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Recent Posts
- 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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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
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)
ACLU on privacy
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Section 1983 Blog -
"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
C.D.Cal.: Eastman’s claim 1/6 House Committee’s subpoena is without authority or overbroad is denied
John Eastman’s claims against the Jan. 6 House Committee subpoena for records fail on his claim for injunctive relief. (Attorney-client privilege will be taken up later.) Eastman v. Thompson, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25546 (C.D.Cal. Jan. 25, 2022). On the … Continue reading
WaPo: As lethal fentanyl flows across Mexico border, CBP tries powerful scanning technology
WaPo: As lethal fentanyl flows across Mexico border, CBP tries powerful scanning technology by Nick Miroff (“With fatal drug overdose deaths in the United States soaring to record levels, Congress has directed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to come up … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Attenuation doctrine applies to this SEC interview; in dicta, no 4A violation
Even assuming the exclusionary rule applies to the SEC in this case, the attenuation doctrine applies. There is no direct or indirect evidence derived from the SEC’s action. As to the direct, “The Court finds that, even if the exclusionary … Continue reading
AP: Man whose home was bombed by police holds off on rebuilding
AP: Man whose home was bombed by police holds off on rebuilding:
NYTimes: I Used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS Tracker to Watch My Husband’s Every Move
NYTimes: I Used Apple AirTags, Tiles and a GPS Tracker to Watch My Husband’s Every Move by Kashmir Hill (“A vast location-tracking network is being built around us so we don’t lose our keys: One couple’s adventures in the consumer … Continue reading
AL adopts new crime exception to exclusionary rule
When being arrested, defendant pulled away from officers in his room and dove for his bed and reached under a pillow. Officers thought he was going for a gun, and a melee ensued. He was charged with assault and resisting … Continue reading
HI: When valid SW executed, no 5A taking involved
When a valid search warrant is executed, there is no Fifth Amendment taking. Young v. Haw. Island Humane Soc’y S.P.C.A., 2022 Haw. App. LEXIS 21 (Feb. 9, 2022) (unpublished). “Here, the totality of the circumstances then appearing to the officers … Continue reading
SD: Call about a mere “argument” at 2:48 am didn’t support def’s stop leaving apartment parking lot
The community caretaking exception did not apply to defendant’s stop leaving an apartment parking lot at 2:48 am. A child called the police about an argument in the house, but nothing in the call or the report from dispatch indicated … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: A “network of pole cameras” doesn’t violate 4A
Five pole cameras were trained on defendant’s house. A “network of pole cameras” isn’t a Fourth Amendment violation. See United States v. Tuggle, 4 F.4th 505 (7th Cir. 2021). Moreover, he does not rebut the presumption of good faith with … Continue reading
MA: State law requires PC for pole camera surveillance, and officers had it
Pole camera surveillance in Massachusetts requires probable cause to set it up. Officers had it in defendant’s case, and his front door and left side of his house were watched for 15 days. Commonwealth v. Comenzo, 2022 Mass. LEXIS 54 … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: No REP in pawnshop records uploaded to pawnshop detail
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in pawnshop records uploaded for the NYPD pawnshop detail. (Therefore, in the trial of this case, attacking the datamining of the NYPD for information is more prejudicial than relevant under F.R.E. 403.) Gem … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Tearing down plaintiff’s building was a seizure under Soldal
Tearing down plaintiff’s building was a seizure under Soldal. The record thus far precludes summary judgment. Dvortsova v. City of Philadelphia, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23868 (E.D.Pa. Feb. 9, 2022). Defendant’s 2255 claim that defense counsel was ineffective for not … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Guilty plea with waiver of 4A claim not judicial estoppel to § 1983 claim
Plaintiff’s guilty plea in federal court was a waiver of his Fourth Amendment claims, and that was not judicial estoppel to a § 1983 case over the merits. Moreover, because the independent source doctrine was involved, the Heck bar did … Continue reading
OH4: No standing in codef’s patdown
Defendant has no standing to challenge a codefendant’s patdown. In addition, admission of his jail calls was not a Fifth Amendment violation. (Finally, defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for withdrawing a motion to suppress that was destined to fail.) State v. … Continue reading
DC: Even if def was illegally arrested, his identification is not suppressed
Even if defendant was illegally arrested, his identification is not suppressed. Hood v. United States, 2022 D.C. App. LEXIS 57 (Feb. 10, 2022):
DC: Throwing backpack over a wall running from police is abandonment
The police gave chase to defendant, and he ran down an alley and threw his backpack over a wall into somebody else’s backyard. “In the present case, we assume without deciding that Mr. Kyle retained a subjective expectation of privacy … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Govt’s suggestion in briefing in opposition to motion to suppress CI was a witness requires disclosure
The government’s brief in opposition to defendant’s motion to suppress suggests that the CI is a potential witness here, so the government is ordered to disclose his or her ID. Disclosure is enough. The court won’t go so far as … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Prosecutor absolutely immune for SW application
A prosecutor is absolutely immune in presenting search warrant applications to a court. Miller v. Rivas, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22754 (D.N.J. Feb. 8, 2022). The affidavit for search warrant here was based on probable cause. The executing officers waited … Continue reading
NY2: Def stated IAC claim that defense counsel never looked at SW materials
Defendant stated a claim for ineffective assistance of counsel that defense counsel never obtained the search warrant materials to even investigate. Reversed to have the state produce it. People v. Tindley, 2022 NY Slip Op 00886, 2022 N.Y. App. Div. … Continue reading
CA11: Not clearly established warning required before use of deadly force
It was not well established that police need to warn armed people before shooting them. Here, the shooting victim was an innocent homeowner who had a gun on him around his own house investigating a prowler, and the police saw … Continue reading