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
TX14: There has to be a fact dispute to get an art. 38.23(a) jury instruction on legality of search
“‘To raise a disputed fact issue warranting an article 38.23(a) jury instruction, there must be some affirmative evidence that puts the existence of that fact into question.’ Madden, 242 S.W.3d at 513. In other words, a cross examiner cannot create … Continue reading
Reason: Grand Jury Indictments Paint a Picture of Deadly Deceit in Houston Narcotics Division
Reason: Grand Jury Indictments Paint a Picture of Deadly Deceit in Houston Narcotics Division by Jacob Sullum (“The charges, which grew out of a lethal 2019 raid based on a fraudulent search warrant affidavit, suggest that cops routinely built their … Continue reading
CA1: Inventory was shown to be investigative; suppression affirmed
“All in all, it seems inescapable that the officers seized Del Rosario’s car so that they could search it for evidence of a crime, and that they later sought to justify the search by invoking the community-caretaking exception. And while … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: USMJ’s credibility determination is entitled to deference
While review of the R&R is de novo, the USMJ’s credibility determination on a motion to suppress is still entitled to deference. United States v. Angulo-Gomez, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137199 (W.D. N.Y. Aug. 3, 2020). The government argued that … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Denial of medical care after arrest can be a 4A violation, but this doesn’t measure up
“To the extent Plaintiff is asserting a denial of medical care after his arrest, but before he arrived at the detention facility, district courts within the Ninth Circuit have held that law enforcement officers are required to provide objectively reasonable … Continue reading
CA3: Suspended DL arrest was valid despite fact it was later dismissed in state court
Defendant’s arrest for driving on a suspended license was valid and with probable cause despite the fact he later got the charge dismissed. Bahgat v. Twp. of E. Brunswick, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 24326 (3d Cir. Aug. 3, 2020). Officers … Continue reading
OH3: Collins v. Virginia not retroactive on post-conviction relief
Defendant’s claim that Collins v. Virginia applied on post-conviction is denied. The search was two years before Collins was decided, and trial and appeal were over by then. It isn’t retroactive to final cases. State v. Parsons, 2020-Ohio-3917, 2020 Ohio … Continue reading
OH3: Unsigned SW still entitled to GFE
Even though the search warrant wasn’t signed in violation of the state rule, the good faith exception applies because the issuing judge found probable cause and said he issued the warrant. State v. Harrison, 2020-Ohio-3920, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 2821 … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: Protester Surveillance May Test Constitutional Privacy in Courts
Bloomberg Law: Protester Surveillance May Test Constitutional Privacy in Courts by Julia Weng & Daniel R. Stoller:
CA11: A cell phone with 2kg of heroin and cash is PC for the phone
“[L]aw enforcement officers had probable cause to obtain a warrant to search the cell phone because it was found in a truck with two kilograms of heroin and $24,000 of loose currency during the investigation into the heroin-distribution conspiracy.” CoA … Continue reading
CA6: Failure to object to USMJ’s R&R is waiver of 4A claim
Defendant waived his Fourth Amendment challenge to his stop and frisk by not objecting to the USMJ’s R&R. United States v. Smith, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 24261 (6th Cir. July 31, 2020). Defendant doesn’t show any plausible basis for defense … Continue reading
NV: Booking inventory invalid for lack of inventory and officer’s lack of memory of doing it
The booking inventory of defendant’s “bag” was invalid because of a lack of true inventory. The booking officer didn’t list what was in it because there was just too much stuff. Moreover, at the suppression hearing, she didn’t recall even … Continue reading
E.D.Wash.: Connecting seized cell phone to internet not a search
Connecting already seized cell phone to the internet was not shown to be a search (citing no law). United States v. Murray, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 136292 (E.D. Wash. July 2, 2020). 2255 claim that defense counsel was ineffective for … Continue reading
WaPo: Data isn’t just being collected from your phone. It’s being used to score you.
WaPo: Data isn’t just being collected from your phone. It’s being used to score you. by Harvey Rosenfield & Laura Antonini (“Operating in the shadows of the online marketplace, specialized tech companies you’ve likely never heard of are tapping vast … Continue reading
NY Times: Why a Data Breach at a Genealogy Site Has Privacy Experts Worried
NY Times: Why a Data Breach at a Genealogy Site Has Privacy Experts Worried by Heather Murphy (“Nearly two-thirds of GEDmatch’s users opt out of helping law enforcement. For a brief window this month, that didn’t matter.”):
CA7: Violation of police dept regulations can’t reasonably be a § 1983 claim or 4A violation
Violation of department violations can’t reasonably be a § 1983 claim or violation of the Fourth Amendment. Estate of Biegert v. Molitor, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 24211 (7th Cir. July 31, 2020):
IN: Def counsel’s not filing a motion to suppress was strategic for plea purposes, not because of conflict
Defendant claimed defense counsel had a conflict of interest in not filing a motion to suppress because counsel also represented defendant’s wife. Their interests were identical in the case. The decision not to pursue the motion was to secure a … Continue reading
TX1: SW to seize blood sample implicitly means it can be tested, too
A search warrant for a blood sample implicitly includes testing it. Davis v. State, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 5990 (Tex. App. – Houston (1st Dist.) July 30, 2020). Probable cause existed for seizure of five years of defendant’s Gmail account. … Continue reading
SC: Unzipped pants in traffic stop contributed to RS
“Because we must evaluate the trial court’s findings for clear error, we reluctantly conclude evidence supported the trial court’s finding the officer had reasonable suspicion to extend the stop.” Partly from unzipped pants which suggests to the officer hiding drugs … Continue reading
CA10: Shooting of decedent when he raised a gun at his arrest appears justified
When officers, including the SWAT team, came to arrest the decedent, he had a gun in hand and raised it. He was already known to be potentially violent, and the shooting was reasonable under the circumstances. Estate of Valverde v. … Continue reading