Archives
-
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
-
Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
-
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
-
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
Privacy Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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)
-
“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
TN: Merely citing to the particularity requirement not effective appellate argument without context
Defendant’s particularity argument fails for lack of cogent argument: “Defendant’s first question regarding the probable cause requirement has already been answered, and Defendant offers no evidence or argument in support of his apparent challenge to the particularity of the warrant. … Continue reading
CT scan for swallowed SD card with alleged CP
WaPo: Maryland judge about to be arrested dies in apparent suicide recounts his CT scan with a search warrant to locate an SD card with alleged child porn he swallowed to hide it from investigators.
DE: “Any and all data” on a cell phone was a general warrant
A cell phone search warrant for any and all data without restriction was not particular and amounted to a general warrant. The use of the product of the search was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. Taylor v. State, No. … Continue reading
DC: Grabbing one’s waistband while running from the police signals contraband, despite possible innocent explanations
Grabbing at one’s waistband while running from the police may have innocent explanations, too, but it signals contraband. Newman v. United States, 7-CF-520 (D.C. Sept. 2, 2021). A delay between the traffic stop and an ultimate search is not per … Continue reading
OH10: GFE does not apply to warrantless searches
The good faith exception does not apply to warrantless searches. State v. Peeks, 2021-Ohio-3045 (10th Dist. Sept. 2, 2021). The trial court erred in finding the affidavit for search warrant to be bare bones and not entitled to the good … Continue reading
GA: Three year delay in searching cell phone not unreasonable on these facts
Nearly three year delay between seizure of defendant’s cell phone and electronics and their search was not unreasonable here where defendant was in jail throughout and thus he had a far diminished possessory interest. Nelson v. State, S21A0773 (Ga. Sept. … Continue reading
IN: With three people in the vehicle faint smell of MJ wasn’t as to this def
Some smell of marijuana in car with three people didn’t establish probable cause without the officer being able to say it came from defendant’s person. I.G. v. State, 21A-JV-479 (Ind. App. Sept. 10, 2021). Defendant ran from a fight in … Continue reading
EFF: Geofence Warrants Threaten Civil Liberties and Free Speech Rights in Kenosha and Nationwide
EFF: Geofence Warrants Threaten Civil Liberties and Free Speech Rights in Kenosha and Nationwide by Matthew Guariglia, Mukund Rathi, Houston Davidson, and Jennifer Lynch (“These warrants, which police are increasingly using across the country, threaten the right to protest and … Continue reading
DE: Officer’s vague and untimely ID of MJ wasn’t PC here
Officer’s vague and untimely identification of the odor of marijuana was not probable cause in itself on the totality of these circumstances. Juliano v. State, 320, 2019 (Del. Sept. 10, 2021):
MA: Review of old body cam recording in unrelated investigation was a separate invasion of privacy requiring SW
The use of a body camera in the home responding to a domestic disturbance was reasonable. However, reviewing the body cam recording for the purposes of a later and unrelated investigation without a search warrant was unreasonable. The second look … Continue reading
UT: Drug dog’s instinctive leap through a left open car window was reasonable
A drug dog’s instinctive leap through a left open car window was reasonable and didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. State v. Ruiz, 2021 UT App 94 (Sept. 2, 2021):
Ars Technica: LA police ask people they stop for their Facebook and Twitter account info
Ars Technica: LA police ask people they stop for their Facebook and Twitter account info by John Brodkin (“Data is fed into Palantir and helps enable “large-scale monitoring.”)
CA8: Removal of children from home on exigency, if a 4A claim, can be based on RS
Removal of children from the home on reasonable suspicion of exposure to toxic fumes, even if governed by the Fourth Amendment, was based on reasonable suspicion and was subject to qualified immunity. Stanley v. Hutchinson, 20-1822 (8th Cir. Sept. 8, … Continue reading
CA7: Pen register to track IP address in cyberattack investigation governed by third-party doctrine and not Carpenter
The use of a pen register order to track IP address in cyberattack investigation governed by third-party doctrine and not Carpenter. United States v. Soybel, 19-1936 (7th Cir. Sept. 8, 2021):
NY Times: How the N.Y.P.D. Is Using Post-9/11 Tools on Everyday New Yorkers
NYTimes: How the N.Y.P.D. Is Using Post-9/11 Tools on Everyday New Yorkers (“Two decades after the attack on New York City, the Police Department is using counterterrorism tools and tactics to combat routine street crime.”)
TX2: No REP in pawned property
Defendant pawned property that wasn’t his. The police went and picked it up within the period he could have redeemed. There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in bailed property at a pawnshop. Moreover, pawnshops are highly regulated businesses where … Continue reading
IN: Training of smell of MJ enough for PC
The distinctive smell of marijuana is enough for probable cause, and the officer’s training is enough to tell it. Bunnell v. State, 2021 Ind. LEXIS 545 (Sept. 2, 2021):
S.D.Ind.: IU’s CrimsonCard key card system has no REP in user movements
Indiana University’s CrimsonCard, a key card, that tracks movement into University buildings and facilities, does not carry a reasonable expectation of privacy. This case arose from an investigation of a hazing incident, and the University was corroborating alleged alibis. There … Continue reading