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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www.fd.org
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
D.Nev.: Affidavit for SW for DNA showed PC by parallels between two crimes and def
“The underlying facts in the affidavit compare the actions of Tualua with the actions of the people who committed the prior EZ Pawn robberies, which would allow the issuing judge to make his or her own conclusions. Under the totality … Continue reading
WaPo: ICE runs facial-recognition searches on millions of Md. drivers, alarming immigration and privacy activists
WaPo: ICE runs facial-recognition searches on millions of Md. drivers, alarming immigration and privacy activists by Drew Harwell and Erin Cox (“Maryland defied federal guidelines in 2013 when it created driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants. But in recent years, Immigration … Continue reading
PR: Collective knowledge doctrine doesn’t require every officer to know everything
The collective knowledge doctrine doesn’t require every officer to know everything. Pueblo v. Jiméne, 2020 PR App. LEXIS 278 (P.R. App. Jan. 30, 2020). (That, of course, is evident from the word “collective.”). A year typo in the affidavit’s narrative … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: Single trash pull at a duplex with one trash container was still PC and nexus
A single trash pull that produced some evidence of limited possession at a duplex with one trash container was still probable cause with nexus to defendant. United States v. Hogan, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30039 (M.D. Tenn. Feb. 21, 2020). … Continue reading
TX11: Automobile exception doesn’t permit a vehicle search after the object of the search has been recovered
The automobile exception did not apply where defendant was stopped for an alleged theft and the property was recovered before the search occurred, thereby obviating it. State v. Whitman, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 1481 (Tex. App. – Eastland Feb. 21, … Continue reading
CA3: Border search exception applies to VI traveler, headed no matter which way
The border search exception applies to travel to and from the Virgin Islands, no matter which way the traveler is going. United States v. Baxter, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 5341 (3d Cir. Feb. 21, 2020). Detention center officer’s two-handed shove … Continue reading
D.N.M.: SWs are seldom perfect; the question is where there is a reasonable belief in facts supporting a search
“The process of obtaining a search warrant exists to ensure that officers first gather sufficient facts indicating criminal activity before scouring through private property. Though search warrants are not always perfect or as specific as courts might like, the process … Continue reading
Security Boulevard: Personal Data Collection: Outsourcing Surveillance
Security Boulevard: Personal Data Collection: Outsourcing Surveillance by Mark Rasch (“The buying and selling of personal data means more entities are able to conduct surveillance without needing a warrant”)
E.D.Mich.: Navarette-like stop was reasonable in shots fired call and that also supported vehicle search for weapon under Long
“Navarette supports a finding of reasonable suspicion here. In light of the totality of the circumstances, including that officers spotted the white pickup in close proximity to the park soon after being dispatched, the court finds that the 911 call … Continue reading
CA1: Def lacked standing to challenge search of a shed actually done under authority of bail condition
Defendant was stopped by officers with “beyond” reasonable suspicion he was dealing drugs. The stop was not unreasonably long, and defendant incriminated himself pre-Miranda. Defendant lacked standing to challenge the search of a shed. The justification for the search was … Continue reading
CA1: Alleged overseizure of email under SW would only require partial suppression; def doesn’t identify that which was overseized
Defendant’s motion to suppress electronic data acquired by a Rule 41(e)(2)(B) search warrant on his email account was properly denied. Based on the absence of a time limit in the warrant, it was not unreasonable to interpret the warrant to … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Franks motion that only sets up a “swearing match” for witnesses is inadequate
Defendant’s unsworn motion for a Franks hearing fails to identify the materiality of the alleged misstatement and that it was knowingly false. Setting up a “swearing match” for a hearing doesn’t satisfy Franks. United States v. Figueroa-Rivera, 2020 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
TX9: Witness and ADAs allegedly providing false information for SWs are absolutely immune from civil cases
Witnesses who had provided affidavits in the underlying criminal case were entitled to absolute witness immunity, regardless of whether they gave false testimony. Prosecutors in that case who allegedly participated in falsifying evidence and writing a perjured search warrant were … Continue reading
IEEE Spectrum: AI Deception: When Your Artificial Intelligence Learns to Lie
IEEE Spectrum: AI Deception: When Your Artificial Intelligence Learns to Lie by Heather Roff (“We need to understand the kinds of deception an AI agent may learn on its own before we can start proposing technological defenses”)
The Guardian: Rules urgently needed to oversee police use of data and AI – report
The Guardian: Rules urgently needed to oversee police use of data and AI – report (“Report warns that technology, uptake of which has largely been driven by cuts, could lead to discrimination”)
The Recorder: California’s Appellate Courts Are Fine-Tuning When Juvenile Offenders Are Subject to Warrantless Searches
The Recorder: California’s Appellate Courts Are Fine-Tuning When Juvenile Offenders Are Subject to Warrantless Searches (“Although California’s First District Court of Appeal did not rule on the constitutional questions raised in the appeal, the court blocked the attorney general’s attempt … Continue reading
IN: Warrant-placed GPS unit’s failure is not PC to believe defendant stole it
Just because a GPS device lawfully planted on a car stops working is not probable cause to believe the defendant stole it. The search warrant for his house and barn to recover it lacked all probable cause and any basis … Continue reading