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- VA: Search incident between def’s shorts and underwear was reasonable
- Reason: Border Cops Seize Nurse’s Phone Filled With Psychiatric Patient Information
- MI: Handcuffing uncooperative def at scene of accident wasn’t unreasonable
- S.D.Ga.: Def’s car in driveway next to sidewalk was not on curtilage
- S.D.Ind.: Post search database search of occupants of a place didn’t show SW affidavit was false at time it issued
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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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--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. 
Monthly Archives: October 2026
VA: Search incident between def’s shorts and underwear was reasonable
Search incident inside defendant’s shorts was reasonable where it didn’t become a strip search or exposed his genitals. Smith v. Commonwealth, 2026 Va. App. LEXIS 550 (Oct. 20, 2026) (unpublished). Plaintiff was taken to a mental health unit based on … Continue reading
Reason: Border Cops Seize Nurse’s Phone Filled With Psychiatric Patient Information
Reason: Border Cops Seize Nurse’s Phone Filled With Psychiatric Patient Information by Matthew Petti (“CBP allegedly told the nurse that “your lawyer cannot do anything” and agents can take the data ‘the easy way or the hard way.’”) Reason: The … Continue reading
MI: Handcuffing uncooperative def at scene of accident wasn’t unreasonable
Defendant was handcuffed because he was uncooperative during basic questions about the accident he was walking away from, where the officer believed he was involved. On the totality, this was not unreasonable. The officer here was responding to an OnStar … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Def’s car in driveway next to sidewalk was not on curtilage
Defendant’s vehicle in his driveway 2-3 steps from the sidewalk was not on the curtilage. United States v. Polk, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 238708 (S.D. Ga. Oct. 19, 2026). “The Court finds, based on the totality of the circumstances, that … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: Post search database search of occupants of a place didn’t show SW affidavit was false at time it issued
An open source database internet search after the search in this case that showed defendant resided at the place to be searched after the search didn’t prove he wasn’t at the time of the search under Franks. Perryman v. United … Continue reading
Cal.6: Robbery scheme that hadn’t yet resulted in gunfire wasn’t exigency for real time ping
“[A] warrant supported by probable cause is required when law enforcement seeks either historical or real-time CSLI data, unless an exception to the warrant requirement or the exclusionary rule applies.” The state pled that the exigency exception applied because this … Continue reading
AI reads you 4A cases
From a Connecticut defense lawyer via NACDL: Unreasonable Expectations: A 4th Amendment Podcast covers the published Fourth Amendment decisions from the federal appellate courts, case by case, with the practical takeaway for defense lawyers. A new episode lands every Monday. … Continue reading
USA Today: Cell phone SW for cause of crash
USA Today: Woman accused of searching porn site before deadly crash by Julia Gomez (search warrant for cell phone seeking cause of accident).
Treatise on sale to 11/1
Promotion SPELL20
MD: While protective sweep information made it into SW affidavit, there was PC without it
This search with a warrant was preceded by a protective sweep. Observations made during the sweep made it into the warrant affidavit. Assuming without deciding the sweep was unreasonable, there was sufficient other probable cause for the warrant. Founds v. … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: A Customs forensic search of a cell phone away from the border was still a border search
Defendant’s cell phone was seized at ATL Customs for a border search, and it went elsewhere for a forensic search. That search was still a border search. United States v. Vereen, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 238218 (N.D. Ga. Sep. 1, … Continue reading
CA6: State officer’s arrest for violation of federal MJ law likely wouldn’t violate 4A
Dicta: While Ohio law is silent on whether a state officer could make an arrest for violation of federal marijuana law, it likely wouldn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Whitlow 134 F.4th 914 (6th Cir. 2025); United States … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Shared driveway outside of fence and gate was not curtilage
Defendant’s car was searched under the automobile exception in his driveway. There’s a fence and gate between the car on the driveway and the front door. All things considered under Dunn, this driveway is not the curtilage. “The driveway is … Continue reading
VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
Since marijuana is legal in the Virgin Islands, the smell of marijuana from a car is no longer probable cause for a search. People v. Thomas, 2026 V.I. LEXIS 44 (Super. Ct. Oct. 6, 2026). Petitioner does not get a … Continue reading
Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People by Josh Pauzé (“Three Charlotte cops have resigned and three more are facing termination after a Flock probe uncovered a text chain littered with … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Second SW for cell phone data retained by govt was valid
This is a second motion to suppress a cell phone search, the first having been denied. A copy of the phone remains with the government, the phone having been returned. The first warrant to review the contents was for human … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: “Shocking” nature of immigration raid on a Mexican restaurant at lunchtime didn’t warrant suppression
Defendants run a family-owned Mexican restaurant in West Virginia. HSI did a masked and armed immigration middle of day raid for employees under an inspection warrant. While the raid may have been “shocking” to everybody, it’s not enough to be … Continue reading
ID: Drug dog’s touching nose on the car door was not a trespass
The drug dog’s touching his nose on the car door was not a trespass. State v. Pendleton, 2026 Ida. LEXIS 147 (Oct. 14, 2026). The search warrant for defendant’s medical records for his DUI with injury was particular. State v. … Continue reading