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Recent Posts
- Cal.L.Rev.: Your Robotaxi Is Watching You. Does the Fourth Amendment Care?
- 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
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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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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
OH9: ‘A determination that reasonable suspicion exists, however, need not rule out the possibility of innocent conduct. Terry accepts the risk that officers may stop innocent people.’”
“‘A determination that reasonable suspicion exists, however, need not rule out the possibility of innocent conduct. Terry accepts the risk that officers may stop innocent people.’” State v. Kleintop, 2021-Ohio-3584, 2021 Ohio App. LEXIS 3493 (9th Dist. Oct. 6, 2021). … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Ongoing murder investigation with other SWs executed did not make this SW stale
Three weeks passed in a murder investigation between officers thinking they might have to search and getting the search warrant. Other search warrants were obtained in the interim, and the investigation was ongoing. The delay was reasonable. United States v. … Continue reading
CA6: Def counsel not ineffective for not challenging car search on curtilage from 2008 under Jardines and Collins
Defense counsel considered and chose not to file a motion to suppress. At the time (2008) the law was less clear than now about automobiles on the curtilage and computers in the car as a “container.” Jardines and Collins came … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Court sua sponte reconsiders denial of Franks challenge and grants it
The court sua sponte reconsiders its prior denial of a motion to suppress for a Franks violation and grants it. The critical paragraph in the affidavit identifying defendant was clearly misstated. United States v. Hallman, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 191780 … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Multitude of facts supports nexus of evidence of robbery to def’s home
“Based upon the magnitude of the facts described in the search warrant affidavit, the issuing judge was justified in drawing a reasonable inference that physical evidence of Defendant’s alleged robberies would be found at his home. Defendant’s charged crimes, two … Continue reading
KY: Stop of a known druggy on the street was without RS
Two officers in two cars pulled up on defendant walking down the street with another known druggy. The officers and defendant knew each other because they’d arrested him before. The trial court did not err in finding this was a … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: 101 day delay in cell phone SW after seizure not 4A violation
The delay between the search and the seizure of defendant’s cell phones seized on his arrest was 101 days long, but, compared to the reduced privacy interest in the phone because of evidentiary value, it was not constitutionally unreasonable. United … Continue reading
ID: Drug dog’s nose through a car window before alerting is a search and a Jones trespass
A drug dog’s nose through a car window before alerting is a search and a Jones trespass. De minimis, yet, but still a trespass. There was no probable cause for the automobile exception, and the state waived standing by not … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Generalized “street tip” about defendant wasn’t RS
The street tip officers got was transmitted now third hand to the stopping officer. The tips were unremarkable about their credibility and weight. The court finds no reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop. United States v. Joyner, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Def abandoned a gun in flight up stairs in a house
Defendant fled up stairs when the police entered on a search warrant. He was captured finally on the third floor landing and was brought downstairs. A gun was found where he was lying on the floor. It was abandoned. United … Continue reading
OH12: Exclusionary rule doesn’t apply to violations of statute unless it also violates 4A
A statutory violation is not subject to suppression unless it also shows a violation of the Constitution. “Suppression is a remedy only for a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which in turn, only requires that a search and seizure be … Continue reading
OH1: Collective knowledge doesn’t require transmission of PC between officers
An undercover officer radioed a patrol officer to stop defendant for impeding traffic for blocking the street while talking car to car. When stopped, the patrol officer didn’t even know the reason for the stop nor where the offense occurred. … Continue reading
LA1: No REP in an abandoned house
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in an abandoned house he was using, and the trial court erred in finding one. State v. Jackson, 2021 La. App. LEXIS 1354 (La. App. 1 Cir. Oct. 1, 2021). Articulable facts supported … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Mere allegation the private search was expanded fails; def has to show something
Defendant alleges that NCMEC or the police expanded a private search. “However, Defendant concedes that he has no knowledge or evidence that either NCMEC or the police expanded the scope of the Facebook search. … Therefore, Defendant cannot assert that … Continue reading
VT: Pseudo welfare check cannot be a ruse for a plain view under Jardines under state constitution
A pseudo welfare check cannot be a ruse for a plain view under Jardines. Police officers entering defendant’s girlfriend’s yard under the guise of a welfare check over the normal access route were looking for and discovered a 9 mm … Continue reading
CA10: RS from excessive nervousness, air freshener, multiple cell phones, energy drinks and caffeinated beverages, unusual travel plans, and inconsistent statements about where he had been
“Like the district court, we ‘evaluate each of the factors supporting reasonable suspicion separately and in aggregate.’ … The following led Webb to believe Defendant might be engaged in criminal activity: (1) excessive nervousness; (2) the strong scent of air … Continue reading
CA1: 5 am knock-and-talk violated Jardines
5 am knock-and-talk with repeated entries to the property and entreaties to get plaintiff to come out of the house violated the clearly established law of Jardines. French v. Merrill, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 29679 (1st Cir. Oct. 1, 2021):
CA1: Arrest for DV was with PC despite disputed self-defense claim
Plaintiff was arrested for domestic violence, asserting he was defending himself. When the state charges were dropped, he sued the officer. His version of the facts do not unequivocally support self-defense or defense of premises, so the officer gets qualified … Continue reading
OH6: Smell of alcohol and glassy eyes at 4:30 am alone not RS
“Based on our case law and considering the totality of the circumstances, we cannot find that Kiefer had reasonable, articulable suspicion to administer field sobriety tests to Dye. Based on the evidence and testimony in the record, we are left … Continue reading