Archives
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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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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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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
D.Md.: Taking driver’s cell phone with DL during traffic stop unreasonably extended stop and violated 4A
Taking defendant’s cell phone with DL during a traffic stop unreasonably extended the stop and was in excess of the purpose of a traffic stop. United States v. Morganstern, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 240746 (D. Me. Dec. 22, 2020). A … Continue reading
ND: Evidence seized by SW still needs to comply with rules of evidence to be admissible
Just because evidence was seized with a search warrant doesn’t make it admissible. The rules of evidence or other statute or rule still have to be complied with. City of Fargo v. Hofer, 2020 ND 252, 2020 N.D. LEXIS 264 … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: SW for premises didn’t justify stop of car allowed to leave
A search warrant for the premises here did not justify defendants’ stop in their car after they were allowed to leave it. Moreover, there was no reasonable suspicion for the stop; no traffic violation, no nothing. United States v. Williamson, … Continue reading
The Intercept: Powerful Mobile Phone Surveillance Tool Operates in Obscurity Across the Country
The Intercept: Powerful Mobile Phone Surveillance Tool Operates in Obscurity Across the Country by Sam Richards (“CellHawk helps law enforcement visualize large quantities of information collected by cellular towers and providers.”)
The Crime Report: Is Your Phone Safe? The Dangers of Police Access to Private Digital Data
The Crime Report: Is Your Phone Safe? The Dangers of Police Access to Private Digital Data by Christa Miller (“A recent report from the Washington, D.C. nonprofit Upturn highlights the privacy and civil rights concerns arising from the use of … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Standing established by def’s own recorded jail call
A jail call showed defendant’s standing that he lived in the house where the search occurred. The entry to arrest him on an arrest warrant led to a valid plain view. United States v. Essex, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 238989 … Continue reading
OH: Touching fog line not traffic violation
Resolving a state conflict, touching the right fog line is not a violation of Ohio’s traffic laws. State v. Turner, 2020-Ohio-6773, 2020 Ohio LEXIS 2814 (Dec. 22, 2020). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not arguing at a hearing an issue … Continue reading
PA state const. requires actual exigency for automobile exception
Resolving tension in its cases, Pennsylvania holds that its state automobile exception requires both probable cause and an actual exigency. Commonwealth v. Alexander, 2020 Pa. LEXIS 6439 (Dec. 22, 2020):
Law.com: Fired COVID-19 Data Scientist Sues Over Police Raid: ‘I’m Worried … Where We’re Going’
Law.com: Fired COVID-19 Data Scientist Sues Over Police Raid: ‘I’m Worried … Where We’re Going’ by Rachel Lean (“An armed police raid of a fired COVID-19 data scientist’s home sparked a lawsuit Monday in Leon Circuit Court, which claims the … Continue reading
CA8: Forgetting to get SW signed for a vehicle didn’t matter where there was PC
The officer prepared an affidavit and search warrant for a vehicle search and took the paperwork to a state judge. They forgot to get the warrant signed. The search was still valid because there was probable cause to search the … Continue reading
CA5: GFE applies to SW with outdated Google Map image but with correct address
The good faith exception applies to the officer’s accidentally using an outdated Google maps image in a search warrant application but with a correct actual address. “The circumstances make clear that [Officer] Herron’s mistake was an honest one-a far cry … Continue reading
D.N.H.: Separate PC was shown even though stop was made to aid DEA investigation
Officers wanted defendant’s car stopped and probable cause for a searched developed because they didn’t want to reveal a DEA investigation. The traffic officer waited for a traffic violation and then developed probable cause during the stop. United States v. … Continue reading
The Crime Report: Chicago Mayor Fires Top Lawyer Over Botched Raid Video
The Crime Report: Chicago Mayor Fires Top Lawyer Over Botched Raid Video (“Chicago city lawyers made the rare move of apologetically withdrawing a request for federal court sanctions against a lawyer after the public release of video of a botched … Continue reading
GA: LPN at nursing home had no REP in patient’s room from video recording
A rehabilitation center resident’s son put a video camera in his father’s room because of the father’s concern that “strange things” were happening there at night. The resident wanted his son to stay there but he couldn’t because of his … Continue reading
CA8: DV order of protection and def’s seeking his firearms was PC for SW
Defendant was under a DV order of protection and repeatedly attempted to recover firearms from the police department, and that was probable cause for a warrant for his house. United States v. Bachler, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 39772 (8th Cir. … Continue reading
ND: While cracked windshield isn’t violation of state law, it wasn’t unreasonable for officer to conclude it was
A cracked windshield on the passenger side is not a violation of state law, but it was not unreasonable for the officer to conclude that it was. Therefore, the stop was not unreasonable. State v. Bolme, 2020 ND 255, 2020 … Continue reading
OR: The fact some people lie is not RS
The officer had no subjective or objective reasonable suspicion that the vehicle defendant was driving, his mother’s, was without her permission, just become some people lie. State v. Smith, 308 Ore. App. 84 (Dec. 16, 2020). Defendant was claimed to … Continue reading
OH5: 911 hang-up call is treated as presumptively an emergency until shown otherwise
In Ohio, a 911 hang-up call is treated as presumptively an emergency until shown otherwise. State v. Walter, 2020-Ohio-6772, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 4622 (5th Dist. Dec. 17, 2020). A police officer’s property was searched under a warrant. The warrant … Continue reading
IN: Odor of MJ alone may not be enough for PC without showing training
On the facts of this case, the mere odor of marijuana wasn’t enough to show probable cause. The officers never explained why they believed that or what their training was. Bunnell v. State, 2020 Ind. App. LEXIS 538 (Dec. 18, … Continue reading