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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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General (many free):
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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (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
CA11: Def counsel wasn’t ineffective for not pursuing suppression motion after def admitted facts showing no standing
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not adequately pursuing defendant’s motion to suppress because defendant admitted to counsel facts after the motion was filed that he had no standing at all. He provided that address as his address, but he was … Continue reading
CA6: New evidence in civil case to impeach officers’ prior suppression hearing testimony isn’t ground for a successor 2255
2255 petitioner filed a successor petition alleging that a civil case he filed developed impeachment material that would undermine the original probable cause finding. This isn’t new evidence of innocence for a successor petition. In re Mohammed, 2018 U.S. App. … Continue reading
CA9: Claim that SW was defective on face wasn’t preserved in district court
The specific argument the search warrant was defective on its face wasn’t encompassed within the motion to suppress, so it’s waived for appeal. United States v. Robinson, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 14097 (9th Cir. May 29, 2018). The basis of … Continue reading
AZ: Trial court didn’t make finding on Strickland IAC prejudice for failure to argue curtilage; remanded
Defense counsel deliberatedly didn’t make a claim officers violated curtilage in their initial entry to defendant’s property. The first search warrant application was rejected by one judge. The affidavit was redrafted with additional facts and presented to a second judge … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: No prejudice for IAC where alleged 4A violation produced nothing for trial
One of defendant’s 2255 claims involved a search of a gun safe that had nothing of evidentiary value in it. It didn’t matter at trial, was a “red herring,” and there could be no prejudice. Belitsky v. United States, 2018 … Continue reading
KS: Car search had PC, so trial court erred in suppressing
The trial court erred in suppressing the search of the car. There was probable cause for a search for drugs, and that allowed the officer to search anywhere drugs would be found. State v. Knight, 2018 Kan. App. LEXIS 28 … Continue reading
IL: Direct appeal record isn’t adequate to determine IAC claim on failure to litigate consent search
The record doesn’t show the reason for waiving a Fourth Amendment claim against a consent search and whether a motion to suppress would have been granted if litigated. A collateral proceeding is the place to do it. People v. Williamson, … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: No IAC where suppression motion wouldn’t be granted
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not moving to suppress cell phone records in 2014 because that motion would not be granted. United States v. Scott, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78666 (E.D. Mich. May 10, 2018).* The CI’s information was corroborated … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Def could be seized under the SW for the business searched when he was found near the door heading in
The narcs timed execution of a search warrant for when defendant’s heroin dealer would arrive. He was near the front door when the police arrived, and he could be detained under Summers and Bailey. United States v. Jones, 2018 U.S. … Continue reading
CA5: Automobile exception applied; although def was handcuffed, wife showed up acting somewhat belligerently
Defendant was in custody, handcuffed and on the ground, but his wife showed up acting somewhat belligerent. Her presence satisfied exigency for the car search. United States v. Beene, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 11400 (5th Cir. May 2, 2018). Defense … Continue reading
WA: SW for firearms in house permitted forcing open gun safe
A search warrant for firearms necessarily includes the ability of the police to open a gun safe found in the place to be searched, even though the officer was aware there might be a gun safe and it wasn’t specifically … Continue reading
OH9: “Counsel’s decision not to pursue every possible angle [in a suppression motion] is not ineffective assistance.”
“Counsel’s decision not to pursue every possible angle [in a suppression motion] is not ineffective assistance.” State v. Palmer, 2018-Ohio-1486, 2018 Ohio App. LEXIS 1631 (9th Dist. Apr. 18, 2018). Defendant’s swerving vehicle and trailer provided reasonable suspicion for a … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Court order for cell phone detail information under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d) requires only RS
A court order for cell phone detail information under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d) requires only reasonable suspicion, following In re Applications of the United States of Am. for an Order Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d), 206 F. Supp. 3d … Continue reading
TN: Argument “the rule” of witness exclusion of Rule 615 at suppression hearing has to be made in trial court
Defendant didn’t preserve for appeal his argument that the suppression hearing court allowed witnesses to sit in the rehearing of the suppression hearing because he didn’t make it to the trial court. At any rate, the transcripts of the hearing … Continue reading
IN: Def’s backpack would have been searched anyway, so inevitable discovery applied
Inevitable discovery applied to the search of defendant’s backpack. He was arrested, and the search would have occurred as a result of that. The merits of defendant’s search claim is thus moot. Winborn v. State, 2018 Ind. App. LEXIS 133 … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Unwarned questioning about control of a bedroom wasn’t custodial
UnMirandized questioning about defendant’s control of a bedroom was a close call, but not found not custodial. “This case presents a close call. On balance, the Court concludes that under Muniz and Fleck and the circumstances of this case, Sergeant … Continue reading
IL: Def’s actions after stop to inquire rose to RS
Police encountered defendant and others in a car in a neighborhood where it didn’t seem to belong. The officers pulled up next to their car and talked. Based on furtive movements, the officer believed that defendant had a gun he … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Def’s Franks IAC claim fails for lack of any allegations of fact
“Lloyd makes four claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. Those claims border on the ridiculous.” As to his Fourth Amendment IAC claim for not making a Franks challenge, he alleges nothing was false. United States v. Lloyd, 2018 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
Cal.: Cal.’s initiated DNA act constitutionally requires DNA sampling from those charged with serious felonies
California’s initiated DNA collection act requiring DNA sampling of those charged with serious felonies applies to defendant’s arson arrest. He refused to provide a sample on booking and was convicted of a misdemeanor offense. The California statute is not exactly … Continue reading