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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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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
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)
ACLU on privacy
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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
IA: Passenger’s open container seen in parked car didn’t justify search of car console
Defendant’s car was parked about midnight in June with the windows down and the radio loud. He, the driver, was standing outside the car. The passenger was still inside. Officers stopped and approached the car. They saw the passenger had … Continue reading
DE: Search incident of book bag left in car for FTA arrest violates Gant
Defendant was a passenger in a vehicle stopped for a brake light violation. The officer found an outstanding warrant for failure to appear and defendant was arrested and put into the patrol car. The search of defendant’s book bag back … Continue reading
MD: Strip search incident to arrest was valid on balance on this record
On this record with a wealth of reasonable suspicion and then probable cause, a strip search incident to arrest was justified at the police station in the breathalyser room. Defendant stripped and bent over but refused to spread his cheeks. … Continue reading
NY3: Cursory suppression motion properly denied on its face
Defendant’s suppression motion was properly denied. “Defendant made only a brief, conclusory claim that there was no probable cause for his arrest, lacking factual support ….” On his consent claim of lack of consent, the lack of factual support didn’t … Continue reading
GA: Search incident of def’s backpack six days after arrest was void
Defense counsel at trial provided ineffective assistance when he failed to seek suppression of evidence recovered from defendant’s backpacks, that were searched six days after defendant’s arrest. The search incident to arrest exception was not applicable to the search that … Continue reading
Cal.3d: Driver admitting no DL permitted search of her purse for ID
Police received reports of erratic driving and an LPN was given. The car wasn’t found at the location given. The address for the LPN was a block away, and the car wasn’t there either. Later in the day, police received … Continue reading
AZ: Search incident of def’s backpack in next room when he was handcuffed was unreasonable
“The state argues Snyder’s backpack was within his immediate control because it was next to the entrance of the room in the security office where Snyder was detained. According to the state, Snyder could have ‘quickly reached the backpack (notwithstanding … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Def’s stop on PC for drugs permitted Gant SI of the car
The officer had probable cause to stop and detain defendant for delivery of drugs based on the CI’s story coming together when defendant arrived. Therefore, the Gant search incident of the car for drugs was reasonable. United States v. Baskin, … Continue reading
DC: Gant search incident may precede arrest
Search incident under Gant may precede the arrest, but the product of the search cannot justify it. There must be preexisting cause. “[T]he legality of a Gant evidence search does not depend on whether the officers intended to arrest the … Continue reading
IA: Strip search incident shown justified in drug arrest
Strip search as a search incident to arrest was shown justified on this record. The smell of marijuana came from his person but nothing was on him. State v. Evans, 2016 Iowa App. LEXIS 1004 (Sept. 28, 2016):
OR: Search of Altoids tin during search of backpack for drugs was reasonable
When searching defendant’s backpack incident to arrest for drugs, the further search of an Altoids tin wasn’t unreasonable because it was a place where drugs would be held. State v. Krause, 281 Ore. App. 143, 2016 Ore. App. LEXIS 1142 … Continue reading
PA: GSR could be collected under search incident doctrine
Removal of gunshot residue from defendant’s hands was valid under search incident doctrine. McNeely didn’t apply. Commonwealth v. Simonson, 2016 PA Super 207, 2016 Pa. Super. LEXIS 527 (Sept. 12, 2016). “Nonetheless, other facts support a finding of reasonable suspicion. … Continue reading
CA11: Writ for body attachment for unpaid child support supports search incident
“This appeal presents a question of first impression about the Fourth Amendment: Can the police arrest someone based solely on a civil writ of bodily attachment for unpaid child support? Ted Phillips appeals his conviction of being a felon in … Continue reading
KS: Search incident does require actual proof of threat to officer safety, just a reasonable belief it’s a risk
To invoke the search incident doctrine, “the State need not prove that the officer’s safety was actually in jeopardy or that the officer believed his or her safety was in jeopardy before the officer has authority to seize personal property … Continue reading
MA: Seizing a bag during arrest at a hotel out of mere curiosity unreasonable
Defendant was arrested at a hotel, and his stuff was arranged to be left with the hotel until he could get it, except for a bag that the police were curious about. “As part of the booking process, LaPlante opened … Continue reading
TX13: Arrest on outstanding warrants doesn’t justify search incident of car
When defendant was arrested on outstanding warrants, his car was not subject to search incident. State v. Sanchez, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 7712 (Tex. App. – Corpus Christi – Edinburg July 21, 2016). “[T]he clearly established law in existence in … Continue reading
SCOTUS: Birchfield v. N.D.: refusing a blood test cannot result in charges
A breath test may be performed incident to an arrest without a warrant. A blood test requires a warrant or exigency. “Motorists may not be criminally punished for refusing to submit to a blood test based on legally implied consent … Continue reading
AK: State didn’t prove car’s ashtray was associated with the person to store things
Defendant was stopped for blocking the road with the passenger door open and a man leaning, and officers suspected a drug transaction, further confirmed at least in part by the person leaning in running and jumping three fences to get … Continue reading