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Recent Posts
- CA8: Admission of anonymous tip that led to stop violated Confrontation Clause
- CO: Anonymous report of student smoking pot in school justified backpack search
- CA6: CI’s lie to get into def’s house to video him making a drug deal with the CI didn’t violate 4A
- TN: Def lived in a van left wide open in a public area, but it didn’t belong to him, so no REP as to interior
- VI: Despite ubiquity of cell phones, nexus has to be shown to alleged crime
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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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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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"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: Standing
VA: Second frisk was still with RS
Defendant’s second frisk was valid, despite a prior frisk not finding anything. “We have no doubt that the situation here presented such circumstances, on the heels of a possible armed robbery with suspects on the scene and the whereabouts of … Continue reading
MD: State’s failure to litigate standing at suppression hearing is waiver
The state’s failure to litigate standing at the suppression hearing is its waiver. On the merits, the information failed to show probable cause via collective knowledge. Seizure of bloody clothing in a bag in the hallway outside the ER was … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: In a false arrest case, the sheriff involved admitted no 4A training
In this false arrest case, the sheriff admitted he had no training in the Fourth Amendment. Harris v. Breeden, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 225584 (M.D. Fla. Nov. 17, 2025). The frisk here was without reasonable suspicion, including the bag defendant … Continue reading
NY: The smell of a decomposing body in a Brooklyn apartment was plain smell for finding source
Defendant had no standing to contest the opening of an apartment refrigerator finding a decapitated body. This was plain smell. The officers could smell the decomposing body, and that was enough to open the refrigerator door. People v. McGee, 2025 … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: No standing in husband’s cell phone searched in Syria; no REP in NCEM database
“Defendant Halima Salman is charged with receiving military type training from a foreign terrorist organization in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2339D.” The government maintains a database of who is involved in military activities overseas: NMEC. Defendant’s … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: PC for car moots Gant argument
Defendant argues that the search of his car was void under Gant because he was handcuffed outside it. There was, however, probable cause for a vehicle search. United States v. Phillips, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209424 (W.D.N.C. Sep. 3, 2025).* … Continue reading
OH5: Oath or affirmation requirement satisfied by GFE
Even if the oath or affirmation technically fails here, the good faith exception saves the warrant. State v. Lucas, 2025-Ohio-4863, 2025 Ohio App. LEXIS 3605 (5th Dist. Oct. 22, 2025). “We conclude that the trial court properly denied the motion … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Accidental seizure of attorney-client jail calls doesn’t lead to exclusion of non-legal calls
Use of plaintiff’s non-privileged prison calls as evidence was not a Fourth Amendment violation. The fact attorney-client calls were also seized but were segregated and not used as evidence doesn’t state a claim. Criscuolo v. Brandow, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
D.Alaska: Sharing cell phone gives standing
Defendant shared the iPhone of another person, so he had standing to contest its search. United States v. Powers, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 192621 (D. Alaska Sep. 30, 2025). Defendants don’t get qualified immunity. The jury could conclude that more … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Someone else’s search doesn’t affect defendant
Defendant has no standing to challenge the search of others that affected him, a theory rejected in Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 171-172 (1969). United States v. Phillips, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 190766 (E.D. Mich. Sep. 26, 2025). … Continue reading
OH5: Alleged jurisdictional defect in warrant issuance didn’t undermine PC; no dispute as to that
Alleged defects in which court should or could issue this particular warrant was subject to the good faith exception. There was no contention that the affidavit for warrant lacked probable cause. State v. Wharton, 2025-Ohio-4485 (5th Dist. Sep. 25, 2025). … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Def succeeds in suppressing a stop when he even lacked standing to challenge the search
Defendant was a passenger in the car that was stopped. While he wouldn’t have standing in the car, he persuaded the court that the stop lacked justification based on credibility of witnesses, and the motion to suppress is granted. United … Continue reading
CA3: Cell phone owner voluntarily gave up passcode
Having voluntarily given up her cell phone passcode, she can’t suppress its contents. United States v. Curry, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 23865 (3d Cir. Sep. 16, 2025). Past detention for alleged unlawful reasons doesn’t give Art. III standing for possible … Continue reading
OR: PC for one computer isn’t PC for another
The computer search here wasn’t authorized by the probable cause showing, and it wasn’t harmless error. Probable cause for one device doesn’t permit search of all. State v. Schult, 343 Or. App. 376 (Sep. 10, 2025). “Here, Boudreau’s Franks argument … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Just being naked in bed in a hotel room doesn’t give standing
Just being naked in bed in a hotel room doesn’t give standing. Defendant had to show he either was the renter or there by permission of the renter. Here, nothing was offered on standing other than being there. United States … Continue reading
MO: No REP in hotel room mistakenly renting hotel room to unwanted guest
The fact a hotel mistakenly gave a room to an unwanted guest gave the guest no standing in the room when the hotel sought to eject him. State v. Mount, 2025 Mo. App. LEXIS 601 (Sep. 9, 2025):
N.D.Okla.: ALPR challenge requires standing; even so, it doesn’t violate Carpenter
Defendant’s Fourth Amendment claim about ALPR requires he show standing in the vehicle he was driving, and here he did not. Even if he had standing, Carpenter provides him no relief. “As an initial matter, the court notes that no reasonable … Continue reading
TX7: Odor of MJ is PC; that’s TX precedent, and out of state cases don’t carry any weight
The odor of cannabis is still probable cause in Texas. “Emerging case law” in other states doesn’t matter because of Texas precedent. Parras v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 5954 (Tex. App. – Amarillo Aug. 8, 2025). Defendant had no … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: No REP from ALPR on public roads
No reasonable expectation of privacy from Automatic License Plate Readers on public roads under Carpenter. United States v. Slaybaugh, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 146107 (M.D. Ala. July 10, 2025). A mere passenger has no standing in the car he’s riding … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: Def doesn’t get discovery of cell phone govt hasn’t decrypted
When the government seizes a cell phone under a warrant and the data is encrypted and it can’t see it, it is not in “possession” for Rule 16 discovery purposes. United States v. Mejia, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 142962 (S.D. … Continue reading