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- CA6: Knowing passcode to cell phone shows common authority over it to consent
- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
- Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
- E.D.Mich.: Second SW for cell phone data retained by govt was valid
- S.D.W.Va.: “Shocking” nature of immigration raid on a Mexican restaurant at lunchtime didn’t warrant suppression
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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)
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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: Reasonableness
CA8: Motion to suppress via motion for judgment of acquittal results in plain error review
Defendant’s motion to suppress was made as a motion for judgment of acquittal, so it was subject to plain error review, which it was not. United States v. Thornton, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 20109 (8th Cir. Aug. 4, 2023). “The … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Violation of police dept. vehicle chase policy doesn’t equate to a violation of the 4A
An alleged violation of department policy on police chases doesn’t equal a Fourth Amendment violation. United States v. Moore, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130238 (W.D. Tenn. July 27, 2023). Speeding and erratic driving justified the stop, and alcohol was seen … Continue reading
DE: SW issuing magistrate not barred from hearing suppression motion
The suppression hearing judge is not disqualified just because he or she considered the affidavit and issued the search warrant. Willis v. State, 2023 Del. LEXIS 238 (July 24, 2023). Setting inaccuracies in the search warrant affidavit aside, there was … Continue reading
MO: Virginia v. Moore does not require officer see the crime to have PC for arrest outside jurisdiction
Virginia v. Moore does not require that an arresting officer personally have seen the act that led to the arrest outside the officer’s jurisdiction as long as there was probable cause. State v. Barton, 2023 Mo. LEXIS 183 (June 27, … Continue reading
RI: Exigency of hot pursuit in a homicide case made pinging cell phone reasonable
Despite Carpenter saying it is limited to historical CSLI, this court concludes there is no meaningful difference between real-time and historical CSLI under Carpenter. Exigency, however, was real. The police were in hot pursuit seeking to question defendant for a … Continue reading
PA: Justified inquiry about presence of a firearm didn’t unreasonably extend stop
It was reasonable during defendant’s traffic stop for the officer to inquire into whether he had a firearm because the officer figured out defendant was a security guard likely with a weapon. That did not unreasonably extend the stop. Commonwealth … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: 40 day delay in getting cell phone SW was not unreasonable where def was still in custody and could not possess it
Delays in the case were to work out a plea agreement, not file motions. For that reason, the motion to suppress is denied. On the merits, the 40 day delay in seeking a warrant for his cell phone was reasonable … Continue reading
KY: Officer’s mistake of law on effective date of new traffic law was reasonable and stop not suppressed under Heien
Officer’s mistake of law on the effective date of a new traffic law was reasonable, and the stop would not be suppressed under Heien. Vincent v. Commonwealth, 2023 Ky. App. LEXIS 41 (June 9, 2023):
E.D.Cal.: 30-minute seizure of cell phone in school that was never searched was not unreasonable
Seizure of a cell phone in school for 30 minutes that was not searched at all was not unreasonable. McGuire v. Roseville Joint Union High Sch. Dist., 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98392 (E.D. Cal. June 5, 2023).* The warrantless blood … Continue reading
LA4: State carries burden on inevitable discovery and it failed here
Here there was a warrantless entry into the house for a gun. Defendant was in custody outside. The state had the burden on inevitable discovery and failed. “In the instant case, the state failed to point to any alternative lawful … Continue reading
NY: Second SW for phone a year later after first SW failed to show PC wasn’t timely
The first cell phone search warrant was rejected for lack of probable cause. It only provided a generic description of cell phones as repositories of potential evidence without linking it to this case. The phone was still in the evidence … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Review of PC for a SW is not de novo
Review of whether there is probable cause for a warrant is not de novo; it’s whether there is a substantial basis for finding probable cause, and there’s that here. United States v. Jones, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81177 (S.D. Ga. … Continue reading
NE: Officer’s own sniff of unmarked bag on train was reasonable
Officer’s sniff of an unmarked bag on a train was not unreasonable. He was trained on the smell, and it interfered with no known person’s rights at the time. State v. Vaughn, 314 Neb. 167 (May 5, 2023). The officer … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Arrest on NCIC warrant from Michigan reasonable despite it not labeled extraditable
Defendant’s arrest in Texas on a Michigan warrant shown on NCIC was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment despite the claim that it was not flagged for out-of-state extradition. Six months earlier, he was arrested and released before getting to jail … Continue reading
D.V.I.: No REP against a flyover of a MJ grow
There was no objective reasonable expectation of privacy in a flyover of a marijuana grow operation. A warrant to flyover and photograph was not required. United States v. Soogrim, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75183 (D.V.I. May 1, 2023). The court … Continue reading
CA11: Roadside dog sniff during the records check was reasonable and did not extend the stop
A roadside dog sniff during the records check was reasonable even without reasonable suspicion and did not extend the stop. United States v. Ramirez-Rivera, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 10325 (11th Cir. Apr. 27, 2023). On collective knowledge: “As the surveillance … Continue reading
IL4: Despite legalization of possession of small amounts of MJ, dog alert still PC
The drug dog’s “positive alert on the vehicle in this case established a fair probability that drugs or evidence of a crime would be found in the vehicle. This is true despite recent changes in the law regarding the legalization … Continue reading
OH12: Fact LEO broke traffic laws to catch speeder isn’t a 4A reasonableness defense
The fact a police officer arguably broke traffic laws to effect a stop of a fleeing motorist isn’t a defense to a traffic stop under the Fourth Amendment or the state constitution. State v. Johnson, 2023-Ohio-1320, 2023 Ohio App. LEXIS … Continue reading
NC: Arrest warrant for def permitted entry into house when he retreated inside; protective sweep valid
Officers had an arrest warrant for defendant for a violent crime, and he was found at home. They saw him outside, and he retreated inside. The SRT showed up too. The entry for the arrest was valid, as was the … Continue reading