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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
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Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
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General (many free):
LexisWeb
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Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
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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
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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) -
“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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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, Little Rock 
Author Archives: Hall
S.D.Tex.: When officer knows RS for stop ceases to exist, checking license and papers unreasonable
Having discovered that there was no legal basis for defendant’s stop, asking for papers unreasonably extended the stop. “Broadening Rodriguez to allow officers to inspect documents when they are already aware that no violation has occurred would effectively sanction random … Continue reading
WA: DV order of protection can include disarming respondent
A proven domestic violence order of protection can provide justification for the respondent to give up his firearms under the Fourth Amendment and state constitution. In re Domestic Violence Prot. Ord. For Hernandez, 2025 Wash. App. LEXIS 1953 (Sep. 30, … Continue reading
D.Alaska: Sharing cell phone gives standing
Defendant shared the iPhone of another person, so he had standing to contest its search. United States v. Powers, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 192621 (D. Alaska Sep. 30, 2025). Defendants don’t get qualified immunity. The jury could conclude that more … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Geofence warrant slightly different than Chatrie still in good faith
This geofence warrant was slightly different than Chatrie’s. Still, the good faith exception applies. “In this case, law enforcement acted pursuant to a warrant that was not so facially deficient that the executing officers could not reasonably presume it to … Continue reading
TX4: Bullet holes in truck justified its seizure for SW
Plain view of bullet holes in defendant’s truck justified its seizure and transport to police impound lot where it was searched with a warrant. Lee v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 7569 (Tex. App. – San Antonio Sep. 30, 2025). … Continue reading
OH5: SW saved by GFE even if issuing court lacked jurisdiction
The good faith exception applies even if the Common Pleas court lacked jurisdiction to issue a warrant for a Dropbox account in another jurisdiction. State v. Wharton, 2025-Ohio-4485, 2025 Ohio App. LEXIS 3295 (5th Dist. Sep. 25, 2025). Summary judgment … Continue reading
LAT: The 4th Amendment will no longer protect you
LAT: The 4th Amendment will no longer protect you by Daniel Harawa & Kate Weisburd:
E.D.Mich.: Someone else’s search doesn’t affect defendant
Defendant has no standing to challenge the search of others that affected him, a theory rejected in Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 171-172 (1969). United States v. Phillips, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 190766 (E.D. Mich. Sep. 26, 2025). … Continue reading
CA2: RS for stop for not pulling over for emergency vehicle
Stop was valid for failing to move over for an emergency vehicle on the side of the road. United States v. Overton, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 25125 (2d Cir. Sep. 29, 2025).* Smell of marijuana from defendant’s car was probable … Continue reading
NYTimes: ‘Biometric Exit’ Quietly Expands Across U.S. Airports, Unnerving Some
NYTimes: ‘Biometric Exit’ Quietly Expands Across U.S. Airports, Unnerving Some by Claire Fahy (“René Rodriguez accompanied his daughter to Ireland last month as she prepared for a fall semester abroad. As he boarded the flight from Boston Logan International Airport … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Southwest employee wasn’t acting as govt agent in inventorying a suitcase and finding drugs
Defendant tried to retrieve a suitcase from Southwest Airlines in Omaha while not having been on a flight or having a claim check. The suspected bag arrived on the next flight from Phoenix, and it was taken by a SWA … Continue reading
PA: Whether an area is “high crime” for RS purposes needs to be evaluated with caution
“We granted discretionary review to consider the quantum of evidence necessary to prove an area is high in crime, such that a suppression court may properly consider that fact among the totality of the circumstances when assessing whether reasonable suspicion … Continue reading
CA11: Officers reasonably concluded that this was one residence without apartments
“At the time the officers swore out and executed the warrant, the officers believed 4279 Violet Circle was a single-family home that Schmitz occupied.” The officers’ investigation for months never indicated that the premises included three efficiency apartments. “In sum, … Continue reading
OH5: Alleged jurisdictional defect in warrant issuance didn’t undermine PC; no dispute as to that
Alleged defects in which court should or could issue this particular warrant was subject to the good faith exception. There was no contention that the affidavit for warrant lacked probable cause. State v. Wharton, 2025-Ohio-4485 (5th Dist. Sep. 25, 2025). … Continue reading
LAT: Veteran U.S. attorney in California insisted Border Patrol follow a court order. Then she was fired.
LAT: Veteran U.S. attorney in California insisted Border Patrol follow a court order. Then she was fired. By Jessica Garrison (“The acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento has said she was fired after telling the Border Patrol chief in charge of … Continue reading
AR: Deficient SW affidavit cured by additional testimony
The affidavit for warrant was deficient, but it was adequately supplemented by testimony from the officer about grooming that would have been on his cell phone. Also, the good faith exception applies. Vasquez v. State, 2025 Ark. 134 (Sep. 25, … Continue reading
CA11: Police shooting and hitting a car is a 4A seizure
Police shooting at and hitting a car is a Fourth Amendment seizure, drawing from a common law case that striking a horse is the same as striking the rider. Watkins v. Davis, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 24904 (11th Cir. Sep. … Continue reading
AP: Chicago approves $90M payout over disgraced ex-sergeant who framed hundreds for drug crimes
AP: Chicago approves $90M payout over disgraced ex-sergeant who framed hundreds for drug crimes by Christine Fernando (“The Chicago City Council on Thursday unanimously approved a $90 million settlement for nearly 200 civil rights violations involving a notorious former police … Continue reading
Atlanta Black Star: ‘Eight Rounds After I Was on the Ground’: Texas Cops at the Wrong Home Opened Fire on Man Even After He Surrendered
Atlanta Black Star: ‘Eight Rounds After I Was on the Ground’: Texas Cops at the Wrong Home Opened Fire on Man Even After He Surrendered by Carlos Miller (“Another police blunder led to the shooting of a man in Texas … Continue reading