November 2025 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Archives
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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
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Fourth Circuit
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Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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State courts (and some USDC opinions)
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
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Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
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S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
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General (many free):
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Lexis.com $
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F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
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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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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) -
“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, Little Rock 
Category Archives: Dog sniff
S.D.Tex.: In not so few words: The bar for a competent drug dog under Florida v. Harris isn’t all that high; essentially: is the dog certified?
Defendant was stopped for driving without headlights during a Hurricane Harvey curfew, and he gave a false name and had no driver’s license. While detained, defendant was showing signs of diabetic distress. He was seated on the curb and he … Continue reading
OH8: Dog sniff within the normal occurrence of the traffic stop was reasonable
The exclusionary rule applies to forfeiture actions (One 1958 Plymouth Sedan) despite the state’s argument. The dog sniff occurred during the normal processing part of the stop. “Police may conduct a canine sniff during the time that it takes to … Continue reading
IL: Calling for a drug dog after defendant refused to consent to a search did not extend the stop even “incrementally”
Calling for a drug dog after defendant refused to consent to a search did not extend the stop even “incrementally” [ignoring the fact that the radio call took time away from writing the ticket]. People v. Heritsch, 2017 IL App … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Officer’s slow walking issuance of ticket to allow drug dog time to arrive wasn’t objectively unreasonable
The officer’s subjective intent to delay the processing of defendant’s speeding ticket didn’t show that it was objectively slowed down to give time to get a drug dog to the scene to conduct a car sniff before the finishing of … Continue reading
CA6: Turning off dashcam when drug dog arrived “concerning” but not fatal to the dog sniff
CSLI was obtained by a warrant with probable cause defendant was involved in drug dealing, and that’s nexus between the cell phone and the crime. When the car was stopped, there was at least reasonable suspicion and the stop was … Continue reading
DE: Typo of month of controlled buy in affidavit for SW could be ignored; totality shows what it really is
The affidavit says that the controlled buy was in the “second half of February 2017” when the search warrant was issued February 1. It’s clear to the court from reading the affidavit as a whole that this is a typo … Continue reading
NPR: Eliminating Police Bias When Handling Drug-Sniffing Dogs
NPR: Eliminating Police Bias When Handling Drug-Sniffing Dogs by Martin Kaste: Police dogs searching for drugs sometimes find them when they’re not there. Some people want to eliminate the influence of their handlers’ beliefs to make it more fair.
N.D.Iowa: Calling for drug dog whose sniff didn’t extend stop at all was reasonable
Calling for a drug dog during processing the paperwork of a traffic stop that produced a dog sniff before the stop was over was reasonable. United States v. Harry, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174689 (N.D. Iowa Oct. 23, 2017), adopted, … Continue reading
FL5: Driver can be ordered out of car for dog sniff
Defendant’s car was going to be subjected to a dog sniff, and the handler wanted him out. The first officer directed defendant out of the car, which is reasonable in any traffic stop. At that point, a gun could be … Continue reading
IN: A dog alert on a package wasn’t PC because it only proved the package could have been handled by somebody who might have used MJ legally
The state seized cash in a package for mailing for forfeiture and then sought to turn it over to the federal government. The owners sought to recover the cash. The court finds that the seizure of the cash was without … Continue reading
IL again holds that a second officer running a dog around a car while first officer writes ticket is reasonable because it doesn’t extend the stop
A second officer arrived immediately after defendant’s stop for speeding, and he ran a dog around the car while the first officer wrote out a ticket. This process didn’t extend the stop, and that was reasonable. People v. Pulido, 2017 … Continue reading
IA: Hour long detention waiting for drug dog lacked RS
Defendant was stopped for a window tint violation, which he didn’t contest. His LPN check of out-of-state plates took six minutes. It took nearly an hour for the drug dog to arrive. There was no reasonable suspicion for that long … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Use of drug dog in hotel hallway wasn’t at all like invading the curtilage in Jardines
Use of a drug dog in a hotel hallway that produced an alert on defendant’s room’s door was not unreasonble under Jardines. A hotel hallway, accessible to many people, cannot be compared to the curtilage of a home. United States … Continue reading
CO: In this recreational MJ use state, a dog sniff is a “search,” and a positive alert isn’t PC a crime is occurring
Use of a drug dog on a car is a “search” in marijuana recreational use Colorado, and a dog alert which could be of either legal or illegal substances is not probable cause. People v. McKnight, 2017 COA 93, 2017 … Continue reading
NJ rejects a RS requirement for all vehicle dog sniffs
New Jersey adopts the Fourth Amendment standard of Rodriguez, and reasonable suspicion is not required for a dog sniff of a car unless the stop is prolonged for the sniff beyond the mission of the stop. State v. Dunbar, 2017 … Continue reading
MI: Video showed the stop was extended without RS
Defendant’s seizure after a traffic stop was without reasonable suspicion under Rodriguez. “We have reviewed the relevant testimony as well as the complete video/audio recording of the encounter from Daniels’s first observation of defendant’s car through the arrest. On the … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: Officer’s intentional delay in ticketing process made stop violate Rodriguez
Officer’s intentionally delaying the ticket writing process until the drug dog was on its way was intentional delay without reasonable suspicion under Rodriguez. United States v. Rodriguez-Escalera, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 95848 (S.D. Ill. June 21, 2017):
IL: A dog sniff on the third floor apartment doors of an unlocked building violated Jardines
A dog sniff on the third floor apartment doors of an unlocked building violated Jardines. The sniff occurred two years after Jardines. People v. Bonilla, 2017 IL App (3d) 160457, 2017 Ill. App. LEXIS 380 (June 14, 2017):
ND: Drug dog arriving before stop completed could sniff before stop ended
Because the drug dog arrived nearly at the same time as the officer making the traffic stop, the dog sniff on the highway did not extend the stop under Rodriguez. State v. Phelps, 2017 ND 141, 2017 N.D. LEXIS 134 … Continue reading