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)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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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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.Va.: A Terry stop can’t be used to investigate a completed misdemeanor (noting conflicting authorities)
This anonymous tip fails under Navarette because it permits stops on no reliable information at all. Moreover, a Terry stop cannot be used to investigate a completed misdemeanor (noting the circuits to the contrary). United States v. Beasley, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Def accidentally lost his fanny pack in flight; court finds abandonment even though he didn’t intend it
The court finds defendant abandoned his fanny pack which he said was strapped over his chest and fell off during flight from the police. He testified he didn’t intentionally drop the fanny pack, and it must have slipped off while … Continue reading
FL2: CP SW affidavit was conclusory
The search warrant for child pornography here failed to describe the image and was conclusory. In addition, the officer didn’t state anything about his training in the area to identify child pornography. Goesel v. State, 2020 Fla. App. LEXIS 15413 … Continue reading
CO: Hearing shots and seeing only one person running away from it was RS as to him
“Here, Officer Guagliardo heard multiple shots coming from an apartment complex and seconds later saw Oliver, and only Oliver, fleeing the area. When instructed to stop, Oliver ran faster. Officer Guagliardo heard screams coming from the complex. Based on the … Continue reading
KY: Traffic stop was unreasonably delayed for drug dog
The officers delayed the stop to get the drug dog to the scene. The court of appeals erred, however, in not determining reasonable suspicion. Commonwealth v. Mitchell, 2020 Ky. LEXIS 394 (Oct. 29, 2020):
N.D.W.Va.: A pipe in a car that could have legitimate uses still was incriminating enough for plain view
A pipe logically and usually used for smoking pot was seized in plain view because its incriminating nature was immediately apparent. The fact it could be used for legal substances doesn’t detract from that. United States v. Runner, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
OH8: Smell of MJ justifies search of interior of car where it could be found
“Upon en banc consideration, we uphold the conclusion reached in Franklin, and reiterate that the heightened standard set forth in Farris does not apply to searches conducted within the passenger compartment of a vehicle. Consistent with the confines of Farris, … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: While one’s roof is on the curtilage, it lacks a REP
Defendant’s roof was not a place with a reasonable expectation of privacy despite the fact it was on the curtilage (decided in the context of an ineffective assistance of counsel claim). Davis v. United States, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 201562 … Continue reading
FL4: Police use of a flashlight isn’t itself a search
“R.F. appeals the denial of his motion to suppress physical evidence. Because we conclude appellant was not seized for Fourth Amendment purposes where the deputy used a spotlight and a flashlight to illuminate his approach of appellant, we affirm the … Continue reading
N.D.Ill. issues a geofence warrant to Google
This geofence warrant is issued with probable cause and it is particular because it is so limited in time and scope. In re Search Warrant Application for Geofence Location Data Stored at Google Concerning an Arson Investigation, 2020 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
WaPo: DoJ to allow local police to wear body cameras on federal task forces
WaPo: Justice Department to allow local police to wear body cameras on federal task forces (“But federal officers and agents in FBI, ATF, DEA and U.S. Marshals still will not wear cameras”)
TX10: Texas’s art. 38.28 exclusionary rule instruction doesn’t apply to def’s own conduct
The ability to get an art. 38.23 exclusionary rule instruction for the jury depends on someone else’s wrongdoing, and not on the defendant’s own. It doesn’t apply to resisting arrest. Aguirre v. State, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 8524 (Tex. App. … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Arrest was with PC, despite lack of state grand jury indictment
Defendant was charged with child pornography after his computer system password was linked to it. A state grand jury declined to indict him. He sued under § 1983 in state court, and it was removed to federal court. “Without providing … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Trash search entered constitutionally protected area, and there’s no trash search exception to curtilage
The officers entered a constitutionally protected area of defendant’s property for a trash seizure. The court also declines to adopt a “trash exception” to curtilage that trash expected to be picked up later is not protected. United States v. Gregory, … Continue reading
CA8: Ptf stated a claim for false arrest and detention without PC
Plaintiff was arrested and detained for three weeks without probable cause. Taking his claims as true at this point, he stated a claim. Bell v. Neukirch, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 33920 (8th Cir. Oct. 28, 2020):
TX5: HIPAA doesn’t create REP in blood toxicology for medical treatment later used in DUI
HIPAA doesn’t create a reasonable expectation of privacy in one’s blood sample obtained for medical treatment. HIPAA recognizes criminal process to obtain it. Consuelo v. State, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 8460 (Tex. App. – Dallas Oct. 27, 2020). Any lack … Continue reading
S.D.Iowa: Def’s SnapChat posts provided PC to search his vehicle
Defendant’s public social media posts (here, SnapChat) about his drug activities provided probable cause to search his vehicle for drugs. United States v. Manuel, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199261 (S.D. Iowa Oct. 21, 2020):
OH10: Anonymous 911 call didn’t support def’s stop
A 911 anonymous tipster’s call wasn’t justification for defendant’s stop because it was wrong as to clothing and it essentially described all the black men in the area. State v. Walton, 2020-Ohio-5062, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 3906 (10th Dist. Oct. … Continue reading
TX14: SW to take blood includes ability to forensically test it
The search warrant for taking defendant’s blood included the ability to forensically test it. The fact that the forensic analysis of defendant’s blood occurred at a date beyond the three-day window for execution of the warrant did not render the … Continue reading
GA: Entry into def’s house for pulling a gun on somebody elsewhere wasn’t in hot pursuit and suppressed
Officers entered defendant’s home for allegedly pulling a gun on his girlfriend at another house. They weren’t in hot pursuit, and the entry was unreasonable and is suppressed. The state’s inevitable discovery argument that a search warrant would have been … Continue reading