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- D.Utah: Minor time detours to writing up a traffic ticket didn’t unreasonable 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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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: Ineffective assistance
N.D.Ill.: No IAC for not challenging CSLI without warrant before Carpenter
Defendant didn’t get ineffective assistance of counsel from defense counsel not challenging warrantless CSLI production without a warrant before Carpenter. United States v. Lewisbey, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 165566 (N.D. Ill. Sep. 27, 2018). Defendant claimed for the first time … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Parole officers’ clinical reports didn’t have any of the added color at the suppression hearing, so the court doesn’t credit their testimony
“Based upon the totality of the circumstances and the Court’s assessment of the credibility of the parole officers, the Court finds that the [parole authority] lacked reasonable suspicion to search Neff’s cell phone. The results of the search, therefore, must … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: Arrest inside the door permitted protective sweep
The arrest of the codefendant inside house permitted a protective sweep. United States v. Jones, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166347 (N.D. Okla. Sep. 27, 2018). “These nine ineffective assistance of counsel claims are properly evaluated under the Strickland standard, meaning … Continue reading
IA: No IAC for not challenging evidence obtained in another state where state law was more defense favorable; can’t show outcome would be different
Defendant was arrested in Nebraska, and Iowa authorities sought his DNA there to connect him to an Iowa crime. Nebraska’s standard for obtaining DNA is less demanding. He can’t show on post-conviction that defense counsel was ineffective for not challenging … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Of course the SW was signed, so def counsel wasn’t ineffective for not raising it
“Eason’s counsel was not ineffective for failing to allege that the search warrant was not signed by the affiant because the Court’s records clearly demonstrate that it was. Had that not been the case, the Court who carefully examined the … Continue reading
CA3: Govt agreed that SW materials could be released in terrorism case, but not plea agreement; no abuse of discretion in keeping plea papers sealed
In a terrorism case, the government agreed that search warrant materials could be unsealed, but resisted disclosure of plea agreements and plea related materials. They were presumptively open records at common law and the First Amendment, but the government made … Continue reading
GA: An issue briefed but not heard at the suppression hearing was fairly presented and preserved
A newer issue raised in a post-hearing brief on the motion to suppress was a part of the motion when it was decided by the trial court. A padlock on a door and a fan running inside does not support … Continue reading
ID: A parole arrest done by a LEO on the parole officer’s request doesn’t violate 4A
A parole arrest wasn’t in violation of the Fourth Amendment just because a parole officer got a law enforcement officer to do it. There also was probable cause for the arrest. State v. Ayala, 2018 Ida. App. LEXIS 41 (Sep. … Continue reading
OH8: Hard to show prejudice for IAC on not raising a motion to suppress until mid-trial
Defense counsel didn’t file a motion to suppress because she didn’t see a reason for it until testimony at trial revealed the issue. Therefore, the defense made a mid-trial motion to suppress. The trial court denied it on two grounds: … Continue reading
OR: Failure to appeal order denying return of property precludes later relief
Defendant’s denial of his motion for return of property was a final appealable order, and his failure to appeal foreclosed later recovery. State v. Fenton, 294 Ore. App. 48, 2018 Ore. App. LEXIS 1091 (Sep. 13, 2018). Defense counsel made … Continue reading
CA9: No QI for IRS agent insisting that she watch ptf pee in her own bathroom during execution of tax SW
During an IRS criminal search, an IRS supervisory officer insisted that she watch plaintiff urinate in plaintiff’s own bathroom. This was sufficient to show an unreasonable invasion of privacy and overcome qualified immunity. Ioane v. Hodges, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
NC: Car parked on street was not on the curtilage
A car parked on the street next to a house was not on the curtilage as a matter of law. Based on undisputed facts in the record, however, the officer had probable cause to search the car on the street. … Continue reading
LA2: No IAC for not challenging search of house two months after murder
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not moving to suppress a search of defendant’s home two months after a murder because it wasn’t meritorious [and the court never says why it wasn’t]. State v. Critton, 2018 La. App. LEXIS 1618 (La. … Continue reading
D.Colo.: There is no requirement the SW particularly describe the inside of the place to be searched
The CI was corroborated by controlled buys and surveillance cameras showing drug deals outside defendant’s home. The house was sufficiently described that the wrong house wouldn’t be searched. “Ms. Pereda nonetheless argues the search warrant lacked particularity because it did … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Warrantless CSLI obtained three years before Carpenter would not be excluded under Davis
Warrantless CSLI obtained three years before Carpenter would not be excluded under Davis. United States v. Blake, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 141895 (D. Conn. Aug. 20, 2018). “Here, Rivarola does not explain what, if anything, further investigation by his prior … Continue reading
W.D.Ark.: When challenging SW, def has burden of pleading to attach the SW and affidavit to the motion to suppress
When challenging a search warrant, the defendant needs to attach the warrant and affidavit to the motion to suppress. The government did instead. Here, the search warrant wasn’t even needed because there was probable cause for a vehicle search under … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: When police come to def’s house with arrest warrant, cotenant’s denial he’s home isn’t binding on officers
Officers had good information where defendant lived, and they came with an arrest warrant. His cotenant denied he was there, which the officers did not have to take at face value. One FBI agent testified that cotenants frequently lie about … Continue reading
NC: Failure to object in trial court to satellite monitoring of sex offender was waiver
Defendant didn’t object in the trial court to his satellite monitoring condition of his sentence as a violation of the Fourth Amendment, so it can’t be reviewed on appeal. State v. Lindsey, 2018 N.C. App. LEXIS 747 (Aug. 8, 2018). … Continue reading
CA6: Franks violation overcomes qualified immunity in § 1983 case
In this § 1983 case, the officer provided false information in the affidavit for the search warrant that was critical to the finding of probable cause. Without that information, there was no probable cause. The district court’s finding that qualified … Continue reading