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Recent Posts
- M.D.Fla.: Unidentified pills in driver’s lap may have been RS but it wasn’t PC for arrest
- D.C.Cir.: It was reasonable for officers to conclude that evidence or instrumentalities of the crime would be found in the car used in a robbery
- CA7: Officer’s warrantless view of CSAM flagged by hash value was not unreasonable
- 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
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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)
--Outline of 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
E.D.Pa.: Nexus shown by def taking CI’s money and going to house and coming back with drugs
Probable cause to search premises, nexus, was shown by defendant receiving money for drugs, going to the address, and coming back with the drugs. United States v. Castro, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15494 (E.D. Pa. Feb. 8, 2016). Defendant was … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: IAC claim over search denied for lack of factual proffer
2255 petitioner’s IAC claim denied for generality and no factual basis: “Here, the petitioner has failed to develop any factual basis or legal argument on the performance element, beyond the naked assertion that his attorneys did not advance any arguments … Continue reading
CA8: No IAC for failing to raise Riley years before without any binding circuit cases; refuses to consider IAC prejudice based on sentence received
On the Strickland performance prong, counsel was not ineffective for not arguing defendant’s cell phone search incident when there was no circuit authority years before Riley. On the prejudice prong, the court doesn’t have to decide it but comments anyway: … Continue reading
S.D.Ala.: Logical to find serial robber’s regular outfit in his house
The defendant was a suspect in a series of robberies, and the robber wore the same things in each. It was reasonable to conclude, therefore, that the robber was keeping the outfit on hand, and it would be found where … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Waivers in plea agreement included IAC on the motion to suppress
“Movant’s claims that his trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance in failing to file an effective and timely motion to suppress, failing to argue effectively at the hearing on that motion, failing to obtain an evidentiary hearing on the motion to … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Ulterior motive for stop irrelevant where there is objective cause
The stop had a factual basis for a traffic offense even though the officer omitted from his report that the real reason was the DEA requested him to come up with a reason. “That the officer may have had ulterior … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Stone v. Powell applies to § 2255’s
Defendant pled and didn’t appeal denial of his motion to suppress. Therefore, he had a “full and fair opportunity to litigate” to conclusion and waived. Stone v. Powell applies to 2255’s. Cadet v. United States, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174028 … Continue reading
CA11: Two men, two beds = common authority over room
When two men shared a room with two beds, one can consent to a search of the whole room. This is joint custody and control. “Marvin had common authority to consent to search his shared bedroom, including Espinoza’s designated side … Continue reading
IL: When a stop is based on an “investigative alert,” the basis has to be shown to be reasonable; here, the state couldn’t
Defendant was stopped on an “investigative alert,” which would have been sufficient if there was reasonable suspicion under the collective knowledge doctrine. There was no showing of the basis for the alert, and the stop was thus without reasonable suspicion … Continue reading
CA8: Pre-Jardines dog sniff at defendant’s window was governed by Jardines
A dog sniff of defendant’s apartment window was a violation of Jardines. While the sniff was pre-Jardines, there was no clear binding authority that the government could rely on for Davis good faith to apply. United States v. Burston, 2015 … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Corp. officer had no standing in search of company website; aside from the fact it’s on the Internet
Defendant had no standing over government search of a corporation’s website without showing that he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the place searched. [If it’s on the Internet and open to the world, how is there conceivably any … Continue reading
TN: “a driver is not required to drive perfectly on the highways in order to avoid being stopped by police and subjected to a seizure.”
Weaving within one’s lane, touching the center line once, crossing it once, turning wide, and driving five mph below the speed limit is not reasonable suspicion. A motorist doesn’t have to drive perfectly to avoid a stop. Case law supports … Continue reading
NY3: It’s not IAC to not listen to the audio of the SW application where there was a motion to suppress for lack of PC
Defense counsel was not ineffective for not listening to the audio of the oral application for the search warrant challenging probable cause. The defense moved to suppress on lack of PC, and it was denied by the trial court and … Continue reading
CA7: § 1983 SOL starts from the date of the search and seizure
Plaintiff was arrested, searched, prosecuted, and acquitted. He claimed illegal search and seizure and police theft of property, but the claim was filed 2½ years after the occurrence, and Illinois has a two year limitations period. “Claims for wrongful search … Continue reading
NM: Lack of prior notice of a sobriety checkpoint not fatal; suppression reversed
“The State of New Mexico appeals from an order granting a motion to suppress evidence based on an unconstitutional sobriety checkpoint. The State raises a single issue on appeal: whether the lack of advance publicity makes a sobriety checkpoint unconstitutional, … Continue reading
TX2: Passenger puking in car was not an exigent circumstance; she was not in danger
The fact defendant’s passenger had puked in the car was not an exigency requiring police action. There was no evidence she was a danger to herself or others. They were already near hospitals. Byram v. State, 2015 Tex. App. LEXIS … Continue reading