September 2026 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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Recent Posts
- WaPo: Americans have turned against police cameras that track license plates, new survey shows
- W.D.Tex.: What is the duty of the neutral and detached magistrate?
- D.Me.: Yes, more investigation could have been done, but there’s still PC on what there was
- CA3: Brady doesn’t apply to SW materials
- E.D.Mich.: Person a cell phone was given to as gift could consent to search
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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)
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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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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)
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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: Emergency / exigency
TX14: Exigency permitted seizure of cell phone where officer thought def was deleting things from it anticipating its search
The officer was justified in seizing defendant’s cell phone when there was probable cause and it appeared that defendant might be deleting things from it. Also, no great detail required to identify a cell phone for a search warrant. Gutierrez … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: Looking through porch window was a search, but justified by officer safety
Looking in the porch window is a violation of the curtilage and a search. Here, however, it was justified by the exigency of officer safety. United States v. Macdowell, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 139432 (W.D. Va. Aug. 19, 2019). As … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: Warrantless entry to prevent destruction of evidence pending SW was reasonable
A warrantless protective sweep before obtaining a search warrant to prevent possible destruction of evidence was reasonable. A search warrant was later obtained [inevitable discovery]. United States v. Beazel, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 136901 (N.D. W.Va. Aug. 14, 2019).* The … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Officer’s claimed exigency expired during the delay waiting for an ambulance; warrantless entry invalid
Two defendants had standing in a camper. The officers’ warrantless entry into it was without exigency because the exigency, if it existed, passed. It was based on a suspected overdose, but the officer admitted he had only a couple of … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: 30 minute delay before warrantless entry with a key in learning all they could didn’t nullify exigency
The officers’ delay of 30 minutes or less before entering on exigent circumstances was not unreasonable. They were actively investigating, gathering information, and didn’t want to act precipitously. “The officers concluded as much investigation as they could on an immediate … Continue reading
Cal.: Case law permitting “community caretaking function” entry into a home without true exigency is overruled
People v. Ray, 21 Cal.4th 464, 88 Cal. Rptr. 2d 1, 981 P.2d 928 (1999) that created a limited “community caretaking function” entry into a home without true exigency is overruled. By case law, that exception is limited to vehicles, … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Use of word “clear” to describe certain facts wasn’t a Franks violation; removing it still leaves PC anyway
Defendant challenges the use of the word “clear” to describe the facts, which is supported by the facts. “[E]ven if the Court finds that the challenged statement was false and orders it stricken from the affidavit, the Court finds that … Continue reading
MI: Reaching out one’s door to pass identification doesn’t justify a “hot pursuit.” Protection of home is highest 4A value
Reaching out one’s door to pass identification doesn’t justify a “hot pursuit.” “In this case we must decide whether defendant’s constitutional right to be free from unreasonable seizures was violated when a police officer entered her home to complete her … Continue reading
CA9: Warrantless entry into def’s home after tracking device went off and created exigency
“The agents secured a court order authorizing insertion of a tracking device to conduct a controlled delivery of a package of methamphetamine, but their subsequent entry into defendant’s residence to secure the package was warrantless. [¶] The panel affirmed the … Continue reading
CA5: Sounds inside at a knock-and-talk created exigency
Police did a knock-and-talk on a motel room door, and the sound of scrambling inside and a toilet flush was exigency. Also, defendant was a casual visitor almost certainly without standing. United States v. Daniels, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 20449 … Continue reading
SCOTUS: Warrantless blood draw from unconscious driver not unreasonable
A warrantless blood draw from an unconscious driver who became unconscious by the time he arrived at the hospital was reasonable under a state law that permits warrantless BAC testing of those incapable of consent by implied consent. Remanded, however, … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: 41-day delay from seizure to search of a cell phone wasn’t constitutionally unreasonable on these facts
41-day delay between seizure of cell phone and its search, while not good, wasn’t constitutionally unreasonable under all the circumstances, primarily because defendant was in custody and couldn’t use the phone anyway, so it didn’t intrude on his possessory interests. … Continue reading
OH12: Automobile exception search permits search of locked toolbox
With a dog alert on a car, the search of a locked toolbox under the automobile exception was permissible. State v. Sullivan, 2019-Ohio-2279, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 2372 (12th Dist. June 10, 2019). Exigent circumstances could not be used to … Continue reading
IL: Delaying stop to call car rental company wasn’t reasonable
Defendant was driving a Hertz rental car, and the delay of the stop to call Hertz was not within the mission of a traffic stop for speeding. “Similarly, we reject the State’s argument that the call to Hertz can be … Continue reading
PA: Theft of a firearm isn’t exgency for warrantless search of a house
Defendant’s alleged theft of a firearm the day before was not an exigent circumstance for a warrantless entry into his home. Commonwealth v. Gray, 2019 PA Super 175, 2019 Pa. Super. LEXIS 541 (May 31, 2019). In fact, the person … Continue reading
D.Colo.: To just say a SW is “stale” in a motion to suppress says nothing; def has to show how or why it is stale
Defendant “cannot simply state general legal principles and expect the Court or the Government to figure out what he means to argue. Burciaga bears the burden here, and this ‘argument’ does not satisfy it. Accordingly, the Court will not inquire … Continue reading
AL: Children missing after mother’s murder was exigency for entry of house
Defendant was believed to have dismembered the mother of his children and the children couldn’t be found. Police got an address and went there but didn’t get an answer. They went to her parents’ house who sent them back to … Continue reading
DE: Def’s flight from parole and recent crimes were exigency for cell phone ping
There was exigency for an emergency cell phone ping to locate defendant. He’d just committed enough crimes to get sentenced to life and he was on the run from police. State v. Snell, 2019 Del. Super. LEXIS 249 (May 21, … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Entry to deal with mental health crisis was with exigent circumstances
Police get a tip that plaintiff was a mental health danger to himself or others, and they entered his house with a mental health professional to examine him. That person found plaintiff in need of involuntary commitment. “All of those … Continue reading