Archives
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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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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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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
N.D.Ga.: 6 day delay in getting SW for seized cell phones not unreasonable
There was a six day delay between seizure of six cell phones and issuance of a search warrant for them. This was reasonable under CA11 precedent. Moreover, the good faith exception applies. United States v. Norwood, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
OH11: No RS for frisking a slumbering motorist
Police were called to a man slumped over his steering wheel maybe passed out. They roused him. Defendant’s patdown was not justified by reasonable suspicion. State v. Shoenberger, 2022-Ohio-253, 2022 Ohio App. LEXIS 232 (11th Jan. 31, 2022). Defendant’s roadside … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Police entry into a commercial gym with an unauthorized keycard violated the owner’s REP
Plaintiff operated a gym entered by the police for an administrative search during Covid when it should have been temporarily closed under a state executive order. They accessed it with a keycard from the prior owner who sold it years … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Confiscation of legal mail in prison is a 1A claim, not a 4A
“Because it is the First and Fourteenth Amendment, and not the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure that protects against the reading and confiscation of legal mail by prison officials, the Court will dismiss Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment claim … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: No standing to claim knock-and-announce violation of another’s house
Plaintiff has no standing to complain of a knock-and-announce violation of another person. “Here, Plaintiff does not even claim that he had a legitimate expectation of privacy in McMullen’s house. But even if he did make such a claim, the … Continue reading
CA1 denies rehearing en banc on Jardines and denies qualified immunity
French v. Merrill, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 2625 (1st Cir. Jan. 28, 2022) (3-3*) (panel decision 15 F.4th 116 (1st Cir. Oct. 1, 2021)). On why rehearing should not be granted:
CA9: Govt “tucked” independent source argument into another and then abandoned it for years; not fully developed
The government’s independent source argument was (1) tucked into another argument and then not fully developed, and (2) then essentially abandoned for years during the litigation. It was not fully developed. United States v. Osborne, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 2682 … Continue reading
CA6: Where there was a threat in the house on the second floor, it wasn’t unreasonable for officers to go check it out
“We have held, however, that ‘[w]ithin a few seconds of reasonably perceiving a sufficient danger, officers may use deadly force even if in hindsight the facts show that the persons threatened could have escaped unharmed.’ … Though different decisions on … Continue reading
Cal.4: GPS monitoring with a search waiver were reasonable conditions of home confinement
GPS monitoring with a search waiver were reasonable conditions of defendant’s home confinement sentence. People v. Gerson, 2022 Cal. App. LEXIS 72 (4th Dist. Jan. 28, 2022). “Although Defendant complied with Franks by (1) specifically identifying the portion of the … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Failure to incorporate attachments to SW affidavit subject to GFE
The attachments to the affidavits were attached but not incorporated by words in the affidavit. The court doesn’t decide that this is a Fourth Amendment violation because the good faith exception applies. The search of a cell phone attempted within … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Overbreadth argument has to be developed; court won’t make it for you
The officer picking up defendant’s cell phone and the screen lighting up was not a search. It was inadvertent, and the phone had to be picked up to do anything with it. Even if it was, the exclusionary rule should … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: There is no the state courts got it “really wrong” exception to Stone
“Paraphrased, this amounts to arguing that if the state courts got the Fourth Amendment issues really wrong, the habeas court can put Stone aside and decide the merits of the Fourth Amendment claims. [¶] Hashi cites no authority in support … Continue reading
MO: Prosecutor can’t be sued for making a file decision based on the search of ptf’s computer
Plaintiff sued a prosecutor for various things including the “privacy tort ‘of unreasonable intrusion into private facts.’” His computer was searched under a warrant and potential privileged material was obtained. Plaintiff’s own complaint says the prosecutor was given the information … Continue reading
D.Colo.: No REP in the “people’s house” on 1/6 because ptf wasn’t there
Plaintiff is an attorney pro se alleging, inter alia, a Fourth Amendment violation in Colorado against a member of the House of Representatives for the January 6th insurrection. He claims a Fourth Amendment in the “people’s house” when he doesn’t … Continue reading
OH10: No REP in possession of a stolen laptop that sent its location information
Appellant’s motion to reopen his appeal to reargue his Fourth Amendment claims is denied. Not one thing he proffers can change the outcome of the appeal. There was a basis for a GPS warrant on his vehicle, and there was … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: The state used Google satellite images to corroborate officer’s testimony of stop
The government used Google satellite images and distancing to corroborate the officer’s testimony defendant didn’t signal his turn in time. After the stop, the smell of marijuana was apparent. United States v. Miles, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14860 (S.D.Ind. Jan. … Continue reading
CA1: Third-party doctrine applies to prescription drug monitoring program
This is an action to enforce a DEA administrative subpoena to the New Hampshire Prescription Drug Monitoring Program for specific prescriptions. The court declines to equate prescription records with other medical records because the pharmacy industry is closely regulated. It … Continue reading
NY1: PC to arrest and to search are different things
Probable cause to arrest and to search are different things. (One doesn’t automatically lead to the other.) Salcedo v. City of New York, 2022 NY Slip Op 00523, 2022 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 501 (1st Dept. Jan. 27, 2022). The … Continue reading
CA8: Ptfs stated claim to overcome qualified immunity and arguable probable cause during mass arrests of peaceful protesters
Qualified immunity was denied for officers who were alleged to have arrested peaceful protestors in St. Louis in 2017. People were allowed to enter an area and then were arrested. As to force, “The pleadings before us and video evidence … Continue reading