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- PA: Shining flashlight into hole in a shoebox was a search; there was a REP in the closed box
- CA5: Accidentally shooting the man who disarmed the shooter from a residence was not a constitutional violation
- CA9: False evidence to arrest violates due process
- CA6: The SW affidavit here was thin, but it wasn’t completely bare bones, so GFE applies
- D.Minn.: Extending stop to run ALPR information on car was with RS
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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)
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Section 1983 Blog -
"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
CA7: § 1983 4A ptf doesn’t have to plead around qualified immunity; ptf clearly overcame it anyway
The district court erred in finding for officers who conducted a warrantless search of plaintiff’s house. It was not her burden to plead around qualified immunity—it was the defendant’s burden to show qualified immunity. “It was clearly established in October … Continue reading
Education Week (blog): Justices Decline to Review Case Involving Strip Search of 4-Year-Old at School
Education Week (blog): Justices Decline to Review Case Involving Strip Search of 4-Year-Old at School by Mark Walsh:
AR: Claim of misstatement or incorrect fact in SW affidavit doesn’t state Franks claim without allegation it was reckless or intentional
Merely stating that information in the affidavit for search warrant was incorrect doesn’t preserve a Franks challenge without also alleging that it was recklessly or intentionally made. King v. State, 2019 Ark. 114, 2019 Ark. LEXIS 125 (Apr. 18, 2019). … Continue reading
CA10: QI properly granted in homeowner’s 4A claim against officer executing arrest warrant for another
The district court properly granted qualified immunity to a trailer resident’s Fourth Amendment claims against a deputy sheriff stemming from a search and seizure conducted while executing an arrest warrant for a guest staying in the trailer. The law was … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Younger abstention bars a § 1983 case over the search of plaintiff while the state criminal case is pending
Younger abstention bars a § 1983 case over the search of plaintiff while the state criminal case is pending. Ford v. Brookins, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66694 (S.D. Fla. Apr. 19, 2019). Qualified immunity was properly denied based on the … Continue reading
CA5: QI granted officer who detained business owner for 4 hrs for civil violation
Detaining a business owner for four hours for civil violations and pulling a gun wasn’t clearly established as a Fourth Amendment violation, so the officer gets [away with it by getting] qualified immunity. Okorie v. Crawford, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Generically describing in an inventory “tools” and “misc items” was constitutionally adequate to show true inventory
Describing a lot of stuff in defendant’s car as “tools” and “misc items” was good enough. “Officer Jas also testified that having the inventory search recorded in his BWC served to verify the accuracy of his paperwork. Having considered Officer … Continue reading
CA6: Rule against warrantless housing inspection entries clearly established
Defendant police officers were properly granted summary judgment on plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claims regarding the validity of the warrants because probable cause supported two of the warrants and the third warrant was not so lacking in indicia of probable cause … Continue reading
Techdirt: Appeals Court Says It’s OK For Cops To Steal Stuff From Citizens
Techdirt: Appeals Court Says It’s OK For Cops To Steal Stuff From Citizens by Tim Cushing:
CA9: Not well settled law that LEO stealing property during a search is 4A violation, so alleged thief gets qualified immunity
The law is not well settled, thus requiring qualified immunity, that a law enforcement officer’s stealing plaintiff’s property during a search is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. (Apparently something that’s obviously an unreasonable seizure doesn’t matter as long as … Continue reading
NY2: Jail call here was more prejudicial than relevant and should have been excluded
Admission of defendant’s jail call here was more prejudicial than relevant because it omitted context. The jury was at a loss as to what arrest was being talked about. People v. Robinson, 2019 NY Slip Op 01799, 2019 N.Y. App. … Continue reading
CA6: No QI for stopping ptf for “flipp[ing] him the bird”
Officer Minard stopped the plaintiff for a minor traffic offense, and he let her off with a warning. Despite the break, she “flipped him the bird,” and the officer blue lighted her again and this time ran into her trying … Continue reading
GA: 536 day delay in getting SW for cell phone was unreasonable
Defendant’s cell phone was lawfully seized but apparently forgotten about. In preparation of the case, an assistant prosecutor found out about it and sought a search warrant, 536 days after seizure. The delay was unreasonable, and the phone’s contents are … Continue reading
CA8: Arguable probable cause for arrest gives QI
“The totality of the circumstances at the time of the arrest, as described above, were sufficient for Svajgl to believe that Nader had committed or was committing the offense of possessing child pornography.” Arguable probable cause is all that’s required … Continue reading
CA6: Knock-and-talk on curtilage was permitted
Officers came to plaintiff’s home for a knock-and-talk, and he went out the back with a gun in hand. One officer pursued him, and he ended up racking and pointing the gun and getting shot. The officers get qualified immunity … Continue reading
CA11: § 1983 malicious prosecution claim defeated by PC even though exonerating information omitted from arrest affidavit
Plaintiff police officers’ false arrest claim fails on qualified immunity. Even though allegedly exonerating information was omitted from the arrest affidavits, and the criminal case was dropped by the state’s attorney, it wasn’t enough to undermine the probable cause that … Continue reading
CA6: Officers who went to hospital room get QI on whether there was a REP in the shared room
Officers who visited plaintiff in his hospital room he shared with another were sued for allegedly violating his reasonable expectation of privacy. There is no clear controlling authority, and the officers get qualified immunity [and the issue goes undecided]. Bonds … Continue reading
CA7: QI barred § 1983 over forced prison blood draw
Plaintiff is an inmate in prison who was ordered to give a blood test when prison officials decided he wasn’t acting right and might be high. His suit over the prison’s forced blood draw is barred by qualified immunity. Holm … Continue reading
CA2: Def parole officer gets QI on whether 4A or NY case law applies to parole search
Plaintiff was subjected to a parole search, and he contended New York law applied rather than Samson et al. The officer gets qualified immunity on the question because it appears Samson should but we don’t even need to resolve it. … Continue reading