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- CA10: Disagreement over spelling of street name didn’t make warrant fail particularity; GFE at least would apply
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- MN: Geofence warrant was not particular
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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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Congressional Research Service:
--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
FL: Def’s girlfriend had full access to his place to remove a knife she told police about
Defendant’s girlfriend retrieved a knife for the police and brought it out. She spent five nights a week there, and she happened to see it on this trip when she went in to let the dog out. She had complete … Continue reading
CA1: Merely being primary user of computer doesn’t mean wife didn’t have apparent authority to consent; no separate password
Defendant’s wife saw child pornography on his computer and told the police. She consented to a search of the computer. Even though he was the primary user of the computer, he did not leave the computer password protected from her … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Woman def spent last night with didn’t have apparent authority to consent to search room
Defendant stayed with his aunt. He spent the night with a woman in his bedroom. It wasn’t reasonable to conclude that the woman he spent the night with had common authority over the room to consent. United States v. Jackson, … Continue reading
NY: Seizure of bag of clothes at ER lacked any belief of connection to def’s shooting
Defendant came to a hospital ER with a gunshot wound, and the police were called. Defendant’s clothes were put in a clear plastic bag. Without any information about entrance or exit wounds and whether the clothes were evidence of a … Continue reading
CA2: Nonpayment of hotel rent result in loss of REP in the room
Defense counsel couldn’t be ineffective for not raising that a motel operator couldn’t consent to a search of his room after defendant was locked out for nonpayment of rent. That’s established law. Bruno v. Superintendent, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 2075 … Continue reading
D.N.J.: No REP in a rental car where def not an authorized driver and car was way overdue
Defendant was driving a rental car that was so overdue the tags were expired. It was rented by a cousin and the rental car company didn’t know who he was. With the stop, they were called and they wanted the … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Virtual presumption of common authority between spouses
Defendant’s wife was alleged by the government to have consented to a search of two safes defendant had. There is a virtual presumption of common authority over marital property, and there is no evidence in the record after the hearing … Continue reading
Oregon refuses to follow Illinois v. Rodriguez on apparent authority
Oregon refuses to follow Illinois v. Rodriguez on apparent authority finding it doctrinally different than how it has interpreted the state constitution since the 1970s. State v. Bonilla, 358 Ore. 475, 2015 Ore. LEXIS 955 (Dec. 31, 2015):
CA11: Two men, two beds = common authority over room
When two men shared a room with two beds, one can consent to a search of the whole room. This is joint custody and control. “Marvin had common authority to consent to search his shared bedroom, including Espinoza’s designated side … Continue reading
LA5: Woman in a man’s hotel room for a tryst has apparent authority to consent to room search
The woman alone in defendant’s motel room to have sex with him had apparent authority to consent to a search. “Additionally, the search appears to have been reasonable under Illinois v. Rodriguez, supra. The police in the present case testified … Continue reading
VA: Clump of air fresheners hanging from inside mirror justified stop
Defendant was under investigation for drug offenses, and, when he drove off, he had a clump of air fresheners hanging from his rear view mirror which violated state law. Drugs were found in his car. His void for vagueness challenge … Continue reading
CA2: Uncle’s apparent authority over nephew’s room included under the mattress
Defendant stayed with his aunt and uncle in a room that everybody had access to when he wasn’t there. His uncle consented to a search of the room for a firearm when he wasn’t there. He didn’t contest the consent … Continue reading
CA1: CI corroborated by two observed controlled buys
The CI was already corroborated by database searches that her basic information about defendant was correct [which isn’t saying much], but the real corroboration was the officer observing two controlled buys from the defendant. United States v. White, 2015 U.S. … Continue reading
VI: Vehicle matching description of car in robbery fleeing and crashing into police car is PC for stop
Officers had probable cause to stop defendant’s vehicle as being involved in a robbery. They set up a “choke point” on the flight route away and saw the vehicle, and the driver fled from multiple attempts to stop it. Then … Continue reading
CO: Woman kicked out of house but still with the keys has no apparent authority, distinguishing Rodriguez
Colorado distinguishes Rodriguez and finds that a woman who was kicked out of a home but still had the keys had no actual authority. “Under Matlock, common authority comes from some combination of three components: use, access, and control.” Here, … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: When a cotenant with authority consents, the officers do not have to seek out the “target” for his consent
When a cotenant with authority consents, the officers do not have to seek out the “target” for his consent, too. United States v. Morales, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125085 (S.D.Fla. September 18, 2015), R&R 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125086 (S.D.Fla. … Continue reading
CA4: Abuse against live-in girlfriend’s child and her planning to move doesn’t negate her apparent authority
“[W]e conclude that Webb’s girlfriend, Heather Upchurch, had actual and apparent authority to consent to the search of the house. She and their infant daughter lived in the house with Webb for six months. Upchurch had as much interest in … Continue reading