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- D.Utah: Minor time detours to writing up a traffic ticket didn’t unreasonable extend this stop; the dog was quickly on its way
- KY: Despite lack of nexus, SW sustained under GFE
- CO: DNA could be seized from trash
- CA8: Nebraska statute allowing SWs to cross state lines doesn’t violate 4A
- WA: Sweat patch as condition of release violated state constitution’s privacy provision
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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. 
Monthly Archives: November 2021
M.D.Pa.: Status as “protector” of home although not occupant or guest not enough for standing
Defendant’s creative argument that he was a “protector” of the home although he wasn’t the owner or occupant and was only an occasional guest is rejected for the day in question. “Royal argues that he had a reasonable expectation of … Continue reading
GA: Probationer was unreasonably detained as suspect in a crime where he didn’t match
The state failed in its burden of proof that defendant was lawfully stopped and then detained as a possible suspect in a crime even though he was a probationer. His clothing didn’t match. It was prolonged way past its justification. … Continue reading
LATimes: L.A. sheriff’s deputies use minor stops to search bicyclists, with Latinos hit hardest
LATimes: L.A. sheriff’s deputies use minor stops to search bicyclists, with Latinos hit hardest by Alene Tchekmedyian, Ben Poston and Julia Barajas (“The Times’ analysis of more than 44,000 bike stops logged by the Sheriff’s Department since 2017 found that … Continue reading
SCOTUS grant: Bivens and excessive force
Egbert v. Boule, 21-147 (granted Nov. 5, 2021): Issues: (1) Whether a cause of action exists under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics for First Amendment retaliation claims; and (2) whether a cause of action … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Laptop computer left in the former marital home for a decade is abandoned
A laptop computer left in the former marital home for a decade is abandoned property. United States v. Hartley, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 212137 (E.D.Mich. Nov. 3, 2021). Petitioner seeks to bring five claims in a successor habeas petition, and … Continue reading
CA1: On a Franks claim based on omissions, add them in and retest for PC
With a Franks claim based on omissions, the court can consider the omissions and, if probable cause remains, the motion to suppress is denied. United States v. Leonard, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 32740 (1st Cir. Nov. 3, 2021). “Here, viewing … Continue reading
IA: No REP in attorney call from interrogation room
Defendant’s in-custody call to his attorney was overheard by the recording system in the room. There was no reasonable expectation of privacy where it was made. Luthi v. Neis, 2021 Iowa App. LEXIS 930 (Nov. 3, 2021). The trial court … Continue reading
PA: Def driving from Delaware to Philly for cheesesteaks when he was broke added to RS
Driving from Delaware to Philadelphia to get cheesesteaks while the driver professing he can’t afford a speeding ticket with a few other “dubious” comments leads to reasonable suspicion to continue the stop. The trial court erred in suppressing. Commonwealth v. … Continue reading
CA9 & OR: Merely citing 4A without substantive argument is waiver
“Plaintiffs forfeited their Fourth Amendment qualified immunity arguments because the opening brief makes no legal argument that qualified immunity does not apply, nor is such an argument apparent from Plaintiffs’ factual recitation.” Ramirez v. Zimmerman, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 32726 … Continue reading
NJ: Flagrant knock-and-announce violation requires suppression under state constitution
A flagrant violation of the knock-and-announce rule violates the state constitution and the result is excluded. Violating the knock-and-announce requirement makes the search warrantless. The court recognizes the Fourth Amendment rule is contra. State v. Caronna, 2021 N.J. Super. LEXIS … Continue reading
Lawfare: The Impact of Carpenter v. United States in the Lower Courts and the Emerging Carpenter Test
Lawfare: The Impact of Carpenter v. United States in the Lower Courts and the Emerging Carpenter Test by Matthew Tokson:
D.Mont.: “‘Humpty Dumpty’ rule of meaning” of exigency?
Police entry for a drug overdose is an exigency. United States v. Van Pelt, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 211734 (D.Mont. Nov. 2, 2021). And there’s this:
AR: Knock on door during visit to ask about a missing person lawfully resulted in plain view of blood spot on porch
While looking for a missing person with connection to defendant, police went to his place to talk to him. The officer knocked on his door but got no answer. As he turned to leave, he saw a spot of blood … Continue reading
CA9: State’s seeking CSLI with PC but under wrong statute not 4A violation
Probable cause was shown for CSLI before the state judge, but the state sought the order under the wrong statute. That doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Fregia, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 32587 (9th Cir. Nov. 2, 2021). … Continue reading
NYT: Facebook, Citing Societal Concerns, Plans to Shut Down Facial Recognition System
NYT: Facebook, Citing Societal Concerns, Plans to Shut Down Facial Recognition System (“Saying it wants ‘to find the right balance’ with the technology, the social network will delete the face scan data of more than one billion users.”)
AR: GFE applies to dispatch saying there was a search waiver when there apparently wasn’t
The officer relied in good faith, as in Herring, upon dispatch saying that defendant had a probation search waiver on file. She argued that she had a suspended sentence and never agreed to a search waiver and the suspended sentence … Continue reading
GA: When items not named in SW are found, standard is plain view not relevance
The trial court and court of appeals erred in determining whether a seizure of items outside a search warrant were “relevant” or whether regular plain view applied. It’s plain view, and the case is remanded to the trial court to … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Consent to search cell phone was voluntary after def was told of right to refuse and revoke consent once given
Defendant consented to a seizure and search of his cell phone after being told of his right to refuse and to revoke consent at any time. United States v. Fairbanks, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 210371 (D.Minn. Nov. 1, 2021). Plaintiff … Continue reading
D.Del.: Removing cell phone SIM card to find its phone number was not an unreasonable search
Assuming without deciding that removal of a cell phone’s SIM card is a search, it wasn’t unreasonable to merely obtain defendant’s telephone number off it to direct a search warrant to the phone. Defendant also complains of the protective sweep … Continue reading