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- E.D.Mich.: Second SW for cell phone data retained by govt was valid
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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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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: Inevitable discovery
S.D.Ill.: Witness’s memory failure on the stand at trial didn’t support a Franks challenge
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not raising a Franks challenge mid-trial when a participant in the search warrant process had a memory failure on the stand as to something. Offutt v. United States, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 231418 (S.D. Ill. … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Car in driveway was on curtilage and plain view prohibited
Defendant backed into his driveway and that was curtilage. The police had neither a warrant nor exigent circumstances to come and look at his car to justify a plain view of an open container than led to finding a gun. … Continue reading
OH2: Parking on the grass justified stop
Parking on the grass justified this stop. State v. Green, 2026-Ohio-3654 (2d Dist. Sep. 18, 2026).* On the totality, defendant’s stop was with reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation, and it was not unreasonably extended. State v. Livesay, 2026 Tenn. … Continue reading
MS: Execution style murder in public in broad daylight was exigency to get suspect’s CSLI
Defendant’s allegedly committing an execution style murder in public in broad daylight was exigency to get his CSLI at that moment to locate him. Carpenter recognized exigency exceptions. Anderson v. State, 2026 Miss. App. LEXIS 406 (Sep. 15, 2026). Defendant … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: SW for def’s house included his tent outside
The search warrant for defendant’s house included his tent outside. Gardner v. Miranda, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 153610 (S.D. Fla. May 27, 2026). The officer had reasonable suspicion for a stop, so the “new crime” rationale the court of appeals … Continue reading
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
ID: Inevitable discovery doesn’t always require independent investigation
“[W]e hold that a finding that there was a lawful separate or independent investigation underway is not a per se requirement in every case for the inevitable discovery doctrine to apply. While a separate, untainted investigation may be the simplest … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Inevitable discovery doesn’t cure errors
Defendant’s cell phone was unreasonably seized and the contents suppressed. Inevitable discovery isn’t as broad as the government argues. United States v. Patchiav, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47106 (E.D.N.Y. Mar. 7, 2026)*:
D.N.M.: Impoundment of backpack not shown proper under police procedures
The impoundment of defendant’s car and his backpack from an apartment complex parking lot was not shown to be within the standardized procedures of the department. That’s the government’s burden. Motion to suppress granted. United States v. Majedi, 2026 U.S. … Continue reading
CA4: Def’s pants transported from hospital to jail were searched, and inevitable discovery applies
Defendant’s pants were transported from the hospital to the jail, and inevitable discovery covers their search. United States v. Gibbins, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 1432 (4th Cir. Jan. 21, 2026). The warrant for five cell phones was executed within the … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Running LPN after handcuffing failed inevitable discovery
On the totality, defendant’s stop was without reasonable suspicion. Only after he was handcuffed did an officer run the LPN finding a warrant. The government fails on inevitable discovery here. United States v. Warner, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 210974 (D.N.M. … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Incomplete series for Netflix was subject of SW
Netflix contracted with defendant to make a series. When it fell through after paying him $44M, they believed they’d been defrauded. The search warrant for what had been completed of the series was potential evidence and properly sought under the … Continue reading
CA2: RS for stop for not pulling over for emergency vehicle
Stop was valid for failing to move over for an emergency vehicle on the side of the road. United States v. Overton, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 25125 (2d Cir. Sep. 29, 2025).* Smell of marijuana from defendant’s car was probable … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: Search of room adjoining arrest wasn’t valid as SI or protective sweep
Defendant had standing as an occasional overnight guest in his ex-girlfriend’s apartment when he was there when the police arrived to arrest him. The search of another room was neither valid as a search incident or protective sweep. Motion to … Continue reading
CA6: Govt. waived PC argument, but GFE carries the day
The government waived reliance on probable cause in the district court, but its good faith exception was presented and supports the search. United States v. Scales, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 18324 (6th Cir. July 21, 2025).* The magistrate’s R&R finding … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Re-search of email in 2024 on a 2022 SW was unreasonable and not protected by GFE
The government seized seven years of defendants’ email records in 2022 but the FBI’s computer somehow lost it. So they re-searched the data in 2024. “The Government asserts that it accessed the full return of data received pursuant to the … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Protective sweep during SW execution not confined by the warrant, if otherwise justified
While the question is close here, the protective sweep of defendant’s house during a search warrant was reasonable on the totality. Essentially, the search warrant doesn’t define the scope of a justified protective sweep. “[T]he Fourth Amendment permits law enforcement … Continue reading
NE: PBT unnecessary for PC if it’s apparent def under influence
The officer didn’t need a PBT to have probable cause for defendant’s DUI arrest. His observation of defendant was enough. State v. Porter, 33 Neb. App. 453 (Feb. 25, 2025).* Inevitable discovery applied. The community caretaking function allowed seizure of … Continue reading