Archives
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Recent Posts
- 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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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)
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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: Burden of proof
D.Minn.: Desire to file a Franks motion doesn’t expand discovery rights
“Generally, the fact that a defendant wishes to seek a Franks hearing ‘does not entitle him or her to additional discovery before the Franks hearing.’” The government stated it has provided discovery required by Rule 16. Defendant’s request for further … Continue reading
IL: Flight from gunshots is not RS
Defendant’s flight into his house on hearing gunshots was not reasonable suspicion to give chase or probable cause to enter the house to arrest him. Anybody would flee gunshots. People v. Craine, 2020 IL App (1st) 163403, 2020 Ill. App. … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: Officers’ knowledge of def’s violent past justified patdown during stop
Officer’s prior knowledge of defendant’s violent past and criminal history, with reasonable suspicion, justified his patdown. United States v. South, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35208 (N.D. W.Va. Mar. 2, 2020).* Officers had a search warrant for the car defendant was … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: No REP in pole camera observations of who came and went from def’s front door
Pole camera observations from the street ended up in a wiretap application. Carpenter provides no relief. The only observations were the comings and goings from the house for which there was no reasonable expectation of privacy. “Because the Defendant has … Continue reading
CO: State can assert new grounds to support search after remand
After a remand, the state is free to raise new grounds to support the search. People v. Tallent, 2020 COA 14, 2020 Colo. App. LEXIS 127 (Jan. 30, 2020). “A bare assertion of authorization from a third party along with … Continue reading
PA: A command to roll down the window with an officer on each side of the car is an investigative detention
Defendant’s stop and one officer on each side and a command to roll down the window tells him that he’s required to talk to the officer. That’s an investigative detention. Commonwealth v. Powell, 2020 Pa. Super. LEXIS 67 (Feb. 3, … 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
E.D.Ky.: Govt didn’t exceed NCMEC’s private search
NCMEC was a private entity and not a government actor. The government didn’t exceed the private search. United States v. Kendall, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 192442 (E.D. Ky. Nov. 6, 2019). Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in an … Continue reading
NY2: Def has right of access to SW affidavit to attempt to controvert it
Defendant filed his motion to suppress in the blind because didn’t have access to the affidavit for the search warrant. It was denied without a hearing. Remanded: He gets to see it to try to controvert it. People v. Lambey, … Continue reading
TX10: The search and seizure issue in the trial court needs to be the same as the one presented on appeal or it’s waived
The search and seizure issue in the trial court needs to be the same as the one presented on appeal or it’s waived. “Villareal’s complaint on appeal that the trial court erred in denying Villareal’s motion to suppress as to … Continue reading
WA: Breath for BAC is not subject to search incident doctrine
Defendant was arrested for another reason, and police did a search incident of his breath for DUI. That’s not a proper purpose. City of Vancouver v. Kaufman, 2019 Wash. App. LEXIS 2616 (Oct. 15, 2019). The search warrant appears based … Continue reading
OH4: Heien good faith mistake of fact doesn’t apply to a stop under a completely inapplicable ordinance
Defendant’s stop was unreasonable, and Heien’s good faith mistake of fact doesn’t apply. The city code provision dealt with turning at intersections, and the officer stopped defendant for turning into a driveway which is not an “intersection.” State v. Ware, … Continue reading
AK: Inadequate briefing and failure to get ruling on 4A issue below is waiver
“To the extent Kuller is attempting to raise a Fourth Amendment challenge to his probation conditions, this claim is waived due to inadequate briefing. … We also note that Kuller never directly raised a Fourth Amendment claim below and the … Continue reading
SD: Def’s search issue on appeal wasn’t presented to the trial court, so it’s waived
Defendant’s claim that evidence discovering during a traffic stop had to be suppressed because the duration of the stop was unlawful was waived because he failed to advance that argument before the trial court. State v. Willingham, 2019 SD 55, … Continue reading
OR: Appeal of order of mother in juvenile case to provide UAs affirmed for an insufficient appellate record
The mother of a juvenile was ordered to give observed UAs as a part of a dependency-neglect proceeding. She didn’t provide a sufficient appellate record to decide whether the trial court’s order violated the state constitution, so it’s affirmed. Dep’t … Continue reading
LA5: Failure to raise scope of search issue below was waiver on appeal
The officer affiant adequately corroborated the CI to show probable cause. Defendant’s argument that the search of his house under the warrant couldn’t include the back yard was not preserved below [but it usually would be valid anyway]. State v. … Continue reading
OH5: Failure to put SW affidavit into evidence denies review of PC determination
Appellant failed to put the affidavit for search warrant into evidence at the suppression hearing, so it is unavailable for review on whether it showed probable cause. State v. Hill, 2019-Ohio-3432, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 3524 (5th Dist. Aug. 27, … Continue reading
FL1: No REP in cell phone video made by victim he knew was being recorded
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a cell phone video he saw being recorded on his victim’s cell phone while he talked to her under the state wiretap law. Smiley v. State, 2019 Fla. App. LEXIS 12628 (Fla. … Continue reading