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- CA3: Ptf was arrested on an apparent but recalled warrant, then officers confirmed it and let him go; the arrest was reasonable
- N.D.Ohio: Failure to serve state SW within state mandated time not 4A violation
- NY1: Gunshot through floor from apartment above was exigency
- Reason: Most Civil Forfeiture Victims Never See the Inside of a Courtroom
- CA8: Admission of anonymous tip that led to stop violated Confrontation Clause
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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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: Search incident
FL5: Car search was justified by search incident; automobile exception finding not even appealed
Defendant’s traffic stop was justified for stopping in the crosswalk before turning on red. The search of the car was found by the trial court with probable cause and justified by the search incident doctrine and the automobile exception. Defendant … Continue reading
SD: Def’s search issue on appeal wasn’t presented to the trial court, so it’s waived
Defendant’s claim that evidence discovering during a traffic stop had to be suppressed because the duration of the stop was unlawful was waived because he failed to advance that argument before the trial court. State v. Willingham, 2019 SD 55, … Continue reading
Iowa this week
A traffic stop can be based on probable cause or reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation. The trial court credited that the officer believed a headlight was out, and the evidence supports that conclusion. State v. White, 2019 Iowa App. … Continue reading
MO: Search incident of item taken off def’s person could happen 30 min after arrest
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not moving to suppress the search of a cigarette pack removed from defendant’s person at the time of his arrest but searched 30 minutes later. It was still subject to the search incident doctrine. Greene … Continue reading
CA8: Stop lacked RS, but the finding of a warrant on def was attenuation under Strieff and search incident was valid
Defendant was known to the officer and directed to stay away from a bus shelter. He was found there and the officer accosted him. The district court found reasonable suspicion to support the seizure of a firearm from his person. … Continue reading
DE: No nexus for def’s DNA to murder; search incident can’t be used to take DNA
The state’s search warrant for defendant’s DNA has zero nexus to the murder he was being investigated for on a gun. The state’s alternative argument that DNA can be collected by the search incident doctrine 11 hours later is rejected. … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Automobile exception permits search of locked box inside vehicle
With probable cause to believe that a vehicle has evidence in it, the automobile exception allows entry into a locked container (here a locked box) inside the vehicle. Also, a police officer following a car is not a seizure. United … Continue reading
CA4: Def’s admission she had cocaine in her hair permitted search incident of her car where arrested
“After finding a bag of white powder in Harrison’s hair — which she admitted to the arresting officer was cocaine — and observing a suspicious baggie and a large amount of cash in plain view, the officers had a ‘reasonable … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Search incident and community caretaking exceptions can’t support govt’s search of def’s messenger bag days later
The government’s search incident theory to sustain a search of defendant’s messenger bag days after his arrest is rejected. “The fundamental purpose of the search incident to arrest exception is to ensure safety and safeguard evidence. Neither of these concerns … Continue reading
N.D.Ala.: Court describes a protective sweep as a search incident to arrest and leaves confusion
Defendant was arrested on his porch, but one could see the bedroom from there. Officers did not have a search warrant. He requested an officer to turn off the stove. A protective sweep of the bedroom was valid. “Deputy Thomas … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Violation of NYC bicycle ordinance and evasiveness justified arrest and search incident
Violation of the NYC bicycle use ordinance justifies arrest if necessary, and defendant was riding his bike on the sidewalk. “Here, the officers’ search of Defendant was incident to the lawful stop of Defendant for a bicycle traffic infraction, that … Continue reading
FL2: State doesn’t justify entry into motel room on any exigency after suspect’s arrest; standing raised too late
The court declines to remand for more evidence of standing when the state sat on the claim. The state’s protective sweep argument and associated search incident fails for its failure to show exigency for any entry or officer safety. The … Continue reading
TN: There was PC for a search of the person but no exigency
There was probable cause for a search of defendant’s person, but there’s no evidence of exigency to justify it. A frisk produced no weapons, a drug dog didn’t alert on the car. Ultimately, he was made to empty his pockets, … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Moving place of search of belongings away from alley where def was arrested to inside wasn’t unreasonable
Officers had a warrant for defendant’s person and belongings. It wasn’t unreasonable to move the place of the search from the alley where he was arrested inside, even as a search incident. United States v. Sanchez, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA7: Drug stakeout led to stumbling upon CP in plain view
Officers were in a park looking for a drug meet up. They incidentally noticed defendant’s car and his actions suggested he might be doing drugs. They approached him and smelled marijuana coming from the car, but he was in the … Continue reading
NY1: Search incident of a “booster bag” at time of arrest outside a store was reasonable
Defendants were involved in store thefts with a “booster bag” where they were going into the stores and making off with stuff in bag and then transferring it to a rolling suitcase on the street. When the police observed a … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: No standing in a car rented under false pretenses
Defendant has no standing in a car rented under false pretenses. United States v. Anderson, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83157 (E.D. Cal. May 17, 2019). Defendant’s arrest justified a search incident of his person. Finding bullets in his pocket justified … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Arrest for violation of a mutual no contact order justified search incident of car at scene
Arrest for violation of a state domestic relations no contact order justified a search incident of defendant’s car at the scene because it could have contained evidence of the violation, such as a weapon. United States v. Al-Amin, 2019 U.S. … Continue reading
D.Vt.: If the arrest is invalid, the search incident is, too
Defendant’s arrest was without probable cause, so the search incident to his arrest must be suppressed. United States v. Williams, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58067 (D. Vt. Apr. 4, 2019).* “Here, many factors formed Detective Deshaies’s objectively reasonable basis to … Continue reading
AZ: Probation search could reasonably include cell phone because of nature of allegations
Defendant on felony probation and subject to a warrantless search condition. It was reasonable to search his cell phone under this condition because his mother reported threats and it was possible the cell phone’s contents could corroborate it. State v. … Continue reading