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
VA: Search of speeder’s purse violated Gant and denied sovereign immunity
Plaintiff was arrested and in handcuffs in a police car for speeding. The officer searched her purse in the car, and all this was post-Gant and no evidence of speeding would be found in the purse. This was beyond mere … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: No constitutional requirement that the SW be served on the target of the search, so the missing attachment didn’t matter
There is no constitutional requirement that the search warrant be served on the target of the search, so the missing attachment didn’t matter. “As stated above, the record demonstrates with reasonable certainty that a warrant stating with particularity the items … Continue reading
D.N.J.: What witnesses to call at a suppression hearing is strategic call under Strickland
Defendant wasn’t prejudiced by not calling his codefendant wife at the suppression hearing. Her declaration was already before the court, and nothing more could be added. What witnesses to call, even in a suppression hearing, is a Strickland strategic decision. … Continue reading
CA1: No exigency for warrantless entry on a DV complaint even with a known gun in the house, and unconnected to the complaint
PR police were called to a DV situation involving a police officer as a suspect. The officer’s firearm did not factor into the DV complaint, and the argument wasn’t even face-to-face. The mere fact of a gun in the house … Continue reading
CA11: Two CoAs denied same day
Defendant lost his search issue on appeal. On 2255 he argues that it could have been argued better. [The opinion doesn’t say how.] It he lost on the merits of a Fourth Amendment claim, that’s binding on 2255 for lack … Continue reading
C.D.Ill.: SW for premises need not state the owner’s name
Defendant was observed doing four controlled buys, and he went back to his girlfriend’s house in her car each time. “Defendant contends that the affidavit lacked probable cause because it did not state who owned the Residence, whether Defendant lived … Continue reading
NYTimes: Does the F.B.I. Need Apple to Hack Into iPhones?
NYTimes: Does the F.B.I. Need Apple to Hack Into iPhones? By Jack Nicas (“There are tools to crack into the phones at the center of a new dispute over encryption. But the F.BI. says it still needs Apple’s aid.”)
MO: When there’s one black phone to be seized and searched, that’s all the SW needs to describe
Identifying the thing to be searched as a “black Samsung cell phone with a black case” was specific enough without including the phone number or serial number when there was only one in hand. State v. Bales, 2020 Mo. App. … Continue reading
LA5: There is no separate exigency requirement for the trunk of a car under the AE
There is no separate exigency requirement for the search of an automobile’s trunk then a need to get a search warrant. The trial court erred in granting the motion to suppress. State v. Lacrosse, 2020 La. App. LEXIS 51 (La. … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Allegedly not understanding a potential 4A claim isn’t grounds to set aside plea months later
“On the record before the Court, Mr. Rivera’s belatedly asserted misapprehension regarding possible Fourth Amendment claims does not provide a basis for permitting him to withdraw his guilty plea.” [The court doesn’t even mention the merits of such a motion.] … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Actual knowledge of jail calls being recorded isn’t required because of inmate handbook, signs on wall, and the sounds on the phone call
Testimony of actual knowledge that non-attorney jail calls would be recorded isn’t required. The inmate handbook, signs by the jail phone, and a notice in the call itself tell inmates that. United States v. Strother, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6185 … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Def in MCC now prosecuted for leaking classified SW information via contraband cell phone
Defendant is being prosecuted in part for leaking protected search warrant and classified search warrant materials to the press from contraband cell phones in the MCC, Manhattan. This opinion is about disclosure of defenses and evidence. United States v. Schulte, … Continue reading
CA8: Officer’s training and experience not needed in SW affidavit if it shows PC
The facts in the affidavit for images on defendant’s cell phone were enough for probable cause. The officer did not have to detail his training and experience in sex assault cases, too. The alleged Franks violation, even if it was, … Continue reading
CA10: Walking up to def sitting on parked car to talk to him wasn’t a stop
Walking up to defendant sitting on his parked car and talking to him, without blocking the path of the car and no police lights, was not a seizure. State v. McCall, 2020-Ohio-84, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 69 (10th Dist. Jan. … Continue reading
VA: Running the serial number of a seized firearm isn’t a “search”
When defendant got out of the car, the officer could see the butt of a gun sticking from his coat pocket, so a frisk was reasonable for officer safety. Looking at the serial number and then running it to see … Continue reading
NY Times: The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It
NY Times: The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It by Kashmir Hill A little-known start-up helps law enforcement match photos of unknown people to their online images — and “might lead to a dystopian future or … Continue reading
NJ: State failed to show exigency for warrantless phone records search
Under New Jersey statute and constitution, cell phone records and CSLI required a showing of probable cause and a court order since 2010. Exigent circumstances were a recognized exception, and the state failed to show exigency here. State v. Manning, … Continue reading
D.Minn.: The unusually talkative have no special right to be Mirandized
“Because the officers knew that he had a tendency to talk about the case, Williams-Bey argues, Officer Roddy should have given him his Miranda warnings, rather than entertaining his question. Again, Williams-Bey provides no legal authority to support this contention.” … Continue reading
AL applies GFE to CSLI 2½ years before Carpenter
CSLI obtained by court order, but without showing probable cause, nearly three years before Carpenter was all in good faith. Watson v. State, 2020 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 4 (Jan. 10, 2020). Defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel claim against counsel … Continue reading