set aside for lack of a “substantial preliminary showing” he could prevail
A judge of the Fifth Circuit granted a certificate of appealability in a 2255 denied by the district court alleging, inter alia, a Fourth Amendment ineffective assistance of counsel claim. The issue was waived by the guilty plea. The COA … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Informant hearsay here was adequately corroborated to be found reliable
The informant hearsay here was sufficiently corroborated. “The affidavit provides sufficient grounds to assess the veracity and basis of knowledge of CS1’s information. Most of CS1’s information is based on personal observations of Goodman. Those observations, including Goodman’s involvement with … Continue reading