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- 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
CA11: No Heck bar for § 1983 false arrest claim over dismissed criminal count
The district court erred in dismissing plaintiff’s § 1983 false arrest claim against the deputy on Heck grounds because Heck did not apply–the charge that formed the basis for his § 1983 claim was dismissed, and his § 1983 suit … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Def’s parole search permitted at his mother’s house while he was visiting there; no REP
Defendant claims in his 2255 that, while he was on parole with a search waiver on file, he was searched at his mother’s house and not at his listed address, and his counsel was ineffective for not challenging it. He … Continue reading
Pacific Legal Foundation: With 5G arriving, the Supreme Court needs to rule on what digital privacy means
Pacific Legal Foundation: With 5G arriving, the Supreme Court needs to rule on what digital privacy means by Daniel Woislaw:
FL5: State doesn’t get GFE on Birchfield where it came down day before def’s stop
Birchfield came down day before defendant’s arrest, and good faith exception isn’t applied. “Although it is understandable that a police officer might be unaware of the holding of a controlling court opinion within a day or two of its issuance, … Continue reading
IN: Bulging pockets on motorcyclist’s vest was safety concern for officer after passenger fled
Defendant’s frisk was reasonable. His motorcycle was stopped, and his female passenger fled. He was wearing a vest with bulging pockets. Although he didn’t run, the officer who remained with him was concerned about his pockets “bulging” and his potentially … Continue reading
Reason: Missouri Cops Used Federal Loophole To Seize $2.6 Million From Drivers Who They Never Charged With Crimes
Reason: Missouri Cops Used Federal Loophole To Seize $2.6 Million From Drivers Who They Never Charged With Crimes by Zuri Davis (“St. Charles County law enforcement used shady practices to seize motorists’ assets without convictions.”)
WBUR: How California’s New Privacy Law Could Change The Internet
WBUR: How California’s New Privacy Law Could Change The Internet (“This week, on Jan. 1, the California Consumer Privacy Act takes effect, requiring tech companies to disclose what data they collect on their users and what they’re doing with it.”)
WaPo: Police used a stun gun on a grandmother three times after she wouldn’t let them enter her home
WaPo: Police used a stun gun on a grandmother three times after she wouldn’t let them enter her home by Lateshia Beachum (“She is facing two felony charges of resisting arrest and battery on an officer after an interaction with … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Govt’s post hoc justification for vehicle search as inventory fails for lack of proof
Attempted inventory suppressed. The government’s proposed community caretaking claim that the neighborhood was high crime meant that they couldn’t leave the car for fear of vandalism isn’t supported by the proof under circuit precedent. It was a post hoc rationalization. … Continue reading
IL: Def had done nothing wrong; RS could not be based on reaching for pocket when officer asked for DL
Defendant’s patdown was not justified by reasonable suspicion because defendant was a random person at a gas pump, he answered the officer’s questions, did not try to flee, and reached for his pocket as the officer asked for his driver’s … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Report of partricularly described man waving pink semi-auto justified stopping def getting on bus
A “concerned citizen’s” report of a particularly described man waving a pink semi-auto handgun was given to an officer on patrol who drove up the street and found defendant minutes later. The officer approached defendant to keep him from getting … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: A criminal history check can be run under Rodriguez, particularly where no DL on person
Defendant was stopped driving a moped without a helmet, and he was found not to have a license. “The officers also had the right [under Rodriguez] to check McIntosh’s criminal history during the stop, which included discovery in ISIS that … Continue reading
IL: PC for arrest can arise from being with somebody else apparently committing a crime
Probable cause for arrest can arise just from defendant’s connection and close association with others. Here, others were arrested for passing counterfeit bills, and defendant arrived in the same car. People v. Braswell, 2019 IL App (1st) 172810, 2019 Ill. … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Def sought Franks hearing but got a separate suppression hearing which led to his losing on merits of Franks claim
Defendant got a suppression hearing, but not yet a Franks hearing. The USMJ was “on the fence” about whether a Franks hearing was required. Ultimately the findings of fact and conclusions of law supported a lack of materiality on the … Continue reading
D.Md.: Conviction at trial despite reversal on appeal forecloses § 1983 false arrest case
Plaintiff was charged with OVI and was convicted at trial. On appeal to the next level he was found not guilty of that but convicted of evading an interlock device. He sued over the OVI arrest, and it is dismissed … Continue reading
NY2: Pawnbrokers are “pervasively regulated” under 4A
Pawnbrokers are “pervasively regulated” for consumer protection. City of Los Angeles v. Patel is way different because that industry was not so regulated. Collateral Loanbrokers Assn. of N.Y., Inc. v City of New York, 2019 NY Slip Op 09354, 2019 … Continue reading
BuzzFeed: The Rise — And Rise — Of Mass Surveillance
BuzzFeed: The Rise — And Rise — Of Mass Surveillance by Megha Rajagopalan (“Eavesdropping bureaucrats have been replaced by algorithm-driven facial recognition technology. But the real impact of indiscriminate surveillance may be in our minds.”)
EFF: Courts Grapple with a Sea Change in Fourth Amendment Law After Carpenter v. U.S.: Year in Review 2019
EFF: Courts Grapple with a Sea Change in Fourth Amendment Law After Carpenter v US: Year in Review 2019 by Jennifer Lynch (“In the year and a half since the Supreme Court’s ruling, Carpenter has been cited in more than … Continue reading