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- ID: AW for suspected passenger allowed police to enter curtilage to look in parked car at night
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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) -
“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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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: Consent
CA4: Surveillance video of def carrying suitcase showed his standing in it
Surveillance footage showed defendant carrying his suitcase, and that shows he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in it under Bond. United States v. Garcia, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 6876 (4th Cir. Mar. 5, 2026). Consent was to look inside … Continue reading →
D.D.C.: Illegal search on stop tainted consent
“On August 12, 2025, seven U.S. Marshals partially surrounded Defendant Judge Alston’s car over a minor parking violation. The Government concedes that before Alston gave any consent, a Marshal began illegally searching his car. Because that initial illegal search both … Continue reading →
CA4: Error to deny suppression motion without hearing where there’s disputed facts
The district court erred in denying defendant’s motion to suppress without a hearing when there were disputed facts. United States v. Moore, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 6196 (4th Cir. Mar. 3, 2026). Defendant consented orally and in writing to search … Continue reading →
E.D.Mich.: Typo in SW affidavit didn’t justify Franks hearing
A single error in a warrant affidavit that should be characterized as a typo and not a false statement doesn’t justify a Franks hearing. United States v. McClain, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39891 (E.D. Mich. Feb. 26, 2026). Defendant had … Continue reading →
OH8: Apt building maintenance workers consented to administrative elevator inspections
Cleveland’s city elevator inspector got permission from the maintenance persons at three apartment buildings in Cleveland to conduct regular inspections. This was all by consent. The court thus does not have to decide whether the inspections were also valid as … Continue reading →
MA: Unreasonable exit order under MA law led to invalid consent
An unreasonable exit order here led to alleged consent, but the court finds consent tainted by the order. No factors of attenuation favor the state. Commonwealth v. Robinson, 2026 Mass. LEXIS 49 (Feb. 13, 2026):
CA10: Consent search of house for medical furlough from hospital after being brought there by police wasn’t coerced
Defendant was detained for DUI, but he had medical issues and police wanted to release him to home under a “medical furlough.” He consented to an inspection of his house and weapons were found. He was never in custody, and … Continue reading →
CNS: 10th Circuit flags ‘Kansas two-step’ traffic cop trick as unconstitutional
CNS: 10th Circuit flags ‘Kansas two-step’ traffic cop trick as unconstitutional by Andrew J. Nelson (case posted here) (“A 10th Circuit panel on Thursday found that out-of-state motorists who sued Kansas over a traffic stop tactic have standing, but a … Continue reading →
OH7: Male driver’s consent to search his truck included the purse of his female passenger
The driver’s consent to search his truck included the purse of his female passenger. State v. Mort, 2026-Ohio-249 (7th Dist. Jan. 28, 2026). Motion to suppress filed after sixth trial setting wasn’t timely. On the merits, the claim of lack … Continue reading →
D.Minn.: The stated reason for the stop was pretextual, but it was with PC
There was probable cause for the stop and search of defendant’s car before the pretextual stop. Therefore, it was all valid. United States v. Nieves, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 272309 (D. Minn. Dec. 1, 2025).* Defendant’s stop was with reasonable … Continue reading →
KS: Geofence warrant valid under GFE
This geofence warrant was valid by the good faith exception. State v. Mitchell-Pennington, 2026 Kan. App. LEXIS 6 (Jan. 23, 2026). The omitted facts merely clarified, not defeated, probable cause. The motion to suppress was properly denied. Urrutia v. State, … Continue reading →
CA7: Stop at night in a high crime area and furtive movements justified protective sweep of car
Defendant was stopped in a high crime area at night, and his furtive movements in the car justified a protective sweep of the car. United States v. Erving, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 1377 (7th Cir. Jan. 20, 2026).* Defendant’s car … Continue reading →
FL: Request for consent after stop outside city jurisdiction was reasonable
A municipal police officer had authority to request consent after a stop outside his territorial jurisdiction. One justice concurring said that’s not a Fourth Amendment violation anyway, and suppression wouldn’t be an appropriate remedy. State v. Repple, 2025 Fla. LEXIS … Continue reading →
WI: “the end of a romantic relationship does not automatically terminate shared authority when the partner continues to access or use the property”
“The fact that Klein expressed anger toward A.V. and moved some of her belongings outside does not establish that her residential status had ended. He did not finish removing her possessions, he permitted her inside, and her household items remained … Continue reading →
D.D.C.: Arrest on a warrant where defendant fled justified search incident
Defendant had a warrant for his arrest. He was seen by police, and he fled. When he was tackled to the ground and handcuffed, the officers rolled him over finding a gun in his waistband. It was a valid search … Continue reading →
CA8: Merely handling bag on a Greyhound Bus at a stop wasn’t a search or seizure
The officer’s handling defendant’s suitcase on a Greyhound Bus for five seconds to remove it from the bus, just as the driver or baggage handlers would, before asking him for consent was not unreasonable. Defendant validly consented to its search. … Continue reading →
TX12: When passenger was ordered out of car and “couldn’t open” door, officer could
During a traffic stop, an object hanging inside the passenger door concerned the officer. The passenger claimed the door wouldn’t open from inside, so it was reasonable for the officer to open the door when ordering the passenger out. Penney … Continue reading →
MI: PC for SW completely lacking, so no GFE
“As noted by dissenting Judge Garrett, the search-warrant affidavit failed to connect the firearms and firearm-related items listed in the search warrant with the suspected criminal activity. Therefore, there was not probable cause to believe ‘that contraband or evidence of … Continue reading →
NC: Admin. tax warrant search of house violated 4A
Search under a general administrative tax warrant under state law violates the Fourth Amendment. This involved a search of a house where the taxes were not paid on illegal drugs. Also, it was issued by the Secretary of Revenue and … Continue reading →
N.D.Tex.: Merely being a federal contractor doesn’t make employer’s search state action
Being a federal contractor wasn’t enough to make defendant food service company a state actor. Ellis v. Ben E. Keith Co., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 217957 (N.D. Tex. Oct. 1, 2025). Officers had a warrant for the place searched and … Continue reading →