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:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
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LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
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General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
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
Privacy Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
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: Emergency / exigency
D.Me.: No exigent circumstances for BAC blood sample without SW
A Park Ranger in Acadia National Park in Maine followed Maine law to get a blood sample without a search warrant. There were no exigent circumstances, and the blood sample is suppressed. United States v. Manubolu, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
MA: Info there might be armed men holding a hostage inside justified entry
“In this case, the police had information that there might be armed men holding a woman in an apartment against her will. In the circumstances presented here, so long as the officers had ‘an objectively reasonable basis to believe’ that … Continue reading
CA9: Police following a blood trail onto curtilage after recent crime was exigency
The district court concluded defendant had no standing to challenge a tribal police search of the curtilage of his grandmother’s house where he was an overnight guest. Assuming, without deciding, he has standing, there was clear and obvious exigency for … Continue reading
CA10: Entry onto curtilage at 3:30 am was reasonable based on exigency of domestic battery call
Police approach to defendant’s house at 3:30 am was reasonable because it was based on a domestic violence report to check on his wife. “Finally, Jardines, King, and Manzanares do not apply here. The Officers did not search Mr. Martinez’s … Continue reading
CT: Police wait for def to attempt to retrieve sawed off shotgun in backyard was still exigency
The police had a reasonable belief defendant had used a sawed off shotgun to threaten someone and that it was likely in his backyard. They waited for him to reappear to attempt to recover the gun, and when he did, … Continue reading
CA9 applies QI standard to “egregious violations” of 4A for ICE entries
ICE entry onto appellant’s curtilage to arrest him was not an egregious violation of the Fourth Amendment, the court applying qualified immunity language to show it wasn’t. “At the time of the entry, no binding authority held that an officer’s … Continue reading
Cal.1: Cell phone ping to find def after a stabbing was with exigent circumstances
Police having defendant’s cell phone pinged to find him after a stabbing he was alleged to have done in a populated area was with exigent circumstances and reasonable. People v. Bowen, 2020 Cal. App. LEXIS 659 (1st Dist. July 15, … Continue reading
IN: Def’s sitting inside in front of open door visible outside had reduced REP compared to exigency for his arrest
Defendant’s door was wide open, and officers could see him sitting inside directly in front of the door. They had an arrest warrant for him. Based on the “particular facts” here, officers had exigency combined with defendant’s reasonable expectation of … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Exigency justified entry of a hotel room to freeze it against destruction of evidence
Exigency justified entry of a hotel room to freeze it against destruction of evidence. “Lakedon, the registered occupant of the room, answered the door while engaged in a conversation on her cellphone. The reasonableness of Officer Thul’s concern is apparent. … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Exigency usually applies in seizure of computer for CP
“Given that the Defendant admitted that he had used the laptop to view child pornography previously, it appears beyond dispute that Couch had such probable cause. … [¶] Defendant instead argues that the Government failed to prove that an exigent … Continue reading
OH2: Furtive movement during knock-and-talk justified entry
Officers entered an apartment building with the consent of one of the tenants when they were investigating a threat with a firearm by one of the tenants. Their knock-and-talk at defendant’s door was reasonable, as was ordering him to open … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Strong evidence of ongoing sexual abuse of 13 year old was exigency for warrantless entry
The court finds no consent but probable cause and exigent circumstances from ongoing sexual abuse of a 13 year old girl. “In the analysis that follows, the Court considers the circumstances confronting the officers at the moment they entered Hernandez’s … Continue reading
NY4: Fire started during police standoff was exigency
Starting a fire during a police standoff is an exigent circumstance permitting a police entry after the fire was put out. “The entry and search occurred immediately after firefighters extinguished the fire that defendant had set during a standoff with … Continue reading
WV: Domestic disturbance call with injuries justified warrantless entry
Police responded to a domestic disturbance call and found defendant’s wife injured and distraught. They entered the house without an arrest or search warrant to find defendant, and he was in bed. They asked him to show his hands to … Continue reading
CA2: Police actions showed warrantless entry wasn’t for emergency purposes sufficient to create jury question
Decedent was a mentally ill veteran who accidentally activated an at home alarm and police responded. He was ultimately shot and police came in, not responding to a wounded man but as a criminal. There was a plausible claim that … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: SW was issued before entry; even if not, emergency justified the entry
“On this record, Reynolds has not shown that the search of his room was illegal. The officers did not enter it until they had a valid warrant. For the sake of completeness, the Court also finds that entering Reynolds’s room … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: It was reasonable for officers to open a car door when the driver was parked and unresponsive
Defendant’s car was parked on a Waffle House parking lot from 2-5 am with the headlights on, and it was reasonable for officers to check on the car. Inside was defendant who didn’t respond to them, and it was reasonable … Continue reading
MT: Knock-and-talk led to forced entry based on exigency of officers being made
A Montana DTF was tipped off to defendant bringing a cache of heroin to a motel to distribute. Officers set up surveillance and recognized local drug dealers coming and going. They called for uniformed backup and attempted a knock-and-talk which … Continue reading
VA: Fear of suicide attempt objectively justified warrantless entry as facts developed
Officers had an objectively reasonable basis for an entry and sweep under the emergency aid exception. Defendant was reportedly suicidal, wasn’t communicating at first, and then strange sounds were coming from where he was. “Based on these troubling circumstances, the … Continue reading