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- D.Alaska: With a SW for a cell phone, officers should ask, not make, def to open the phone with his finger
- CA2: Statement there was CP on computer was PC to seize it for a SW
- S.D.Iowa: Cell phone search for info on drugs and guns didn’t need second warrant when sex offenses stumbled upon
- N.D.N.Y.: DNA by SW in FL in CODIS could be used in NY; defense counsel not IAC for not making def’s argument
- D.Ariz.: Smell of alcohol in the car on Navajo Nation was PC
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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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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)
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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. 
Author Archives: Hall
LATimes: New limits on ‘pretextual stops’ by LAPD officers approved, riling police union
LATimes: New limits on ‘pretextual stops’ by LAPD officers approved, riling police union by Kevin Rector:
NY Nassau: 14 days pole camera surveillance of def’s residence not unreasonable under 4A or state constitution
Pole camera surveillance of a homeless shelter for 14 days observing defendant coming and going was not an unreasonable search under the state or federal constitution, even if it was his home. People v. Destefano, 2022 NY Slip Op 22052, … Continue reading
CA4: Exclusionary rule does not apply to violations of Posse Comitatus Act
An investigation by the DoD Inspector General is an exception to the Posse Comitatus Act. Besides, a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act is not subject to the exclusionary rule. United States v. Vaxima, Inc., 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 5315 … Continue reading
CA6: With multiple uses of excessive force, each must be analyzed
“Where ‘a plaintiff claims that excessive force was used multiple times, “the court must segment the incident into its constituent parts and consider the officer’s entitlement to qualified immunity at each step along the way.”’ Wright, 962 F.3d at 865 … Continue reading
CA4: If you’re going to call the search “egregious,” at least cite a case
“Dr. Dong next asserts, without citation to case law, that ‘[e]gregious procedural deficiencies in the investigation, prosecution, trial and sentencing’ occurred such that his convictions and sentence must be reversed. Opening Br. 18. He first points to alleged deficiencies in … Continue reading
CA9: The “shocking the conscience” standard is higher than the 4A standard for use of force
The “shocking the conscience” standard is way higher than the Fourth Amendment standard in excessive force cases. “The plaintiffs’ Fourteenth Amendment claim requires that the officers’ conduct ‘shocks the conscience’—a standard that is more demanding of the plaintiffs than the … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Fishing is a heavily regulated industry, and GPS tracking of vessels and reporting of catches is reasonable under Burger
The fishing industry is heavy regulated and has been by Congres since 1793. The government’s requirement of GPS tracking on vessels and reporting of the catch each day for charter fishermen is reasonable and constitutional under Burger v. New York. … Continue reading
NY Claims: Searching officer’s later perjury indictment over another SW affidavit supports claim over claimant’s conviction set aside as a result of disclosure
Claimant was convicted of drug possession. The state notified him after the fact that the arresting officer had been indicted for perjury for a false search warrant affidavit in an unrelated case. His criminal case was a credibility contest about … Continue reading
OH3: Where PC exists as to a car, use of a drug dog before the physical search not unreasonable
Once the officer smells marijuana, it violates no law to use a drug dog first rather than just proceeding to search the car. State v. Jones, 2022-Ohio-561, 2022 Ohio App. LEXIS 487 (3d Dist. Feb. 18, 2022). (The less intrusive … Continue reading
NYLJ: Analysis: How Courts Determine the Constitutionality of Police Use of Deadly Force
NYLJ: Analysis: How Courts Determine the Constitutionality of Police Use of Deadly Force (“In determining ‘objective reasonableness’ in police use of deadly force cases, Martin Schwartz looks at the Tenth Circuit’s recent decision in’ Estate of Taylor v. Salt Lake … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Carpenter does not apply to GPS information yet
Defendant’s Carpenter argument against police capturing his GPS information fails. SCOTUS hasn’t ruled yet, but existing law permits it. United States v. Rogers, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 33869 (N.D.Ga. Feb. 25, 2022):
N.D.Ga.: Apparently likelihood meth in office building could be moved justified warrantless entry
“[T]he Court finds that the evidence is materially credible and consistent and, taken as a whole, indicates that it appeared very likely that law-enforcement activity had been detected by the time of the warrantless entry, that there was a high … Continue reading
VA Cir.: Proposed geofence warrant lacks PC and particularity
This proposed geofence warrant fails both probable cause for what it seeks to capture and particularity. In re Info. Stored at the Premises Controlled by Google, 2022 Va. Cir. LEXIS 12 (Fairfax Co. Feb. 24, 2022):
S.D.W.Va.: AUSAs apparently failed duty to court to mitigate this Brady/Giglio issue before it reared its head
The court’s finding of the officer’s recklessness in this search warrant affidavit leads the government to file a motion to reconsider, presumably because it will become Brady/Giglio material in future cases as to the officer. Not only is that denied, … Continue reading
TN: Smell of drugs during execution of SW permits detaining occupants
Based on the smell of drugs when executing a search warrant, the officers had the authority to detain the occupants. Linsey v. State, 2022 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 79 (Feb. 25, 2022). Defendant’s stop was reasonable. Shots had been reported … Continue reading
D.Vt.: Overnight guest had standing despite his illegal acts
“Defendant spent the night at the Apartment and was found by law enforcement sleeping in a bed. His alleged illegal activities in the Apartment do not render his expectation of privacy unreasonable.” He has standing. United States v. Santini, 2022 … Continue reading
D.Nev.: SW clearly did not authorize downloading of iPhone and iPad at the place of search; no good faith exception
The officer thought the warrant authorized downloading on the premises, but it obviously did not. This is gross negligence, and the good faith exception does not apply. Defendant wasn’t in custody and was not entitled to a Miranda warning when … Continue reading
IL: Drug sale in backyard nexus to SW for house
“Granted, the drug sale did not occur inside the residence. Rather, it occurred outside the residence, in the backyard. The question, then, is whether a controlled purchase that took place in the yard of a house in which the drug … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: Misdemeanor arrest warrant permits forcible entry in this circuit
Plaintiff’s claim that a forcible entry for a misdemeanor warrant fails because this circuit has held for 25 years that Payton applies to misdemeanor warrants. Plaintiff does state a claim, however, for failure to knock-and-announce before entry. First v. Hokett, … Continue reading