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- 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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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
N.D.Iowa: There is a REP in a wheelchair as an “effect”
Defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his wheelchair where he’d hidden a gun. The automobile exception doesn’t apply to wheelchairs, and neither does Chadwick on the locked footlocker. The gun was seen by Walmart employees who called the … Continue reading
Reason: Cops Say Encryption Hinders Investigations. These Documents Say Otherwise.
Reason: Cops Say Encryption Hinders Investigations. These Documents Say Otherwise. by J.D. Tuccille (“Law enforcers have plenty of tools; they just want to paw through our data without effort or expense.”)
N.D.Ga.: No constitutional right to pre-enforcement challenge to an OSHA administrative warrant
There is no constitutional right to pre-enforcement challenge to an OSHA administrative warrant. “FFG contends that it has the constitutional right to a pre-execution challenge of OSHA’s warrant. [Doc. 14 at 4-5]. After a review of the record, the Court … Continue reading
GA: Mistake as to smell of MJ v. hemp was reasonable, if there was one
“At most, Gowen’s assertion about the similarity of the smells of hemp and marijuana calls into question the reasonableness of the officer’s belief that he smelled burnt marijuana. Assuming for purposes of this appeal that Gowen’s assertion is correct (even … Continue reading
CA9: Order to get out of car permitted in Mimms doesn’t unreasonably extend stop
“The officer’s order to step out of the vehicle and his directive to stand by the patrol car were reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. See Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 109-11 (1977) (per curiam). The officer lawfully initiated the … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Seizure under part of SW without PC is suppressed, but remainder valid
“Whitmore’s motions are granted in part and denied in part. Specifically, his motion to exclude evidence from his arrest is denied. With respect to the search of the cell phone, the affidavit provides no probable cause for seeking evidence of … Continue reading
TX3: Def doesn’t get art. 38.23 jury instruction on RS
Because a jury would never understand the question of law in reasonable suspicion, a Texas defendant doesn’t get an art. 38.23 jury instruction on it. “Appellant’s second alleged disputed fact concerns the existence or nonexistence of reasonable suspicion and probable … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Def unaware he was blocked in his car wasn’t “seized”
“Inasmuch as Mr. Mitchem was unaware that his car was blocked given his somnambulant state, the mere blocking of his vehicle is of no Fourth Amendment consequence.” United States v. Mitchem, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118388 (S.D. W.Va. June 25, … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Attacking dashcam video unavailing where credibility of officer seeing gun wasn’t challenged
“Harris’ objection to the Magistrate Judge’s recommendation that the seizure of the firearm was permissible focuses on whether the submitted video evidence clearly showed that the object in his waistband was a firearm, and whether the officers had sufficient reasonable … Continue reading
ID: Nonpayment of fine warrant not based on PC for willfulness or ability to pay; writ of prohibition granted
A clerk’s affidavit of nonpayment said nothing about willfulness of nonpayment, and there was no showing of an “ability to pay analysis” for probable cause. Writ of prohibition against the contempt arrest is granted. Beck v. Elmore County Magistrate Court, … Continue reading
OH: Unidentified report of def driving under influence justified officer’s stop on totality
“The Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of unreasonable searches and seizures does not forbid a police officer from initiating a brief investigatory stop of a person if the officer has reasonable suspicion to believe that the person is or is about to … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Abandonment after unreasonable seizure not voluntary
There was no reasonable suspicion for defendant’s detention before he fled the officer. The alleged abandonment occurred after the unreasonable seizure, so it was involuntary. United States v. Dudley, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117108 (D. Nev. June 23, 2021). Florida’s … Continue reading
NY2: Date typo in drug field test report after search wasn’t material
Defendant’s motion to suppress was properly denied by the trial court. Defendant’s reliance on when a field test of the product of the search showed only a typographical error as to the date it was done and doesn’t undermine the … Continue reading
CA3: GFE saved CP search district court found lacked PC
Officers obtained a search warrant for defendant possessing child pornography based on his interest in unclothed children and taking pictures. The district court suppressed, but the good faith exception applies to save the search. The government appealed on both probable … Continue reading
CA9: Denial of motion to suppress in state court precludes § 1983 case over same search
Defendant lost his motion to suppress in state court over a warrantless entry into his garage. He later sued over the search under § 1983 in federal court. The federal case was precluded by the state denial of the motion … Continue reading
CA4 (en banc 8-7): Baltimore’s aerial surveillance program is a “search” under Carpenter
The Baltimore Police Department’s aerial surveillance program is a search under Carpenter because of the detail it provides and the viewers of the information can go back in time. Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle v. Baltimore Police Department, 2021 U.S. … Continue reading
TX: Once hotel moves to evict a renter, any REP in the room ceases
“Appellant’s expectation of privacy in the hotel room was extinguished once the hotel staff took affirmative steps to evict him on suspicion that he was using illegal drugs in his room in violation of hotel policy. Thus, the police officers’ … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: SW for single family dwelling valid even if there’s a renter living inside
A search warrant for what’s ostensibly a single family dwelling is sufficient to search the entire building, despite the fact that it turned out that there was a renter in one room. The good faith exception applies, too. United States … Continue reading
MT: No REP in text message sent to a LEO
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in text messages defendant sent to an undercover federal officer posing as a prostitute, despite Montana’s enhanced right of privacy under its state constitution. State v. Staker, 2021 MT 151, 2021 Mont. LEXIS … Continue reading
techdirt: Kansas Court Rejects Government’s ‘Reverse Warrant,’ Sets Ground Rules For Future Requests
techdirt: Kansas Court Rejects Government’s ‘Reverse Warrant,’ Sets Ground Rules For Future Requests by Tim Cushing linking to this post from June 14.