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- OR: Even if original served warrant wasn’t the one returned, it doesn’t warrant suppression
- Two on suicide calls as exigency
- W.D.N.Y.: Civil discovery dispute denies access to other employees’ cell phones as 4A issue
- Reason: All New Cars Could Have Mandatory Surveillance Tech Unless Congress Stops This Mandate
- CA3: In seeking arrest warrants, officers need not present all exculpatory evidence to issuing magistrate unless it’s “conclusive”
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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)
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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: January 2022
NY1: Where seized evidence wasn’t used at trial, it’s moot
Defendant’s Fourth Amendment argument on appeal is moot. The evidence he complains was wrongly seized wasn’t used at trial. People v. Gordon, 2022 NY Slip Op 00055, 2022 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 63 (1st Dept. Jan. 6, 2022). The omitted … Continue reading
CA9: It is clearly established that using “intermediate force” against a nonresisting arrestee is unreasonable
It was clearly established that using “intermediate force” against a nonresisting arrestee is unreasonable. “To be clear, we are generally loath to second-guess law enforcement officers’ actions in a dangerous situation by analyzing each act without looking at the entire … Continue reading
CA8: “Delay in searching a phone is immaterial to the reasonableness of a seizure, however, when the device has independent evidentiary value.”
Defendant went through airport security in Long Beach with a gun in a bag. A further stop and search of him found seven cell phones. They were ultimately searched with a warrant finding text messages detailing drug deals. The delay … Continue reading
The Crime Report: ‘Search Warrants Rot Law Enforcement’: Paper
The Crime Report: ‘Search Warrants Rot Law Enforcement’: Paper by Andrea Cipriano:
TX8: Purely private search of cell phone not suppressed under art. 38.23(a)
The purely private search of defendant’s cell phone finding child pornography that was reported to police was not subject to exclusion under Texas’s art. 38.23(a). If a laptop search is not subject to exclusion, neither is a cell phone. Horne … Continue reading
MT: Lawyer suspended for telling client to refuse to cooperate in execution of a SW
A lawyer telling his girlfriend-client to refuse to cooperate in DUI blood draw by search warrant is suspended for 30 days. Multiple officers were ultimately involved with a restraint chair brought in before she relented. The lawyer was also convicted … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Not IAC to not raise every suppression issue def wants
Defense counsel had the discretion not to make every argument defendant wanted on a suppression motion. “It is well within counsel’s constitutional discretion to make the decision to raise or not raise certain arguments at a suppression hearing. That counsel … Continue reading
D.Del.: The traffic stop question is only reasonableness, not whether state law was violated
One officer stopped defendant at the request of another. Defendant challenges its basis. “The question here is not whether the stop was authorized by [state law]. The question is rather whether the car stop was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.” … Continue reading
CA6: Torres v. Madrid not a new constitutional rule for successor habeas
Torres v. Madrid did not announce a new constitutional rule for an ineffective assistance of counsel claim in a successor habeas. In re Foster, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 141 (6th Cir. Jan. 3, 2022). “Considering that reasonable suspicion ‘is not, … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Stopping work on the traffic ticket when the drug dog arrived resulted in lengthening the detention without RS
“Officer Allen admits that he was not printing the police department’s copy of the first citation or processing the second citation during the drug sniff. Rather, he completely stopped his traffic-related mission as soon as Officer Wiebe arrived and worked … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Garnishment of wages is not a 4A seizure
Garnishment of wages is not a Fourth Amendment seizure. Williams v. Drakaina Logistics, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 248750 (E.D.Cal. Dec. 30, 2021). Defendant’s property was seized on exigency after an apparent crime, and seizure was required to prevent destruction. United … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Officers’ versions of arrest and search show two valid versions of why it was valid
The two officers involved in defendant’s stop and search of his person and car had somewhat different versions of what happened. Under either, the search of his person and car were both reasonable. Defendant had no DL which was an … Continue reading
GA: REP in apartment hallway outside door
Applying Dunn to defendant’s apartment hallway curtilage, defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy at his apartment door. There was a locked gate to enter the area that the police somehow bypassed to get in for a dog sniff. State … Continue reading
TN: Where car was abandoned, there were no reasonable alternatives to impoundment available to the police
Tennessee recognizes that impoundment and inventory can be avoided if there are reasonable alternatives to it at the time. Here, defendant’s car was abandoned on the road and, when they arrived, it was in the process of being towed and … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: 2254 petr’s choice of remedy in state court still subject to Stone bar
2254 petitioner chose to attempt to exclude cell phone evidence in his state trial based on the claim it was not timely turned over and not that it was illegally seized. That was his choice, and the state did not … Continue reading
Techdirt: Boston Police Department Used Forfeiture Funds To Hide Purchase Of Surveillance Tech From City Reps
Techdirt: Boston Police Department Used Forfeiture Funds To Hide Purchase Of Surveillance Tech From City Reps by Tim Cushing (“We’ve seen this happen (obviously months or years after the fact thanks to the secretive source of funds) in some of … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Prosecutor allegedly drafting false affidavit without PC not absolutely immune
A prosecutor allegedly drafting a false affidavit without probable cause for arrest warrant has no absolute immunity. There is no absolute immunity for drafting questions for a witness interview by another that explicitly avoids exculpatory information. Macmaster v. Busacca, 2021 … Continue reading
OR: Exigency for automobile exception has to exist at the time of search; telephonic warrant preferred
Oregon Supreme Court holds that the exigency for an automobile exception search under the state constitution must actually exist at the time of the search. The per se rule from 1986’s Brown case is overruled. Technological changes and statute since … Continue reading
TX5: Knowledge def regularly deleted info from cell phone was exigency for seizure
The officers had information that defendant routinely deleted information from his call logs and text messages. That was exigency for a warrantless seizure of the phone. A later warrant was obtained for the phone. Veal v. State, 2021 Tex. App. … Continue reading
CA11: Just saying something is clearly established doesn’t make it so for QI
Just saying something is clearly established doesn’t make it so for qualified immunity. “Stallworth has not met her burden. Although Stallworth argues that Hurst violated her ‘clearly established rights,’ she has not presented a case with materially similar facts, demonstrated … Continue reading