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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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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
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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) -
“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: Apparent authority
N.D.Ga.: Facebook SW was valid when issued, but later case law said it would have been overbroad; valid by GFE
The Facebook warrant here was overbroad, but it was consistent with case law at the time. Later case law said that it would have been overbroad. Nevertheless, reliance on case law at the time the search warrant was issued is … Continue reading
CA5: Def’s girlfriend has actual authority to consent to a search even though she was moving out
“Valenzuela had actual authority to consent to the search, or at the very least, the officer had a reasonable belief she had common authority over the residence. E.g., United States v. Matlock, …; see also Illinois v. Rodriguez, …. Valenzuela … Continue reading
IL: ER blood draw was private search for diagnostic purposes
“The mere filing of a motion [to suppress] is not proof that a search occurred.” Defendant first failed to prove that he was the subject of the search. Second, even if it was assumed, the hospital took the blood draw … Continue reading
DE: 14 yo could consent to entry to look for missing person
The search of the house was valid both by apparent authority to consent and the emergency aid doctrine. The victim was missing, and the consenter was a 14 year old with a key. The consent was solely to look for … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Being jailed is not an abandonment of property in a storage unit
“The court acknowledges the government’s point that Moran did not retain a key to the storage unit once he was jailed, and that Moran had appeared perfectly amenable to the bags being placed in Alysha’s more heavily-trafficked apartment rather than … Continue reading
CA6: Def’s wife saying she was on the cell phone contract was sufficient to create a good faith belief in her apparent authority
Defendant’s wife, who told police defendant was communicating with underage girls on his cell phone, told officers that she paid for the phone and was on the contract. So, viewed most favorably to the government, this was sufficient to establish … Continue reading
OH7: “Appellant acknowledges a hotel employee can consent to law enforcement’s entry into a hotel room if the guest has been evicted.” He was
Defendant was staying at a Comfort Inn, and the hotel quickly concluded defendant was dealing drugs from the room. He didn’t respond to their entries to get out, so they called the police who came to remove him. When defendant … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Def stayed often enough with his mother that he had standing in her place
Defendant was given standing in his mother’s home, even though he did not live there full time. His uncle also lived there, and he had apparent authority and “free agency” to consent to a search of the premises. United States … Continue reading
NY1: Staying “on and off” with an uncle for many years, getting mail there, storing all his clothes there gave standing
The trial court erred in finding that defendant lacked standing to challenge the propriety of the search of the apartment because defendant’s uncle, who resided in the apartment, told the police that defendant had stayed with his family “on and … Continue reading
NY3: Def’s live-in girlfriend shared premises and had apparent authority to consent
Defendant’s girlfriend with whom he lived had apparent authority to consent to a search of their joint premises. People v. Gray, 2017 NY Slip Op 05873, 2017 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5809 (3d Dept. July 27, 2017).* There were two … Continue reading
MN: Apt mgr’s ability to enter for maintenance purposes is not apparent authority to consent to a police search
An apartment manager’s ability to enter by law and by the lease for maintenance purposes does not give the manager or staff the ability to consent to a police entry. Here, a water leak brought maintenance who saw drug use … Continue reading
CA7: Def’s wife of 21 years had apparent authority to consent to search of garage even if she didn’t regularly use it
Defendant’s wife of 21 years, 10 years at the co-owned property, had apparent authority to consent to its search. The fact she didn’t regularly go into the detached garage didn’t at all mean she didn’t have apparent authority. United States … Continue reading
RI: No apparent authority to consent shown; police merely assumed consenter lived there, but she didn’t
The person asked for consent didn’t live there, and the officers made no attempt to find out whether she did. They just assumed she did. The state’s alternative argument of exigency is rejected because the officers never testified to any … Continue reading
GA: Def’s visiting cousin with no key had no apparent authority to consent to search of house
Defendant’s cousin, visiting the house and working in the garage, had no apparent authority to consent to an entry. He made it clear it wasn’t his house, that he had no key and entered through an unlocked side door, and … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Householder had no apparent authority to consent to a search of a metal box she identified as somebody else’s
Householder’s consent did not apply to a search of a metal box the householder said belonged to someone else. “While it is undisputed that the officers had authority to search Cuff’s residence based on her consent, the Court finds that … Continue reading
OH2: Mistaken entry of LPN into computer that resulted in erroneous stop still made the stop reasonable
The Ohio officer entered in the license number of an Illinois vehicle but omitted a letter in smaller type on the side that made the number complete because he didn’t know it was required. The wrong LPN came back as … Continue reading