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- CA6: State officer’s arrest for violation of federal MJ law likely wouldn’t violate 4A
- D.N.M.: Shared driveway outside of fence and gate was not curtilage
- CA6: Knowing passcode to cell phone shows common authority over it to consent
- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
- Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
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also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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--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)
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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: Qualified immunity
UT: Stop based on query to Insure-Rite database was with RS despite database being updated biweekly
Defendant was stopped because the Utah Criminal Justice Information System querying the Insure-Rite database showed he had no car insurance. Once stopped, he admitted he didn’t have a DL either. Then, outstanding warrants were found. Defendant’s claim the Insure-Rite database … Continue reading
CA6: It is settled that tenants have a REP in an interior hallway open only to them
The district court erred in granting qualified immunity to the officers who entered a hallway that was associated with only one apartment that decedent clearly had a reasonable expectation of privacy in. The law is settled in this circuit. Decedent … Continue reading
CA9: Protective sweep of house after medical emergency at front door unjustified
Officers responded to a medical emergency at the entryway of defendant’s house. They ended up conducting a protective sweep for which there was no justification whatsoever. The firearm found in the protective sweep is suppressed. United States v. Gonzalez-Martin, 2020 … Continue reading
Cato@liberty: Supreme Court Will Soon Decide Whether To Reconsider Qualified Immunity
Cato@liberty: Supreme Court Will Soon Decide Whether To Reconsider Qualified Immunity by Jay Schweikert:
KY: After DL found suspended, stop can be extended
When defendant was stopped and found to have a suspended license, the normal incidents of a traffic stop are accordingly extended, and that didn’t make waiting for a drug dog unreasonable. Olmeda v. Commonwealth, 2020 Ky. App. LEXIS 40 (Apr. … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Failure to present issue before USMJ waives it
Defendant’s new issue of lack of consent wasn’t presented before the USMJ, so it can’t be raised in the objections. United States v. Allen, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57604 (E.D. Ky. Apr. 2, 2020). “Hunt has not shown that Glenn … Continue reading
CA6: Social workers’ in-school interviews of children violated 4A, but law not clearly established
Social workers’ in-school interviews of children of a parent who tested positive for drugs violated the Fourth Amendment, but they get qualified immunity because no case holds what they did was clearly established. Schulkers v. Kammer, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA9: Use of force against autistic person posing no threat was excessive
Qualified immunity was properly denied the officer on plaintiff’s claim that the officer was alleged to have used excessive force. After seeing that plaintiff was holding only a string and certainly after learning that he was autistic, no officer of … Continue reading
CA8 dissent from rehearing en banc: Panel misapplied qualified immunity on use of Taser
Two judges of the Eighth Circuit dissented from denial of rehearing en banc of 944 F.3d 704 (8th Cir. Ark. Dec. 3, 2019) that the panel misapplied qualified immunity. Jackson v. Stair, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 9540 (8th Cir. Mar. … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: There is no per se staleness, and how is DNA stale?
There is no per se staleness. A new warrant for defendant’s DNA alleging it was previously drawn in 2005 and 2007 and matched wasn’t stale. How does DNA change? It doesn’t. United States v. Williams, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38735 … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Controlled buy is PC; CI’s alleged lie isn’t Franks issue
A controlled buy was probable cause. The claim that the CI lied isn’t cognizable under Franks. United States v. Sheridan, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36163 (N.D. Ohio. Mar. 3, 2020). There were disputed questions of fact on whether it was … Continue reading
CA6: Shooting a teenager who pulled a toy gun on an officer for 2 seconds still has QI
The officer here shot a teenage boy who had a toy gun on him that looked real. He reached for it and dropped it, but reaching for it and pulling it out, even for two seconds before dropping it, was … Continue reading
CA10: Shooting a person fleeing a shooting scene without determining he was the shooter might have been unreasonable, but right not to be shot in this situation not clearly established (Really)
In a § 1983 Fourth Amendment excessive force suit, officers heard a gun shot and saw people running as a crowd left a concert. They shot and killed the decedent, and a jury could conclude that the officers unreasonably determined … Continue reading
CA9: Ptf stated claim for SSA CID’s unlawful entry into home
Plaintiff’s civil claim against Social Security Administration’s CID and local investigators stated a claim for unlawful entry into her home in a criminal investigation. Anh Tuyet Thai v. Saul, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 5425 (9th Cir. Feb. 19, 2020).* Plaintiff … Continue reading
CA1: Alleged overseizure of email under SW would only require partial suppression; def doesn’t identify that which was overseized
Defendant’s motion to suppress electronic data acquired by a Rule 41(e)(2)(B) search warrant on his email account was properly denied. Based on the absence of a time limit in the warrant, it was not unreasonable to interpret the warrant to … Continue reading
CA11: Further detaining plaintiff at jail after she made bond on a hunch she was not legally in the U.S. denied QI
“The evidence, interpreted in the light most favorable to Alcocer, is sufficient for a reasonable jury to conclude that Mills violated Alcocer’s Fourth Amendment rights by continuing to detain her without new probable cause after her attempted posting of bond … Continue reading
MI: Def’s lying about smell of MJ was PC despite state’s medical MJ law
Defendant’s lying about the smell of marijuana in his car was probable cause that he was in possession of more than the amount permitted under the state medical marijuana law. People v. Moorman, 2020 Mich. App. LEXIS 1111 (Feb. 13, … Continue reading
CA9: Motion to suppress tax records obtained by IRS because his “private property interests” were invaded wasn’t presented below and is waived
“Galloway next argues that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress because the IRS’s warrantless inspection of his financial records violated his private-property interests under the Fourth Amendment. But Galloway ‘never requested suppression on this ground in … Continue reading