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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2017); ABA Journal Blawg 100 (2015-16) (discontinued 2018)
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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-24,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 425,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 45,000 posts since 2003 (26,730+ on WordPress as of 12/31/23) -
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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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"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 -
"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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew "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)
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Category Archives: Scope of search
D.Minn.: Hidden compartment could be searched under automobile exception
Under the automobile exception, a search of a compartment underneath the dashboard paneling was reasonable. United States v. Payton, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57065 (D. Minn. Mar. 29, 2024).* The search issues on appeal weren’t the issues in the trial … Continue reading
TN: Owner of cell phone doesn’t need to be known for SW for it
Search warrants are directed at things and information, and the fact officers didn’t know the owner of the cell phone didn’t mean the warrant was invalid. The phone revealed internet searches about a homicide before it was public knowledge. State … Continue reading
GA: SW for marijuana supported plain view seizure of firearms, ammunition, and body armor
Police had a search warrant for marijuana. “[E]ven if the seizure of the firearms, ammunition, and body armor is not within the scope of the warrant, we agree with the State that law enforcement was authorized to seize these items … Continue reading
PA: With PC, moving a car to a police location for a SW was reasonable
Probable cause was developed on the streets for search of defendant’s car for drug evidence when officers saw him take money, return to the car, get something small, and return to the payor, twice. Removing the car to a different … Continue reading
MA: “Any persons present” clause in SW permitted search of one who left before search but hung around
“We conclude that a search warrant authorizing a search of ‘any person present’ allows a search of any person present in the property to be searched during the execution of the search warrant, including persons present during the execution but … Continue reading
GA: SW for blood draw specifically didn’t mention testing
Where the search warrant for defendant’s blood only permitted drawing the blood and not testing it, testing it required another warrant. State v. De La Paz, 2024 Ga. App. LEXIS 98 (Mar. 8, 2024). Defendant’s conviction was based in part … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: In a cell phone search, cached data was within the “electronic data or memory features” of the phone as provided by the SW
Cached data on defendant’s cell phone is included in “[a]ll documents, including in electronic form, and stored communications including … photographs, videos, and any other electronic data or other memory features contained in the devices and SIM cards[.]” The search … Continue reading
CA10: SW for house included detached garage next to it without even mentioning it
The search warrant for defendant’s house included the detached garage on the curtilage without having to mention it. United States v. Ronquillo, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 5489 (10th Cir. Mar. 7, 2024). “And the Department of Homeland Security officers did … Continue reading
WI: Drug dog’s entering car was trespass, and “instinct exception,” even if it could be recognized, doesn’t apply
Drug dog’s twice entering defendant’s car without probable cause was a common law trespass under Jones and Jardines, and the police unlawfully gained information from that. The court rejects the “instinct exception” for the dog on the facts here, even … Continue reading
NJ: State could get SW for bullet removed during surgery even four years after shooting
Defendant had elective surgery four years after a shooting to remove the bullet. The police were entitled to a search warrant for the bullet from the hospital because it was evidence of a crime. Trial court’s denial of the warrant … Continue reading
Reason: Yes, Warrants Allow a Search Through the Whole Phone
Reason: Yes, Warrants Allow a Search Through the Whole Phone by Orin S. Kerr (“A comment on a mistaken way to limit computer searches— focusing on People v. Carson from the Michigan Court of Appeals.”):
NY2: SW for def’s cell phone browser history lacked PC, but here it was harmless error
“The defendant correctly contends that the police search of his browsing history and URLs of his Blackberry cell phone was not authorized by the search warrant obtained by the police. ‘To establish probable cause, a search warrant must provide sufficient … Continue reading
LA2: Search of nonparole roommate’s room required PC and SW
There is risk of a nonparolee roommate to parole searches of their common area. Once a search can occur, however, the rights of the roommate not on parole have to be respected. A search of the roommate’s room requires probable … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Unless SW overseizure is in bad faith or with reckless disregard, the entire search doesn’t fail, just the overseizure (but not always)
An overseizure during execution of a search warrant does not lead to suppression of that which was lawfully seized. If anything, just the stuff that was overseized. Here, there was obviously a huge amount of paper seized, and it was … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Shed on curtilage shown on Google satellite image attached to affidavit was properly searched although not specified in SW
A shed by the house was properly searched under a warrant for the house. “As a general rule, a supporting affidavit or document may be read together with (and considered a part of) a warrant that otherwise lacks sufficient particularity … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Use of cell phone cash app to facilitate PPP fraud justified SW for phone
Use of a cell phone cash app to facilitate spending PPP loan fraud justified warrant for phone. United States v. Foster, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11369 (N.D. Ga. Jan. 22, 2024). Codefendant’s case: United States v. Baptiste, 2024 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
CA9: Wholesale inventory searches of private safe deposit boxes in SW for business was unreasonable
US Private Vaults case reversed. The search of USPV’s 700 safe deposit boxes for inventory was unreasonable. The FBI obtained a warrant for USPV’s business because of its business practices, and this search of the safe deposit boxes of customers … Continue reading
MO: Exclusionary rule does not apply to DL revocations
Even if the officer was outside his jurisdiction when defendant was stopped, that’s for criminal cases, not driver’s license revocations, which are civil. No exclusionary rule here. Craig v. Dir. of Revenue, 2024 Mo. App. LEXIS 23 (Jan. 16, 2024) … Continue reading