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 -
Latest Slip Opinions:
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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General (many free):
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F.R.Crim.P. 41
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
CA5: 10 am knock-and-talk didn’t violate Jardines
Officers who came to defendant’s door at 10 am and asked for permission to use a dog to sniff his yard didn’t violate Jardines. United States v. Flores, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 10235 (5th Cir. Apr. 1, 2020). “The present … Continue reading
CA6: Asking about drugs in car during normal incidents of stop not unreasonable under Rodriguez
Defendant’s admission he possessed marijuana in his car was within the normal incidents of the traffic stop, Therefore, the officer could extend the stop under Rodriguez. United States v. Lott, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 10237 (6th Cir. Apr. 1, 2020). … Continue reading
OR: Asking about drugs in car during an “unavoidable lull” in traffic stop was unreasonable under state constitution
Asking about drugs in the car during an “unavoidable lull” in the stop was unreasonable under the state constitution under Arreola-Botello. State v. McBride, 303 Ore. App. 292, 2020 Ore. App. LEXIS 433 (Apr. 1, 2020), on remand from 366 … Continue reading
IA: Def’s association with known drug dealers without any nexus to his own house isn’t PC
“Although we decide marginal cases in favor of upholding warrants, we cannot rubber stamp the authorization to search a home unsupported by probable cause. Here, the search warrant application established Higgins’s association with people who used or delivered controlled substances. … Continue reading
CNN: How the cell phones of spring breakers who flouted coronavirus warnings were tracked
CNN: How the cell phones of spring breakers who flouted coronavirus warnings were tracked by Donie O’Sullivan:
CA11: Generic state 4A post-conviction petition with no citation of authority waived state claims
A generic state claim for post-conviction relief for ineffective assistance in counsel of a Fourth Amendment claim that cited nothing was no claim at all, and didn’t toll § 2254 limitations. “Dunn’s September 2015 motion merely asserted that her convictions … Continue reading
D.Haw.: Def failed in her motion to reconsider overseizure by failure to specify exactly what was
Defendant’s motion to suppress was previously denied, but she was allowed to specify what documents were overseized. “[T]he court will consider a motion to suppress specific documents or other evidence based on proof that such items were seized and that … Continue reading
D.Minn.: “A police officer’s ‘characterization is not enough, standing alone, to implicate Fourth Amendment protections.’” That’s the court’s duty
“A police officer’s ‘characterization is not enough, standing alone, to implicate Fourth Amendment protections.’ Michigan v. Chesternut, 486 U.S. 567, 574, 108 S. Ct. 1975, 100 L. Ed. 2d 565 (1988). The parties’ characterization of the events notwithstanding, the Court … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: SW for apt and seizure of computers and cell phones includes power to search them later
A search warrant to search an apartment and seize computers and cell phones includes the power to search them later. United States v. Quinonez, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55789 (S.D. Fla. Mar. 30, 2020). The officer’s statement that the CI’s … Continue reading
VT AG: Attorney General’s Directive to Law Enforcement on the Enforcement of the COVID-19 Emergency Order
VT AG: Attorney General’s Directive to Law Enforcement on the Enforcement of the COVID-19 Emergency Order: The Executive Order 01-20 does not authorize road closure or the establishment of roadblocks, checkpoints or the authority to demand identification. You will continue … Continue reading
Corporate Counsel: Microsoft Chief Legal Officer Applauds Washington’s Recently Signed Facial Recognition Law
Corporate Counsel: Microsoft Chief Legal Officer Applauds Washington’s Recently Signed Facial Recognition Law by Dan Clark (“Washington’s new law shows how regulation and market forces can move forward together in a way that advances innovation to meet public needs,” Brad … Continue reading
The Intercept: Privacy Experts Say Responsible Coronavirus Surveillance is Possible
The Intercept: Privacy Experts Say Responsible Coronavirus Surveillance is Possible by Sam Biddle (“In less than a decade, whistleblowers like the NSA’s Edward Snowden and Cambridge Analytica’s Christopher Wylie helped spur a global sea change in the public’s attitude toward … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: SW for telephone records not required instead of a subpoena
Defendant was entitled to a search warrant rather than a search warrant to obtain his telephone records. United States v. McClain, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55427 (W.D. N.Y. Mar. 30, 2020). The search warrant application for child pornography wasn’t at … Continue reading
CA11: No REP in a police interview room where def was recorded confessing to his wife
There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in a police interview room where defendant was recorded confessing to his wife. Lundberg v. Secretary, Fla. Dep’t of Correction, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 9953 (11th Cir. Mar. 31, 2020). Police received a … Continue reading
TX5: SW for blood didn’t have to say it could be tested, too; why else was it drawn?
A search warrant for a blood sample doesn’t have to say that it could be tested, too. Otherwise, why draw it at all. Common sense dictates it would be. Suppression order reversed. State v. Staton, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 2610 … Continue reading
OH9: Medical records allegedly unlawfully seized weren’t in appellate record, so prejudice couldn’t be determined; held waived
Defendant claimed his medical records were unlawfully seized and admitted at evidence as an admission at this DUI trial. Without them in the appellate record, the appellate court can’t determine prejudice. Thus, this is waived. State v. Miller, 2020-Ohio-1209, 2020 … Continue reading
CA10: Def’s prior drug arrests by the officer contributed to RS when in a high crime area and other things
“Serna was ‘seized’ under the Fourth Amendment through a Terry stop when Sergeant Silva told Serna to keep his hands where he could see them, and Serna placed his hands on top of his head. … The district court ruled … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: IAC shown for failure to move to suppress arrest in own home
Defendant satisfied his burden of showing ineffective assistance of counsel for defense counsel’s failure to file a motion to suppress that the entry into the house violated the Fourth Amendment and this tainted defendant’s consent. There is no strategic reason … Continue reading