Archives
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Recent Posts
- CA8: Admission of anonymous tip that led to stop violated Confrontation Clause
- CO: Anonymous report of student smoking pot in school justified backpack search
- CA6: CI’s lie to get into def’s house to video him making a drug deal with the CI didn’t violate 4A
- TN: Def lived in a van left wide open in a public area, but it didn’t belong to him, so no REP as to interior
- VI: Despite ubiquity of cell phones, nexus has to be shown to alleged crime
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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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General (many free):
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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (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: Independent source
SC: DNA sample by SW two weeks before trial was independent of one three years earlier during investigation
Defendant wasn’t in custody in a murder investigation when officers obtained a DNA sample from him in 2019, they believed voluntarily. As the case came closer to trial, the defense moved to suppress it because he’d lawyered up, so they … Continue reading
OH5: DTF officer can ask marked car to make stop
A DTF officer surveilling defendant who saw a traffic offense could ask a marked car to make a traffic stop. State v. Streeter, 2026-Ohio-1668 (5th Dist. May 5, 2026).* In the Fulton County 2020 ballot seizure and return case, the … Continue reading
OH5: Judge who issued SW could preside at trial
Defendant doesn’t show judicial bias at trial because the trial judge issued the search warrant two years earlier and didn’t remember it until during trial. No affidavit of bias filed. State v. Baker, 2026-Ohio-1628 (5th Dist. May 5, 2026). The … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: A filter team not required to examine seized photographs
A filter team wasn’t required to examine seized photographs. Overseizure doesn’t make a search unreasonable unless it was flagrant, and this wasn’t. United States v. Alford, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87350 (N.D. Ga. Apr. 20, 2026). “Even if the pre-warrant … Continue reading
CA6: Calling def a “fugitive” in the warrant affidavit wasn’t a Franks violation
The use of the word “fugitive” to describe defendant wasn’t shown to be a Franks violation. He insisted he wasn’t a fugitive. It wasn’t shown to be reckless or knowing. United States v. Brown, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 11017 (6th … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Constant surveillance of a car not needed for PC
There was probable cause for search of an Uber for drugs based on police surveillance. Defendant’s mention of supposed gaps in surveillance don’t mitigate the probable cause. “Their lack of an airtight case against the defendant, at the time of … Continue reading
CO: Incorporated and attached affidavit to SW narrowed its scope
The warrant included the application for it as defining its scope and it was attached. That limited the time and subject matter of the search. People v. Stauch, 2026 COA 22 (Apr. 2, 2026). The inventory of defendant’s car was … Continue reading
DE: Second warrant after first general warrant was independent source for search
The trial court held the warrant for defendant’s cell phone was a general warrant for overbreadth but the independent source doctrine saved the second search warrant after the first search. “All Delaware Superior Court cases addressing the instant issue support … Continue reading
OH2: No REP in juvenile detention phone calls
Even in juvenile detention, there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy in jail calls. In re C.C., 2026-Ohio-374, 2026 Ohio App. LEXIS 437 (2d Dist. Feb. 6, 2026). “Tyson, while failing to cite any binding authority in support of his position, … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: “In the presence” of the officer for misdemeanor arrests is not a part of the common law
The “in the presence” of the officer for misdemeanor arrests is not a part of the common law, citing Woods v. City of Chicago, 234 F.3d 979, 995 (7th Cir. 2000). It is by statute or rule in various places. … Continue reading
CA8: While the nexus showing was weak, GFE still applied
This affidavit for search warrant didn’t show nexus, but it wasn’t so lacking that the good faith exception didn’t apply. Some information was provided, and it was more than in cases where it was lacking. United States v. Diaz, 2025 … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Southwest employee wasn’t acting as govt agent in inventorying a suitcase and finding drugs
Defendant tried to retrieve a suitcase from Southwest Airlines in Omaha while not having been on a flight or having a claim check. The suspected bag arrived on the next flight from Phoenix, and it was taken by a SWA … Continue reading
HI: Failure to include affidavit for SW in record precludes appellate review
Failure to include the affidavit for search warrant in the record precludes appellate review. As best the court can on the merits, defendant would lose anyway. State v. Bibbs, 2025 Haw. App. LEXIS 451 (Sep. 22, 2025). The search of … Continue reading
ID: Extraterritorial arrest doesn’t violate state constitution
An extraterritorial arrest does not violate the search and seizure provision of the state constitution, like it doesn’t under the Fourth Amendment. The remedies for statutory violations aren’t in the exclusionary rule. State v. Satterfield, 2025 Ida. App. LEXIS 37 … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Protective sweep was unjustified, and SW based on what seen was suppressed
Defendant had managerial control over the business property searched enough that he had standing to challenge its search. The security sweep of the second floor was not reasonable and, to the USMJ, “ma[de] no sense”; there was no articulable reason … Continue reading
TX5: No standing in a house where def under a no contact order to stay out
Defendant had no standing to contest the search of a house he was under a no contact order to stay away from. Yet, he was found there. Coggins v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 3587 (Tex. App. – Dallas May … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Def still a danger to community after grant of motion to suppress; reopening detention hearing denied
After defendant’s motion to suppress was granted, he moved to reopen his detention hearing. It’s denied. The government superseded the indictment, and he’s still found to be a danger to the community. “The Court may thus properly consider suppressed evidence … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Putting def’s cell phone into airplane mode wasn’t a search
Putting defendant’s cell phone into airplane mode wasn’t a search. The name “Red” was seen on the screen. There was independent probable cause for the cell phone warrant. United States v. Hudson, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14952 (E.D. Mo. Jan. … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Running criminal history of passenger unreasonably prolonged the stop
The stop was valid, but the stop was unreasonably prolonged without reasonable suspicion when running the criminal history of the passenger. That was not part of the incidents of the traffic stop. The frisk was also unreasonable. Also, “The Court … Continue reading