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- FL: Violation of knock-and-announce statute doesn’t require exclusion
- TX3: DUI blood draw while in restraint chair not 4A unreasonable
- TX1: Def has a duty to make his record on PC and the SW; missing affidavit was on him
- N.D.Ala.: SW not invalid because issuing judge previously represented the target
- The Guardian: ‘We should be worried’: report sheds light on ICE’s booming arsenal of hi-tech surveillance tools
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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)
--Outline of 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: Probation / Parole search
TN: Conclusory statement from CI defs had drugs and unsuccessful controlled buy was neither PC for warrant nor RS for probation search
The trial court properly granted defendants’ motion to suppress evidence seized as a result of a warrantless search of their house. The information possessed by the officers at the time of the search, including a conclusory statement from a confidential … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Def’s public opposition to PO walk throughs of his residence added to RS
Defendant’s opposition to home walk throughs by his probation officer added to reasonable suspicion. When he spent $20,000 on Christmas gifts with a $1,500 a month income, they had cause to do one. United States v. Rogers, 2017 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: Scope of a parole search is based on RS parolee is in control of specific place searched
The scope of a parole search has to be based on at least reasonable suspicion that the place to be searched was under the control of the parolee. There was no evidence available that showed he had joint control of … Continue reading
CA10: CSLI is third-party information
Noting pendency of Carpenter, the Tenth Circuit finds CSLI third-party records and they are bound to apply the third-party doctrine. United States v. Thompson, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 14551 (10th Cir. Aug. 8, 2017). Defendant had a warrantless search condition … Continue reading
CA8: Halfway house resident’s cell phone subject to suspicionless search
Defendant’s cell phone was subject to search when he resided at a residential reentry program after release from an FCI. Child porn was found on the phone. Defendant’s reliance on Riley’s warrant requirement is misplaced. Yes, this is a cell … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Probation condition doesn’t permit warrantless tracking of defendant’s cell phone as a matter of course. If he’s a fugitive, yes, by court order
Probation condition doesn’t permit warrantless tracking of defendant’s cell phone as a matter of course. When he’s a fugitive, however, it can be. United States v. Ponce, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119550 (M.D. Fla. July 31, 2017):
CA9: A valid parole search includes detaining the property long enough to search it
Defendant was on a parole search condition, and that included searching any property under his control and even detaining that property long enough to do it. United States v. Miller, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 14283 (9th Cir. Aug. 3, 2017). … Continue reading
CA9: Officer’s call to def’s PO during stop didn’t unreasonably prolong it, and PO requested search
The officer’s call to defendant’s PO during his traffic stop did not unreasonably prolong the stop. The PO separately had reasonable suspicion for a search and requested one. United States v. Seugasala, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 14173 (9th Cir. Aug. … Continue reading
WA: Random UAs valid as condition of probation for DUI
“At issue in this case is whether a court may require a probationer convicted of driving under the influence (DUI) to submit to random urinalysis testing (UAs) for controlled substances. In particular, this issue centers on whether this testing violates … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Where probation search didn’t comply with state RS requirement, federal court suppresses it
The state probation search of defendant’s premises did not comply with the state statute requiring reasonable suspicion, so the court does not consider the constitutionality of the search. The search was not for supervision purposes because his supervising officer did … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Parole searches aren’t at all limited to only def’s parole officer doing it
It is not even a reasonable argument that only defendant’s PO can search him under a warrantless search condition. United States v. Smith, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 105049 (E.D. N.C. July 7, 2017). Defendant was seized when the officer’s blue … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: Probation search waiver can’t be relied on when officers didn’t know about it at time of search
In a civil case relying on a probation search, “‘[a] Fourth Amendment search waiver cannot provide a justification for a search of a probationer where the officers were unaware of the waiver before they undertook the search.’ United States v. … Continue reading
CA9: Hotel room was def’s “premises” and the parole search was reasonable
A hotel room rented by defendant’s girlfriend where they checked in as a couple was defendant’s “premises.” There was probable cause to believe it was defendant’s premises and under his control because his clothes were inside, and the girlfriend said … Continue reading
NY4: Probation condition that def consent to searches reasonably related to his crime and rehabilitation
Defendant’s probation condition that he consent to searches is reasonably related to his crime and rehabilitation. People v. King, 2017 NY Slip Op 04618, 2017 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4686 (4th Dept. June 9, 2017).* “Giving due weight to each … Continue reading
DE: Positive probation drug screen 15 days earlier, with nothing more, wasn’t RS for a probation search of the house
Positive probation drug screen 15 days earlier, with nothing more, wasn’t reasonable suspicion for a probation search of the house. State v. Fax, 2017 Del. Super. LEXIS 270 (June 2, 2017). Geolocation information from a coconspirator’s cell phone was used … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: It’s not for LEO to second guess a probation search condition’s validity or application
If the probation search condition applies on its face, and even if the search is for general law enforcement purposes, it’s not for the searching officer to inquire into the details of whether there might be some argument behind the … Continue reading
LA2: UT blanket probation search condition applied to probationer transferred to LA
Defendant was on probation out of Utah and supervised in Louisiana. His PO received information that he might have child pornography on his cell phone. During a PO visit, he was told to get his cell phone and computer out … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Def’s prior drug involvement justified a drug search condition on supervised release
Defendant’s prior convictions for drugs from age 17-22 justified a drug search condition on supervised release. United States v. Betsy-Jones, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75157 (N.D. N.Y. April 28, 2017), adopted, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74113 (N.D. N.Y. May 16, … Continue reading
Cal.4th: Passenger’s parole status permitted search of entire passenger compartment
Defendant was in a car with a parolee. After a valid stop, the parolee gave a false name, and the officer eventually got the right name and parole status. A search of the whole car was permissible even though the … Continue reading
NC statute that probation search be for “purpose” of probation is a limitation on the search power
A 2009 amendment to the state probation search condition required that the search serve the purpose of the supervision, so it’s not carte blanche for a probation search. The trial court’s order refusing to suppress is reversed. State v. Powell, … Continue reading