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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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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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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: Qualified immunity
E.D.Mich.: Parolee has no REP in own home as to parole search
The court holds that defendant’s status as a parolee literally gave him no reasonable expectation of privacy in his own trailer from a parole search. He seeks narrowing the search under Griffin to avoid Samson and Knights. The court rejects … Continue reading
CA9: The extreme of QI: officers alleged to have committed theft during execution of a SW get QI because no case says it’s a 4A violation
Officers get qualified immunity for alleged theft of $300,000 in cash and property from plaintiffs because it wasn’t clearly established that theft from a search is unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. Jessop v. City of Fresno, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
VI: RS exists on smell of marijuana in a car even though locally small amounts of MJ was decriminalized
Despite decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana in VI, reasonable suspicion of possession of a small amount of marijuana is still contraband (an issue already settled here) that can justify a stop. Here, officers were watching a high crime area … Continue reading
CA9: Seven hour arrest and detention of decedent’s wife as witness to a police shooting was unreasonable under clearly established law
Plaintiff’s husband was shot by sheriff’s deputies and killed and she was arrested as a material witness, taken away, and held for seven hours–four before any questioning. This was unreasonable under Maxwell v. County of San Diego, 708 F.3d 1075, … Continue reading
Two on qualified immunity
EMTs who assessed plaintiff for mental issues and took her away were entitled to qualified immunity. No case could be cited that they violated the Fourth Amendment. Ellison v. Hobbs, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 26263 (11th Cir. Aug. 29, 2019).* … Continue reading
NC: Giving cop the finger was RS for stop for disorderly conduct, despite it being recognized free speech
Giving a cop the finger, although universally now recognized as protected speech, was reasonable suspicion for a stop for disorderly conduct. [The dissent has the far better argument, here. The majority is just wrong, and cites cases that prove it.] … Continue reading
CA6: Mere negligent inclusion of information in SW affidavit doesn’t overcome QI for civil Franks claim
Mere negligence in an alleged false statement in a search warrant affidavit isn’t enough to overcome qualified immunity for a civil Franks claim. Butler v. City of Detroit, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 25062 (6th Cir. Aug. 22, 2019):
CA6: Pointing gun at teenagers in a car wreck for no apparent reason violated clearly established 4A law
Pointing a gun for two minutes at nonthreatening teenagers in a car wreck violated clearly established Fourth Amendment law. Vanderhoef v. Dixon, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 24897 (6th Cir. Aug. 21, 2019). Plaintiff is a frail 76-year-old man who came … Continue reading
CA11: A late discovered search claim doesn’t support a successor 2255 petition
“Wren cannot meet the statutory criteria for filing a second or successive § 2255 motion. First, even assuming that the search warrant is ‘newly discovered’ insofar as it had been sealed, it does nothing to establish by clear and convincing … Continue reading
CA11: Shooting a man with a gun was close enough to reasonable under the circumstances for QI
Officers get qualified immunity for shooting a mentally retarded man they knew of when he was wandering the highway and was reported flashing a handgun at people. When the police encountered him, he wouldn’t show his hands and kept one … Continue reading
CA11: Ptf’s excessive force claim overcomes QI; his facts show clearly established law violated
Defendants were properly denied qualified immunity in using excessive force to arrest plaintiff. Plaintiff’s version of the facts showed clearly established rights were violated. Heck v. Humphrey didn’t apply because plaintiff wasn’t seeking to attack his conviction. Cendan v. Trujillo, … Continue reading
CA5: SWAT team’s firefight after failure to comply with basic no-knock requirements denies them qualified immunity
SWAT team’s violation of basic elements of no-knock of 1997’s Richards get no qualified immunity in the firefight that followed their unreasonable entry. Fact questions remain for excessive force as well. Geiger v. Sloan, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 23849 (5th … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: Photographing the naked body of unconscious Taser victim in the hospital stated a claim and overcame QI
Plaintiff was unconscious in the hospital when the defendants manipulated her naked body to photograph Taser marks. She stated a claim under a 1963 Ninth Circuit case that overcame qualified immunity. Young v. Pena, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131641 (W.D. … Continue reading
CA8: Not a 4A violation for school resource officer to handcuff sobbing second grader
It was not unreasonable for a school resource officer to handcuff for 15 minutes a 7-year-old sobbing second grader who he suspected of active resistance to going to the principal’s office. Aside from reasonableness, qualified immunity applies because the right … Continue reading
CA11: Deadly force on an unarmed man proved to be justified in the heat of the moment
An officer’s killing an unarmed man during a traffic stop was reasonable based on the officer’s reasonable reaction to what decedent was doing when he fished around in his vehicle and came out with an unknown object in his hand. … Continue reading
CA6: Ptf arrested for a police parody Facebook page has much of case survive QI on retaliatory arrest
Plaintiff made a parody Facebook page of the Parma Police Department which ultimately led to his arrest for impeding police operations because the Parma Police had to field 12 minutes of phone calls over which was the real Facebook page. … Continue reading
CA1: Police chief’s order to officer to turn over cellphone and home phone records not a constitutional violation under third-party doctrine; chief gets qualified immunity
Plaintiff is a police officer, and the chief ordered production of his cell phone and home phone records in an internal investigation. The chief gets qualified immunity because of the third party doctrine. Those records were obtainable by subpoena from … Continue reading
CA9: Use of tear gas to enter house, even where consent given, was not clearly unreasonable considering a dangerous, potentially armed, and suicidal felon was barricaded inside
“The panel held that assuming the consent was voluntary and defendants exceeded the scope of the consent by shooting tear gas into the house, they were still entitled to qualified immunity. The panel held that given that defendants thought they … Continue reading
CA8: SWAT team’s use of a flashbang device to search a house for a cell phone was unreasonable (it was also the wrong house because the suspect hadn’t been there in two years)
It was objectively unreasonable for a SWAT team to break in a door and use a flashbang device to search a house for a cell phone where the suspect was already in custody and they knew it, they were at … Continue reading
CA4: Arrest for obstruction wasn’t objectively justified and QI denied
The actions of the plaintiff didn’t reasonably rise to the level of obstruction of an officer, and her arrest and throwing her to the ground was unjustified. Qualified immunity is denied. Hupp v. Cook, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 22208 (4th … Continue reading