Archives
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Recent Posts
- CA3: In seeking arrest warrants, officers need not present all exculpatory evidence to issuing magistrate unless it’s “conclusive”
- D.Idaho: Trial references to SW not barred, but govt limited in what it can say
- D.D.C.: PO’s alleged violation of probation regulations doesn’t warrant suppression if a reasonable mistake
- E.D.N.C.: SW not required to look in def’s jail property bag and retrieve car keys
- D.N.M.: Consent attenuated unreasonable search
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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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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: March 2024
KS: No basis for a stop of car in a local park under “public safety exception”
A public safety stop is well recognized, deriving from Cady. “In this case, however, the facts do not support a valid safety stop. The deputy stated he was concerned because it was dark, it was late, the car was parked … Continue reading
Cal.2d: Questions posed during a traffic stop while waiting for the records check do not extend the stop
Questions posed during a traffic stop while waiting for the records check to come back do not extend the stop. People v. Felix, 2024 Cal. App. LEXIS 154 (2d Dist. Mar. 7, 2024). Defendant’s bad search claim as part of … Continue reading
D.N.D.: Defs showed no connection to the premises as overnight guests to have standing
Defendants had no real connection to the place searched to have standing. “There was no evidence presented to support the Defendants’ allegation that they had permission from the owners (Stevens and Levings) to stay in the home as overnight guests. … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: Def agreed to electronic monitoring as a condition of release
Defendant agreed to electronic monitoring as a condition of release, so it was admissible in evidence. United States v. Anthony, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40422 (W.D.N.C. Mar. 6, 2024). Defendant’s improper lane change was seen in the rearview mirror, so … Continue reading
AK: Police aerial flyover with telephoto lens of rural property violates state right of privacy
Under the Alaska Constitution, an aerial flyover with a telephoto lens of rural property in a “sparsely populated area” in the woods north of Fairbanks produced evidence of a grow operation. In a long (and sensitive opinion), the Alaska Supreme … Continue reading
Cal.2d: Questions posed during a traffic stop while waiting for the records check to come back do not extend the stop
Questions posed during a traffic stop while waiting for the records check to come back do not extend the stop. People v. Felix, 2024 Cal. App. LEXIS 154 (2d Dist. Mar. 7, 2024). Defendant’s bad search claim as part of … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Prisoners stated 4A claim for recording of attorney-client calls
Prison inmates stated a claim where their prison calls to their lawyers were recorded by the provider without their knowledge. “ICS’ contention that the recording here was proper because inmates have a lowered expectation of privacy is inapplicable. First, while … Continue reading
OH5: Officer’s writing wrong statute number on ticket was a reasonable mistake of law
Defendant’s stop for a loud muffler was reasonable. His claim that it wasn’t loud on the bodycam is rejected. Another alleged offense cited the wrong statute. That’s a reasonable mistake of law. State v. Braucher, 2024-Ohio-811, 2024 Ohio App. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA10: SW for house included detached garage next to it without even mentioning it
The search warrant for defendant’s house included the detached garage on the curtilage without having to mention it. United States v. Ronquillo, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 5489 (10th Cir. Mar. 7, 2024). “And the Department of Homeland Security officers did … Continue reading
NJ: Prior knowledge def probably had drugs in car didn’t require SW, and automobile exception still applied
Prior knowledge defendant might have marijuana in his car didn’t require the police to get a search warrant for the car. The automobile exception still applied. [Eight months afterward, NJ legalized marijuana.] State v. Baker, 2024 N.J. Super. LEXIS 24 … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Jail strip search to document tattoos was reasonable
Plaintiff’s strip search in jail to photograph his tattoos was reasonable. Turn v. Leslie, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39329 (E.D. Mich. Feb. 5, 2024), adopted, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38391 ( E.D. Mich. Mar. 5, 2024). Plaintiff stated a Fourth … Continue reading
MN: Evans rejected under state constitution; arrest on quashed warrant invalid
“Because we recognize several purposes served by the exclusionary rule, including deterring unlawful government conduct generally, and we conclude that applying the exclusionary rule here serves these remedial goals, we decline to extend the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule … Continue reading
WSJ: U.S. Spy Agencies Know Our Secrets. They Bought Them.
Wall Street Journal: U.S. Spy Agencies Know Our Secrets. They Bought Them. by Byron Tau (“Whatever the U.S. can do with commercial data, foreign governments can do too. Last week, President Biden signed an executive order to prevent certain adversary … Continue reading
WI: Drug dog’s entering car was trespass, and “instinct exception,” even if it could be recognized, doesn’t apply
Drug dog’s twice entering defendant’s car without probable cause was a common law trespass under Jones and Jardines, and the police unlawfully gained information from that. The court rejects the “instinct exception” for the dog on the facts here, even … Continue reading
NJ: State could get SW for bullet removed during surgery even four years after shooting
Defendant had elective surgery four years after a shooting to remove the bullet. The police were entitled to a search warrant for the bullet from the hospital because it was evidence of a crime. Trial court’s denial of the warrant … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: The residence had two front doors but could not be definitively determined to be two residences before search; search still valid when it was two
The residential building searched had two front doors but one address. This suggested that it might be two residences, but police investigating couldn’t find any indication that it was two, not one. In any event, the warrant was based on … Continue reading
NYTimes: Do You Have to Let the National Guard Search Your Bag on the Subway?
NYTimes: Do You Have to Let the National Guard Search Your Bag on the Subway? by Maria Cramer and Hurubie Meko (“Gov. Kathy Hochul would not say how long she planned to keep hundreds of soldiers and state police officers … Continue reading
CA10: Evidence obtained by state in prosecution later barred by McGirt still with good faith
Defendant was originally prosecuted in Oklahoma state court for murder. After McGirt v. Oklahoma, he moved to set aside the Oklahoma conviction as being obtained without jurisdiction. In federal court, he moved to suppress the evidence obtained by the state … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Cell phone that govt can’t open not in its possession for discovery purposes
Defendant’s cell phone is in the possession of the government but it can’t search it because they don’t have the pass code. Defendant’s request for discovery of the phone under Rule 16 is denied because the contents of the phone … Continue reading