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- IN: Overdose call led to EMS telling police what they saw and that led to SW
- NY1: A mental health defense waives REP in the medical records about it
- MA: When a likely Franks violation comes out at trial, def gets to reopen the suppression issue
- RI: Challenge to one sentence of 8-page cell phone records SW fails; totality has to be considered
- WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics
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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)
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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
MA: Inventory of backpack was unnecessary where def’s grandmother was there and could have taken it; giving it to her satisfied legal justifications for inventory
There was no need to inventory defendant’s backpack when his car was being impounded where his grandmother was there and could have taken it away. Since a purpose of inventory is to prevent theft and false claims, turning the backpack … Continue reading
CA10: If an inventory could be lawfully conducted, the fact it stopped when guns were found doesn’t make it void
Defendant’s car was subjected to an inventory which he contended was unreasonable. If he had been reasonably conducted, the firearms would have been found in any event, such as where an inventory starts but ends when something significant is found, … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: A vehicle inventory is not invalid because it is discretionary
Defendant had standing in his girlfriend’s car. His stuff was throughout it, and he drove it some. An inventory is not invalid because the decision to inventory or not is discretionary. United States v. Gilmore, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 156240 … Continue reading
NY1: Search of a car doesn’t have to occur at the scene of stop
Defendant was stopped, and the smell of marijuana came from the car when he was stopped. A joint was seen on the console. The car was towed rather than searched at the scene. The search back at the station was … Continue reading
MA: Seizing backpack from impounded car was unreasonable where def’s grandmother was present and would have taken it
Defendant’s grandmother came to the scene of his stop where his car was being impounded. The contents of the car, here a backpack, could have just been given to the grandmother rather than seize and search it, too. Commonwealth v. … Continue reading
CO: State didn’t prove necessity for impoundment of car for driving on a suspended DL
The state failed to prove that defendant’s driving on a suspended license justified impoundment and inventory of the car. The state didn’t offer evidence to show that defendant would drive off from the ticket or that he would imperil other … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Eviction of the occupants of an apartment lose standing when the landlord takes over
An eviction of the occupants of an apartment lose standing when the landlord takes over. “The Court finds that defendant lacks standing. At the time of the search, the landlord was legally and lawfully in possession of the Arias Apartment. … Continue reading
CA7: Family computer that everybody knew password to gives common authority to all
The computer in the house belonged to defendant but it was a family computer and everybody knew the password. That being the case, any one of them had common authority over the computer to consent to its search. The fact … Continue reading
AR: Just because officer says on video “He’s been arrested for dope, dope, and dope … carrying a weapon” doesn’t mean it still wasn’t a valid inventory
The 4 on the year on the LPN expiration sticker looked funny, so the Trooper ran the LPN and it came back expired in 2011. It had been altered with a marker. Defendant said he borrowed his friend’s pickup. Defendant … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Fact officer went back and looked again doing inventory didn’t prove it was investigative
The fact the officer doing the inventory went back and looked again because he thought he missed something or value doesn’t prove that the inventory was unreasonable. United States v. Williams, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117530 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 31, 2016):
W.D.N.C.: Presence of LEOs for probation search did not make it unreasoanble
Defendant was subjected to a valid probation search. While his probation officers were present, law enforcement actually conducted the search, but this was not unreasonable. United States v. Mills, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104903 (W.D.N.C. July 21, 2016), adopted, 2016 … Continue reading
CA9: Searching the engine air filter during an inventory search was reasonable
Searching the engine air filter during an inventory search was reasonable. United States v. Torres, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 12941 (9th Cir. July 14, 2016). Court’s summary:
ID: Def was entitled to retrieve duffle bag in rental car before inventory
Defendant had standing to challenge the search of his duffle bag in a rental car. The State conceded that the officers’ conduct in refusing to allow him to take the luggage from a rental car and notifying him that the … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Fact no ticket was issued for cause for stop doesn’t make stop unconstitutional
The stop was justified, and the fact the officers had a subjective motive to conduct a drug investigation and never issued a traffic ticket doesn’t make the stop and search unconstitutional. The search warrant for defendant’s home was based on … Continue reading
TN: Mere called-in description and location of allegedly impaired driver wasn’t enough for stop
A mere description of a truck and its general location, with no details of how the caller knew that the driver was impaired, was insufficient. Even when coupled with the officer’s one-minute interaction with defendant prior to seizing her where … Continue reading
NM: Inventory of def’s backpack many feet away from him was unreasonable, even though he admitted MJ was in it [Revd by NMSC]
Defendant on his motorcycle was followed by an officer because the officer knew that he didn’t have a valid driver’s license. He pulled into his driveway and parked behind his car and got off the bike, putting his backpack on … Continue reading
OH9: Taking def’s purse from car as she’s going to jail and searching it justified by auto exception or inventory
When defendant was arrested, the officer took her purse out of the car so it could go to jail with her. The search of the purse was valid as inventory or under the automobile exception. Also, Ohio recognizes good faith … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Inventory “policy’s language that the inventory must be ‘thorough and uniform’” is not “unconstitutional per se”
An inventory “policy’s language that the inventory must be ‘thorough and uniform’” is not “unconstitutional per se.” United States v. Perez-Trevino, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61447 (N.D.Iowa May 10, 2016)*:
W.D.Pa.: Leaving car in street after being taken away by ambulance after being shot justified impoundment and inventory of the car
Defendant called the police because he was shot in the chest while in his car. An ambulance arrived and took defendant to the hospital. His car was left in the middle of the street. Impoundment of the car and inventory … Continue reading