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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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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
N.D.Ind.: Arrestee left out in cold in t-shirt stated 4A claim
Plaintiff states a Fourth Amendment claim that he was arrested and left outside in the snow in jeans and a t-shirt for more than 30 minutes. Bolin v. Prater, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 225777 (N.D.Ind. Nov. 23, 2021). Leaving drugs … Continue reading
N.D.Okla: Pre-McGirt state SW was obtained and executed in good faith
In a 2255, a state search warrant on Indian lands issued and executed 16 years before McGirt v. Oklahoma was not subject to suppression because it was obtained and executed in good faith based on law at the time. United … Continue reading
WA: Overbroad SW was severable as to three places searched
The Washington Division of Fish and Wildlife received detailed reports of defendant brothers’ charter boats engaging in unlawful recreational fishing of halibut to skirt the daily catch limit. They put an undercover officer (a former charter boat operator) on one … Continue reading
WI: Contempt for failing to provide passcode for search of phone is reversed because it is now moot by SW
The owner of a cell phone was held in contempt for not providing a passcode to his phone so police could search it. They did not yet have a warrant. After defendant was held in contempt, the police obtained a … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y. Bankr.: Law firm in bankruptcy from missing trust account money gets a hearing on return of items seized under SW of the local DA
This is a civil contempt of bankruptcy court. The debtor is a law firm that declared bankruptcy because $8 million in trust account funds are missing. The DA executed a search warrant on the law firm records. The debtor wants … Continue reading
LA1: SW not required under automobile exception
Defendant was involved in a struggle with another in a car, and he reached for the console to open it, and a gun was briefly visible. When he was finally arrested, a warrant was not required for search of the … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Important case: SW affidavit didn’t support the breadth of cell phone search
Defendant was arrested for sex trafficking child in a reverse sting operation, and the court finds the search warrant for his telephone lacked probable cause to search it for child pornography. “That Lofstead may have attempted to purchase commercial sex … Continue reading
D.Mass.: SW for premises included def’s separate locked bedroom
The search warrant for the premises also permitted a search of defendant’s locked separate bedroom only accessible from the common area. United States v. Cecchetelli, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 224649 (D.Mass. Nov. 22, 2021). A host of things added up … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Tracking data obtained by SW is not testimonial for Crawford purposes
Tracking data on defendant’s vehicle in a stalking investigation was not testimonial for Crawford purposes, and it comes in as a business record. United States v. Miah, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 224557 (M.D.Pa. Nov. 22, 2021). A citizen complaint against … Continue reading
EFF: Police Aerial Surveillance Endangers Our Ability to Protest
EFF: Police Aerial Surveillance Endangers Our Ability to Protest by Matthew Guariglia (“The ACLU of Northern California has concluded a year-long Freedom of Information campaign by uncovering massive spying on Black Lives Matter protests from the air. The California Highway … Continue reading
WV: Witness recantation doesn’t per se eliminate PC; it is a factor to consider
A witness’s recantation is a factor for the prosecutor to consider in deciding whether to pursue charges. It does not mean that all probable cause is gone. Fall v. Ames, 2021 W. Va. LEXIS 640 (Nov. 19, 2021). The particularity … Continue reading
GA: Minor inconsistencies between driver and passenger during stop aren’t RS
Nervousness is normal during a traffic stop. “Lastly, inconsistencies in answers to police questions do not give rise to reasonable articulable suspicion unless the inconsistencies in the car occupants’ statements are meaningful.” These weren’t, so there was no reasonable suspicion. … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: 10-14 month old information sought on cell phone SW in fraud case wasn’t stale
Defendant’s car was stopped for no front license plate, and he was found to be without a valid DL. The car was towed to the 44th Precinct and inventoried, and two cell phones were seized. An officer at another precinct … Continue reading
E.D.Wash.: Covid-19 testing requirements are not subject to 4A reasonable suspicion standard
“Plaintiff argues any COVID-19 testing requirement is subject to the reasonable suspicion standards under the Fourth Amendment. … However, the Proclamation does not contain or implicate a testing requirement. … Therefore, Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment claim is without merit. Plaintiff has … Continue reading
WV: Family court judge can’t conduct searches for marital property; search and seizure is an executive function
In a judicial discipline case, a family court judge who had a 20 year practice of searching parties’ homes for marital property is censured. Search and seizure is an executive function, not a judicial one. This is just inappropriate. In … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Prolonging detention after conviction is an 8A claim, not 4A
Prolongation of detention after conviction is an Eighth Amendment claim, not Fourth Amendment. Trapani v. Annucci, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 223605 (N.D.N.Y. Nov. 19, 2021). Plaintiff’s claims that a TV she bought at Walmart is video spying on her and … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: Interesting, but not about application of Fourth Amendment law
Unum Life Insurance sought declaratory judgment that it wanted to know who to pay life insurance to under Oklahoma’s “slayer rule” that a killer can’t take life insurance or under an estate. Here, the alleged killer was not mentally fit, … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Even suppressed evidence can sometimes be used in rebuttal if the door is opened
The government says that it is not going to use evidence from the search of defendant, but it reserves its ability to attempt to use it in rebuttal, if defendant opens the door. The possibility of a superseding indictment to … Continue reading
NY4: Failure to ID source of information in affidavit for SW failed showing PC
“Here, the majority of the information provided in support of the warrant application was in an affidavit prepared by a detective, and that affidavit ‘does not “permit a reasonable inference that it was based upon [the detective]’s personal knowledge”’ .… … Continue reading