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
ND: Emergency entry into on-duty police officer’s home was reasonable when he didn’t come back from extended lunch break and patrol car was outside running and he didn’t answer radio, phone, or door
Defendant was a police officer who sought and was allowed a two hour lunch break. When he didn’t come back from lunch and he didn’t answer his radio or cell phone, the department dispatched another officer to his house. Outside, … Continue reading
Cal.1: Refusing entry to home for police to investigate gunshots outside wasn’t exigency
Gunshots were fired outside a defendant’s home. The police showed up, and he refused entry. They couldn’t use the excuse that somebody inside might need aid. People v. Rubio, 2019 Cal. App. LEXIS 1245 (1st Dist. Dec. 13, 2019):
E.D.Wis.: Reasonable fear def was burning stolen mail was sufficient for officers to approach burn pit
Officers had probable cause for defendant, a part time postal worker, for stealing mail, and they surveilled his house and property. They saw a fire in burn pit, and they were concerned it was stolen mail, so they entered. They … Continue reading
NY2: Responding to a domestic call, the unmistakable sounds of an assault from inside justified warrantless entry
Police responded to an apparent domestic call. The officers at the door “heard a woman being beaten inside the apartment, heard her scream, and heard a male saying, ‘shut up’; and no one responded to the officers’ repeated knocks on … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Officers came to the door with PC but no warrant; def’s shutting door and moving around inside led officers to believe he was destroying evidence, and entry was justified
When officers came to the door with probable cause for the presence of marijuana, defendant’s shutting the door and moving about inside for up to 90 seconds created apprehension that he was destroying evidence. Also, there was at least reasonable … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: Ongoing DV disturbance is exigency for a warrantless entry
“When Officer Hill entered Gates’s home, he held the reasonable belief that a violent domestic disturbance was ongoing, and that a woman was present in the residence and involved in the disturbance. This gave rise to a reasonable belief in … Continue reading
IL: State’s delay in getting blood draw showed no exigency for dispensing with warrant
State’s own delays in attempting to get a blood draw showed lack of exigency for it. People v. Eubanks, 2019 IL 123525, 2019 Ill. LEXIS 1235 (Dec. 5, 2019):
MO: Exigency was shown at the motion to suppress, and more was shown at trial
The trial court denied the motion to suppress because the entry was by exigent circumstances. The trial testimony confirms it. State v. Bolden, 2019 Mo. App. LEXIS 1823 (Nov. 19, 2019).* The traffic stop was justified under state law, and, … Continue reading
N.D.Ala.: No exigency for entry into home to seize gun for alleged safety of children
The entry into defendant’s house to search for a gun lacked exigent circumstances. There was nothing on which the officers could claim there was any risk. Moreover, defendant didn’t consent to their entry into the home. United States v. Mulato-Herrara, … Continue reading
Cal.4: Warrantless seizure of def’s dashcam was reasonable on exigent circumstances; three days to get a SW wasn’t unreasonable
Defendant was convicted of reckless driving with an accident. His dashcam would have a recording of it. The dashcam was reasonably seized without a warrant on exigent circumstances. And, it wasn’t unreasonable to wait three days before getting a search … Continue reading
KS: 911 call of person shot brought police; entry justified under exigent circumstances
Police received a call that a person had been shot at a particular address. They arrived and saw two women arguing with a man. He ran off. The officers asked if the women were hurt, and they said they weren’t. … Continue reading
WA: Cell phone ping was a search, but here it was reasonable because of exigency
A cell phone ping is a search under the Fourth Amendment and Washington Constitutions requiring a warrant. It was reasonable here, however, because of exigent circumstances because defendant was a suspect, and the police feared he’d fled. State v. Muhammad, … Continue reading
D.Utah: Double hearsay can support a SW
In a trade secrets theft case, reliance on double hearsay in the affidavit for search warrant was not unreasonable. The source was the company defendant worked for. Defendant relies on the elements of the trade secrets theft law and argues … Continue reading
NY3: Working meth lab provided exigency for warrantless entry
Officers went to defendant’s house to do a knock-and-talk based on a tip he had a working meth lab. When they knocked, he ran out the back door. The officer positioned there shouted for him to stop and drop what … Continue reading
OH8: Realtime CSLI was used only to locate def; nothing to suppress
Defendant was called by the police for an interview about a child molestation accusation, and he agreed to meet. He didn’t show. Then the police were concerned maybe he was fleeing and they sought realtime CSLI to locate him. “We … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Handgun hidden in a dog house wasn’t subject to search for exigency
Defendant’s handgun was hidden in a doghouse on the curtilage. The court distinguishes other cases allowing a search for a firearm, particularly one where a loaded shotgun was publicly put in the trunk of a car and the keys left … Continue reading
CA3: Body cavity search for baggie of drugs was reasonable because of exigency of risk of overdose
Plaintiff’s body cavity search for a baggie of drugs in her vagina was reasonable by exigent circumstances because of a legitimate fear that she could be harmed and overdose if the bag leaked. Carbone v. Salem, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Stop of one suspect created exigency that occupants might destroy evidence; entry justified
The stop of one suspect created exigent circumstances for entry into the premises to freeze it until a warrant could be obtained. The police reasonably feared that occupants would learn of the stop and destroy evidence. On entry, there was … Continue reading
CA11: Public safety exception permitted entry of hotel room on PC to neutralize a firearm
Defense counsel’s failure to object to the search of his hotel room wasn’t prejudicial because inevitable discovery applied. He was accused of brandishing a gun shortly before, and the gun hadn’t been found. Officers had probable cause to get a … Continue reading
ID: State’s claim of exigency for warrantless entry into house was unsupported; suppression affirmed
Defendant was allegedly selling tainted marijuana from his house. Police did a warrantless entry with exigency as the excuse. There wasn’t any claim that anybody inside was in distress, and no questions about it. Suppression affirmed. State v. Sessions, 2019 … Continue reading