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Recent Posts
- C.D.Cal.: A Gerstein/McLaughlin violation for delayed first appearance requires a showing of prejudice
- CA11: Franks motion properly denied for lack of an offer of proof
- 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
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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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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)
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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
Privacy Foundation
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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)
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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
E.D.Tenn.: Omissions in Franks claims carry a higher burden
“Because defendant’s [Franks] claim relates to an alleged omission, he bears a heavy burden, as a Franks hearing is rarely merited in the case of an omission of exculpatory information. See Graham, 275 F.3d at 506. The Court does not … Continue reading
SCOTUS: Community caretaking function didn’t permit entry into unoccupied home to secure firearms when occupant left at request of police
The community caretaking function didn’t permit a warrantless entry into defendant’s home to secure his firearms after he left the home without them to get psychiatric help. He also asked that his guns not be seized when he left the … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Inevitable discovery applied to warrantless search of cell phone at immigration checkpoint
The fact the officers would have obtained a search warrant for defendant’s cell phone if one was sought here made the question of consent to search it moot. Inevitable discovery applies. This was at an immigration checkpoint. United States v. … Continue reading
D.N.J.: “Friends with benefits” relationship showed standing
Defendant with a “friends with benefits” relationship with his host still had standing during his short-term stays. Here, he was asleep in his underwear when the police entered at night. United States v. Brantley, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91340 (D. … Continue reading
techdirt: FISA Court Says FBI May Be Abusing Surveillance Powers; Will Continue To Allow It To Abuse Surveillance Powers
techdirt: FISA Court Says FBI May Be Abusing Surveillance Powers; Will Continue To Allow It To Abuse Surveillance Powers by Tim Cushing (“Reform efforts following the Snowden leaks led to some minor improvements at the FISA Court. The USA Freedom … Continue reading
The Crime Report: Continued Use of “Terry Stops” Raise Concerns of Racial Profiling and Trauma
The Crime Report: Continued Use of “Terry Stops” Raise Concerns of Racial Profiling and Trauma (“The frequently used stopping practice has garnered attention from reform advocates who insist it relies on racial profiling.”).
W.D.Mo.: ER’s security staff conducts private searches of GSW victims
Defendant showed at a hospital ER with a gunshot wound. Hospital policy was for its security staff to search GSW patients’ clothing for staff safety. This was a private search, and it produced ammunition from a convicted felon. United States … Continue reading
IA: Trespassing on RR property was RS for stop
Defendant’s parking on railroad property was trespassing at least, and it was reasonable for the officer to investigate whether it was drug use or underage drinking, what he’d usually find. “Assuming without deciding King was acting on a mere hunch … Continue reading
CA6: Excessive force “assault” claim under § 1983 doesn’t necessarily require contact
Jail conditions can be so bad that they amount to a § 1983 “assault” without there being a more traditional assault. Here, it was a suicidal inmate knowingly put into solitary confinement and that could be pled as excessive force … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: PC shown for cell phone and geo-location data
“The Geo-Location Warrant was supported by probable cause because the affidavit established ‘a connection between the defendant and the location to be searched; a link between the location and criminal activity; and the informant’s veracity and basis of knowledge.’” There … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Def first refused consent to DNA then sought it; initial refusal not excluded
Defendant declined to consent to a DNA test during his statement which is sought to be admitted. He later sought and consented to a DNA test. It should not be excluded at trial because it isn’t seeking to penalize his … Continue reading
Reason: A Supreme Court Decision That Did Lasting Damage to the 4th Amendment
Reason: A Supreme Court Decision That Did Lasting Damage to the 4th Amendment by Damon Root (“How pretextual traffic stops got the judicial stamp of approval.”)
Reason: How Detectives Caught the Golden State Killer—and Unleashed a Catastrophe for Civil Liberties
Reason: How Detectives Caught the Golden State Killer—and Unleashed a Catastrophe for Civil Liberties by Paul Detrick (“Police were finally able to catch the serial killer using DNA genealogy databases—violating many innocent people’s constitutional right to privacy.”)
WA: Prior knowledge of arrest warrant became stale
Stale information that a warrant existed for defendant was not probable cause when the warrant had been recalled, and no one checked the day of the arrest. State v. Pines, 2021 Wash. App. LEXIS 1160 (May 10, 2021). Subpoenas to … Continue reading
D.D.C.: 15 mo delay in cell phone search unreasonable and not saved by GFE
The government’s 15 month delay in searching defendant’s cell phone was unjustified and was not saved by the good faith exception. United States v. Wilkins, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89419 (D.D.C. May 11, 2021):
CA9: In civil challenge to PC to arrest, PC determination at preliminary hearing usually binding
In a civil case over probable cause to arrest, the USMJ’s determination of probable cause at the preliminary hearing will not be revisited absent a showing of judicial deception. Martinez v. United States, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 13888 (9th Cir. … Continue reading