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- VA: 12 second question about drugs didn’t unreasonably prolong the stop that was going to take a while anyway
- E.D.Tenn.: Application for SW was considered in detention ruling
- TN: RS didn’t develop to continue stop; second stop based on first suppressed
- CA4: Traffic stop immediately became firearms investigation; suppressed
- CA10: Disagreement over spelling of street name didn’t make warrant fail particularity; GFE at least would apply
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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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--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) -
“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: Informant hearsay
CA2: CI’s reliability supported because he also testified under oath before warrant issued
“[The CI’s] reliability is further supported by the fact that he ‘testified under threat of the criminal sanction for perjury,’ and that his eye-witness report of the crime was incredibly detailed.” United States v. Martin, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 2738 … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Merely being a CI doesn’t make the CI a “participant” in the crime for disclosure
Merely being a CI for the police doesn’t make the CI a participant in the crime to make his or her identity subject to disclosure. United States v. Westbrook, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10563 (M.D. La. Jan. 22, 2020). The … Continue reading
ID: Def left his own door open before the dog sniff; and sniff wasn’t otherwise unreasonable
Defendant got out of his car and left the door open, so it was already open when the dog sniff occurred. Opening the door was not a command. “We decline, however, to rule that an officer’s knock on a driver’s … Continue reading
OH6: 3 controlled buys by 2 CIs was PC; no requirement of showing how they were arranged to happen
Three controlled buys by two CIs was probable cause. There was no showing required of how the drug deals were to be arranged. State v. Reed, 2020-Ohio-138, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 107 (6th Dist. Jan. 17, 2020).* There was probable … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Asking questions while writing out a warning ticket do not measurably extend a stop
Asking questions while writing out a warning ticket do not measurably extend a stop. United States v. Green, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4421 (W.D. Ky. Jan. 10, 2020). Defendant’s arrest was valid, so his statement wasn’t fruit of the poisonous … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Leaked existence of federal SW that had press there before the SW results in statutory damages award
Plaintiff sued the government because the IRS and FBI leaked to the media a search warrant for his premises and the media was there. He got $1000 in statutory damages. He filed an untimely motion to reopen based on alleged … Continue reading
OH5: Knock-and-talk led to smell of MJ grow; entry for protective sweep before getting SW wasn’t unreasonable
Police came to do a knock-and-talk, and they could smell a marijuana grow from outside. They decided to do a protective sweep for people before they left to get a search warrant because they heard music from inside the home. … Continue reading
CA2: Def showed no reason to be able to obtain identify of CI who led to SW
Defendant’s motion to disclose the CI in the affidavit for search warrant was properly denied because the CI provided nothing to the case on guilt or innocence. United States v. Swinton, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 38141 (2d Cir. Dec. 23, … Continue reading
OH10: 911 call from ID’d person two men waving guns in a library is RS
911 call from an identified person that two men were waving guns in a library was reasonable suspicion. State v. Davidson, 2019-Ohio-5320, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 5399 (10th Dist. Dec. 24, 2019).* Defendant fails in his ineffectiveness claim. “Even assuming … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Informant hearsay here was adequately corroborated to be found reliable
The informant hearsay here was sufficiently corroborated. “The affidavit provides sufficient grounds to assess the veracity and basis of knowledge of CS1’s information. Most of CS1’s information is based on personal observations of Goodman. Those observations, including Goodman’s involvement with … Continue reading
CA9: There was PC for the warrant for the premises, and officers were not unreasonable in continuing the search for an hour when they learned their target didn’t live there
Officers got a search warrant for a mobile home, and found out when they executed it that their target didn’t live there. The search warrant was based on informant hearsay that was reliable enough for the search warrant to issue. … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Using Western Union for money transfer creates no REP in WU’s records
Western Union’s production of money transfer records was a classic third-party record situation where there was no reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Escobedo, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 208067 (D. Mont. Dec. 2, 2019). Defendant’s inconsistent story about whether … Continue reading
PA: Refusing to submit to BAC blood draw under SW supports obstruction of justice conviction
Refusal to submit to a blood draw search warrant for BAC supports a conviction for obstruction of justice. Commonwealth v. Palchanes, 2019 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1186 (Nov. 27, 2019). The CI’s basis of knowledge and reliability was adequately shown, and … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: To make an effective attack on a SW affidavit, explain yourself and don’t leave it to the court to try to do it for you
Yes, there were inconsistencies in the informant hearsay, but the defendant doesn’t help the court in what that means. “Thus, Defendant’s hearsay attacks fail to draw the court’s attention to any problem in the magistrate judges’ analysis.” There was double … Continue reading
CA6: Informant’s reliability is the question, and that leads to finding of reliability of his or her hearsay
The CI’s first hand information isn’t constitutionally required for informant hearsay to be deemed credible. The question is the reliability of the informant, not so much the information which usually can’t all be pinned down anyway. United States v. Crawford, … Continue reading
TN: Failure to include the search warrant and affidavit in the record on appeal waives the search issue
Failure to include the search warrant and affidavit in the record on appeal waives the search issue. State v. Parks, 2019 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 740 (Nov. 13, 2019). The officer gets qualified immunity because there was probable cause for … Continue reading
WI: Uncorroborated informant hearsay was strong enough to credit for probation search on RS
Wisconsin permits warrantless probation and parole searches on reasonable suspicion by any law enforcement officer. Officers had it here based on uncorroborated informant hearsay. The record also supports the trial court’s conclusion that the officer knew of the search condition … Continue reading
IA: One-way cross country rental and multiple cell phones wasn’t RS for extending stop
The officer had no reasonable suspicion developed from defendant’s traffic stop. The rental car was a one-way rental in the name of another and defendant had multiple cell phones. The stop, for all intents and purposes, appears strung out to … Continue reading
TN: Defense counsel’s failure to object to officer’s testimony of def’s confession during suppression hearing violated Simmons but was harmless
Defendant on post-conviction showed that defense counsel’s performance was deficient for not objecting under Simmons to a state investigator’s testimony that he confessed to the crime in his suppression hearing testimony. Defendant, however, can’t show prejudice because of the other … Continue reading