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- E.D.Ark.: Ptf stated claim for SW entry without proper announcement
- E.D.Ky.: Being a lookout vehicle at a crime is RS
- E.D.Mich.: Missing 14 yo cell phone pinging at def’s house was exigency for entry to find her
- CA3: Smell of MJ but none found can still be PC
- Cal.4: SW not needed to test DNA abandoned in a rape
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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)
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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: Forfeiture
DE: When state shows PC in forfeiture proceeding, burden shifts to def
This case involves a return of property petition and the state sought forfeiture. The probable cause standard for forfeiture is essentially the same at that applied in Fourth Amendment search and seizure cases. Thus, the State is required to prove … Continue reading
SF Chronicle: Op-ed: First they take your stuff, then you get to ask for it back
SF Chronicle: Op-ed: First they take your stuff, then you get to ask for it back by Debra J. Saunders:
D.Nev.: Prior drug arrest, nervousness and driving from CA to MN not reasonable suspicion
“The government argues that three articulable factors support a finding that Detective Schaffner had reasonable suspicion to prolong the stop. First, the government points to the fact that Garcia’s records check revealed two narcotics-related arrests in the past year. Second, … Continue reading
CA2: Exclusionary rule applies to civil forfeiture cases and govt’s civil discovery
In a forfeiture action against a NYC office building and several other buildings because one of the corporate owners was a front for the Iranian government, the Second Circuit held that “The Fourth Amendment’s exclusionary rule applies in civil forfeiture … Continue reading
Texas refuses to follow One 1958 Plymouth and holds that the exclusionary rule doesn’t apply to civil forfeiture cases
Texas refuses to follow One 1958 Plymouth and holds that the exclusionary rule doesn’t apply to civil forfeiture cases because there is no deterrence rationale and it’s a dated case; i.e., pre-Herring. State v. One (1) 2004 Lincoln Navigator, 2016 … Continue reading
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: New frontiers in asset forfeiture
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: New frontiers in asset forfeiture by Radley Balko: While much of the progress on criminal justice reform has stalled in recent months, there has been quite a bit of progress on civil asset forfeiture. … But … Continue reading
GA: Forfeiture answer pleading illegal search and seizure has to plead facts
“Loveless also complains that the trial court erred by striking his Answer when he had raised therein a sufficient defense, namely that the search and seizure occurred in violation of the Fourth Amendment. However, the Answer did not include those … Continue reading
NPR: Victims Of Civil Asset Forfeiture Criticize New Federal Rules
NPR: Victims Of Civil Asset Forfeiture Criticize New Federal Rules with Martin Kaste: Early last year, the Obama administration pledged to reform the civil asset forfeiture system, by which police can seize and keep suspicious assets without having to convict … Continue reading
HuffPo: IRS Returns Bakery’s Money After 3 Years. Now It Wants To Put The Owners In Prison.
HuffPo: IRS Returns Bakery’s Money After 3 Years. Now It Wants To Put The Owners In Prison by Nick Wing: Another small business gets chewed up and spit out by the civil asset forfeiture machine.
WaPo: Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: Another forfeiture outrage
WaPo: Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: Another forfeiture outrage: This is the first forfeiture case I’ve seen in which a judge prevented a prosecutor from returning someone’s property.
AL SWs must be executed only by the officers to whom they are directed
Search warrants in Alabama have to be executed only by the officers to whom they are directed. Here, the warrant was to the Sheriff of Mobile County, but an officer of the Mobile PD executed it. This was invalid execution. … Continue reading
WaPo: Why Oklahoma cops are returning $53,000 to a Christian band, an orphanage and a church
WaPo: Why Oklahoma cops are returning $53,000 to a Christian band, an orphanage and a church by Christopher Ingraham: A group of Karen Christians from Burma and Thailand have partnered with the Institute for Justice (IJ) to challenge the civil … Continue reading
WaPo: Morning links: Court says dog sniff alone doesn’t justify forfeiture
WaPo: Morning links: Court says dog sniff alone doesn’t justify forfeiture by Radley Balko
Forbes: Opinion: Nebraska Just Abolished Civil Forfeiture, Now Requires A Criminal Conviction To Take Property
Forbes: Opinion: Nebraska Just Abolished Civil Forfeiture, Now Requires A Criminal Conviction To Take Property by Nick Sivilla: Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts signed a bill on Tuesday that eliminates civil forfeiture, which allows law enforcement to seize and keep property … Continue reading
WaPo: What life is like after police ransack your house and take ‘every belonging’ — then the charges are dropped
WaPo: What life is like after police ransack your house and take ‘every belonging’ — then the charges are dropped By Christopher Ingraham: A self-described Michigan “soccer mom” who had “every belonging” taken from her family in a 2014 drug … Continue reading
NY4: Driver has no standing in search of passenger’s person
Defendant has no standing to contest the search of the person of the passenger in his car. People v. Gibson, 2016 NY Slip Op 02193, 2016 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2171 (4th Dept. March 25, 2016). There was justification for … Continue reading
Daily Signal: Inside the Push to Make It Harder for Government to ‘Steal’ Property, Cash in America’s Heartland
Daily Signal: Inside the Push to Make It Harder for Government to ‘Steal’ Property, Cash in America’s Heartland by Melissa Quinn: But in a year when Loveless, R-Oklahoma City, is up for re-election to the state legislature—a time when most … Continue reading
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Lawsuit takes aim at asset forfeiture in Indiana
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: Lawsuit takes aim at asset forfeiture in Indiana by Radley Balko: The Institute for Justice, a libertarian advocacy law firm, is suing the state of Indiana over its civil asset forfeiture practices. Under state law, the … Continue reading
Cincinnati Enquirer: Ky. seizure laws under scrutiny by local lawmaker
Cincinnati Enquirer: Ky. seizure laws under scrutiny by local lawmaker by James Pilcher: Kentucky law requires police and sheriff departments to report how much property and cash they seize and keep as the result of criminal investigations. But an Enquirer … Continue reading
AL: Objection to search of person doesn’t preserve claim of cell phone search
Defendant’s appellate argument that his cell phone was searched without a warrant wasn’t preserved at trial by the argument he objected to the search of his person. In any event, it was said during trial there was a warrant. Alonso … Continue reading