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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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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)
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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: Warrant requirement
E.D.Ky.: The affidavit for a search warrant does not need to allege a specific statute was violated
The affidavit for a search warrant does not need to allege a specific statute was violated as long as the issuing magistrate can conclude that a criminal offense likely occurred. The facts alleged determine the scope of search. United States … Continue reading
IA: No conflict in motion to suppress where def counsel was law partner of issuing magistrate
Defense counsel was the law partner of the issuing magistrate. On post-conviction, defendant did not show that defense counsel was operating under a conflict of interest because defense counsel filed and vigorously litigated a motion to suppress. Kensett v. State, … Continue reading
FL4: SW papers are public records, and due process requires def to see them
Search warrant papers are discoverable to the defense and the unredacted parts are public records that must be disclosed. “The state asks us to prevent the disclosure of information that it had redacted from search warrants and warrant applications related … Continue reading
ID: Affidavit for SW doesn’t have to be signed in judge’s presence
The search warrant was properly issued on affidavit. It didn’t have to be signed in the presence of the judge. An oral affidavit has to be, but this isn’t. State v. Hensley, 2018 Ida. App. LEXIS 49 (Nov. 16, 2018). … Continue reading
LA1: Technical defect in oath for SW not ground to suppress
Technical defect in the oath in the search warrant application doesn’t warrant suppression of evidence. State v. Parker, 2018 La. App. LEXIS 2256 (La. App. 1 Cir. Nov. 10, 2018). A Rule 41(g) motion from pre-2000 seizure wasn’t timely in … Continue reading
VA: Statute on filing warrant papers in court is procedural and suppression not the remedy
The statute requiring search warrant papers be filed with the circuit clerk is merely procedural, and it confers no substantive rights for its violation. Heroin in the car was visible from outside and thus in plain view, and that was … Continue reading
D.S.D.: SW affidavit attachments referred to in affidavit and were used at the pre-search briefing to narrow the search
The application for the search warrant could have been more clear, but it was still apparent that the attachments were incorporated, and they completed the probable cause showing. Moreover, the attachments were used in the pre-search briefing of the officers … Continue reading
CA7: In a wiretap application, only def’s nickname was sufficient when PC is shown
Defendant on a wiretap application was only known by his nickname, and this did nothing to alter the probable cause analysis nor undermine probable cause. United States v. Santiago, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 27919 (7th Cir. Oct. 2, 2018) (there’s … Continue reading
GA: Search of a backpack six days after seizure required a SW
Defendant was granted a new murder trial on ineffective assistance of counsel grounds, one of which was failure to file a motion to suppress. On remand to the trial court, he pursued the motion to suppress claiming that a search … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: This SW directed at a place and things, not just persons
“Defendant’s argument that 1335 Geyer Avenue was indeed his home, but that police did not know it was his home, thus fails. Additionally, ‘search warrants are directed, not at persons, but at property where there is probable cause to believe … Continue reading
DE: Def counsel was not ineffective for not arguing obvious typo on date justified suppression because it didn’t
The search warrant affidavit said August 3, 2015, but August was typed and the 3 written in. It’s clear from all the testimony that it was issued September 3, and the “August” wasn’t corrected. Therefore, defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for … Continue reading
GA: Probate judge could issue SW under state law
It wasn’t a violation of state law that a probate judge signed the search warrant in this case. Joyner v. State, 2018 Ga. App. LEXIS 474 (Aug. 3, 2018). Defendant’s DNA was found on bullet casings, and that was added … Continue reading
S.D.Ala.: That state court warrant was missing two pages when filed doesn’t matter when the whole SW produced in federal court
The search warrant was issued by a state court, and two pages were missing from the filed version. The complete version was presented in federal court, and the fact part was missing in state court is not a Fourth Amendment … Continue reading
SD: Electronic signature on a SW application sent in to magistrate is valid as an oath
An electronic signature on a search warrant application is still an oath for an affidavit required under state law, and the motion to suppress was properly denied. State v. Bowers, 2018 SD 50 (June 27, 2018). Juvenile defendant was interrogated … Continue reading
NY3: No statutory or const’l requirement issuing magistrate’s name be printed on SW papers
Nothing requires the issuing magistrate’s name be printed on the search warrant papers, the affidavit or warrant. People v. Douglas, 2018 NY Slip Op 04388, 2018 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4360 (3d Dept. June 14, 2018). A search warrant was … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: SW affidavit doesn’t have to be labeled one to be one
A search warrant affidavit doesn’t have to be headed “affidavit” to be one, and the attachments are considered sworn to if referred to in the body. The affidavit’s typo of having the 16th as the date of the offense when … Continue reading
D.S.C.: Cut and paste “clerical error” on address of place to be searched was overcome by GFE
Officers sought a search warrant for defendant’s house at 2681 Houston Street. The search warrant itself, obviously called up on a computer from another case, had 3438 Navajo Street, and nobody noticed the difference, including the judge who reviewed the … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Denial of one SW application is not res judicata to another different one
88 days wasn’t stale in a child pornography case. You can’t legally or factually compare marijuana possession to possession of child pornography. Denial of one search warrant application is not res judicata to another. [Usually, the second application is different … Continue reading
PA: Date typo in affidavit for SW could be corrected in context of totality
A typographical error in a date of an occurence in the affidavit for search warrant for the year (2013 instead of 2014) could be overlooked in context of the affidavit as a whole which showed it a mere typo. Commonwealth … Continue reading
FL4: State law doesn’t bar officer from getting SW out of jurisdiction
State law does not limit a law enforcement officer from applying for a search warrant outside the officer’s territorial jurisdiction. [Neither does the Fourth Amendment, but it isn’t even cited.] State v. Stouffer, 2018 Fla. App. LEXIS 7274 (Fla. 4th … Continue reading