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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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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)
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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: Inventory
OR: The fact there is some officer discretion in conducting an inventory doesn’t make it violate 4A
The Salem inventory policy requires inventory of closed containers that might have something valuable in them. In defendant’s backpack was a nylon case which the officer believed might contain a computer harddrive or a computer gaming device. The inventory was … Continue reading
IN: Officer didn’t follow inventory policy and made this a criminal search; suppressed
The inventory in this case “deviated greatly” from the impoundment policy. When a gun was found, it turned into a criminal investigation and the officer ignored the inventory. No inventory was made. Sansbury v. State, 2017 Ind. App. LEXIS 804 … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Govt’s rationale for impoundment failed: car was in a safe residential neighborhood in front of a friend’s house who said he’d watch it
Defendant was buying the car searched from his sister, although it was still in her name and registered to her. He had standing to challenge its search. The government’s rationale for impoundment was community caretaking, but the car was parked … Continue reading
D.Colo.: Officer’s near complete failure to follow inventory policy showed it was an investigative search
The inventory of defendant’s car was clearly an investigative search, and the lack of any paper inventory and the body camera video prove it. Defendant’s cell phone wasn’t logged in, the officer said, because it was taken into the station … Continue reading
NM: Backpack on def when he was arrested was subject to inventory even though he was separated from it when searched
Defendant’s backpack was on him when arrested, and it was still subject to police inventory for all the policies of inventory. State v. Davis, 2017 N.M. LEXIS 86 (Nov. 9, 2017), revg, 2016-NMCA-073, 387 P.3d 274 (posted here):
OH3: Search incident under Gant isn’t automatic in a DUI arrest; more indicators required
OVI (DUI) is not an offense where there is per se evidence to be found in the vehicle by search incident under Gant (or the automobile exception). Something more than just the offense is required to use the stop to … Continue reading
D.Nev.: PC for automobile exception continues into impoundment
Probable cause for a vehicle search under the automobile exception continues into impoundment for later inventory even though the vehicle is immobilized by where it is. Also, permission from the owner gives the driver of a car standing. United States … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: 6 day delay in installing a court ordered tracking device wasn’t unreasonable without a showing that PC dissipated
A six day delay in installing a court ordered tracking device wasn’t unreasonable without a showing that the probable cause dissipated in the meantime, and defendant didn’t. United States v. Thirkill, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 166131 (M.D. Tenn. Oct. 5, … Continue reading
MA: Inventory was not shown to be pretextual and was within policy
The suppression hearing judge found the officer credible on the question of whether the inventory was pretextual and concluded it was not. As a credibility determination, it can’t be reversed on appeal. The inventory was otherwise reasonable. Commonwealth v. Ehiabhi, … Continue reading
NM: Vehicle impoundment does not entirely depend upon there being an arrest of the driver; community caretaking function can justify it
An impoundment does not entirely depend upon there being an arrest of the driver. Usually, it does, but it certainly can if impoundment is required under the community caretaking function for some other reason. Here, defendant was taken to the … Continue reading
MD: 40 years after questioning inventory, the author of those opinions comes around to embrace inventory
The vehicle inventory was caught on body camera, and the officer failed to include the spare tire, jack, and jumper cables. That did not make the inventory invalid. In addition, a valid inventory with a mixed motive is not unreasonable … Continue reading
MI: If the arrest is invalid, the inventory that follows it is invalid
If the arrest is invalid, the inventory that follows it is invalid. People v. Wood, 2017 Mich. App. LEXIS 1482 (Sept. 19, 2017). Defendant’s admission he had open containers in the vehicle justified a search for them, and, after they … Continue reading
CA4: Inventory policy’s failure to mention dealing with closed containers doesn’t make it unreasonable
The inventory policy sufficiently curtailed the officer’s discretion to be constitutional. It did not mention closed containers but that doesn’t make it unconstitutional. The officer’s search of a laptop case was reasonable even though the officer didn’t log everything that … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Def was arrested in a prostitution sting and his car was on a parking lot; govt fails to show impoundment proper
Defendant was arrested in a prostitution sting, and his car was impounded and searched. The court suppresses the search under the community caretaking function for not following the rules of the department. The government has the burden on a warrantless … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Less intrusive measures to impoundment are not constitutionally required
The discretionary decision to impound defendant’s RV was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. The officer’s primary concern was arresting the driver for an outstanding warrant, not searching the vehicle. It would have been left on a rural road and posed … Continue reading
IL: 911 call about a beating in a house supported emergency entry and plain view; without record of suppression hearing, trial testimony can be used on appeal
911 was called because defendant had just beaten an alleged prostitute and people heard glass breaking and her yelling for help. Defendant admitted beating her. He failed to include a copy of the record of the suppression hearing in his … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Inventory invalid for not sufficiently complying with policy; bodycam video relied upon
The inventory is invalid for not coming close to complying with the LVMPD inventory policy. The lack of a written itemization and the body camera video shows it was not a valid inventory. Also, the passenger was a good friend … Continue reading