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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Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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State courts (and some USDC 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
Electronic Privacy Information Center
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: Officer’s alleged lies to get arrest warrant denies QI
“With that in mind, we affirm the district court’s denial of qualified immunity. As indicated above, we accept for purposes of this appeal that Gill falsified information in the affidavits supporting his arrest warrants and therefore, he would not have … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: The encounter started as consensual because the officer approached from the side to a parked car; RS developed
The encounter with the officer was not a seizure. She was parked five spaces away from defendant’s car and off to the side. When talking to defendant she saw a meth pipe in plain view. “The parties do not dispute … Continue reading
Reason: Giving Government Vast Snooping Authority Is One Thing Democrats and Republicans Both Like
Reason: Giving Government Vast Snooping Authority Is One Thing Democrats and Republicans Both Like by J.D. Tuccille (“‘The USA PATRIOT Act broadly expands law enforcement’s surveillance and investigative powers and represents one of the most significant threats to civil liberties, … Continue reading
The Intercept: Senators Press Amazon on Ring’s Sloppy Security Practices
The Intercept: Senators Press Amazon on Ring’s Sloppy Security Practices by Sam Biddle (“This past year has been chock full of uncomfortable revelations about Ring, the surveillance social network and home security hardware company acquired by Amazon for a reported … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: Ex-Houston Cop Faces Federal Charges Over Fatal Drug Raid
Courthouse News Service: Ex-Houston Cop Faces Federal Charges Over Fatal Drug Raid by Cameron Langford (“A former Houston policeman made his first appearance in federal court Wednesday to face charges that a married couple was shot dead by a SWAT … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: False Drug Test Results Blamed for Jailhouse Punishments
Courthouse News Service: False Drug Test Results Blamed for Jailhouse Punishments by Amanda Ottaway (“According to the complaint, DOCCS is currently in the process of overturning all positive results generated by the faulty tests, which it says are the result … Continue reading
NBC News: Police used Google location data to find an accused bank robber. He says that’s illegal.
NBC News: Police used Google location data to find an accused bank robber. He says that’s illegal. By Jon Schuppe (“The demand for Google data, known as a geofence warrant, is a way for law enforcement authorities to take advantage … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: SW for law office was apparently one office with one entrance
HSI obtained a search warrant for the “law office of Marivel Cantu-Madril” which was in Suite D at the address, and her husband’s law office was in Suite E. The entrance to both offices was through the front door to … Continue reading
WaPo: Police can keep Ring camera video forever and share with whomever they’d like, Amazon tells senator
WaPo: Police can keep Ring camera video forever and share with whomever they’d like, Amazon tells senator
D.N.M.: Brady material doesn’t have to be disclosed for suppression hearings
Brady material doesn’t have to be disclosed for suppression hearings. [How does this fit with the ethical obligation to not present false evidence? See Model Rules 3.3 & 3.4. Brady material might not make a difference in suppression hearing; then, … Continue reading
WaPo: ‘I got my rights to do anything I want to do’: Officer immediately fired after viral video shows him stopping black shoppers for ‘acting suspicious’ [Spending money while black]
WaPo: ‘I got my rights to do anything I want to do’: Officer immediately fired after viral video shows him stopping black shoppers for ‘acting suspicious’ by Allyson Chiu
OR: During the “unavoidable lull” in a traffic stop, state constitution prohibits asking for consent without justification
During the “unavoidable lull” in a traffic stop, the state constitution prohibits asking for consent without further justification. State v. Arreola-Botello, 365 Ore. 695, 2019 Ore. LEXIS 794 (Nov. 15, 2019), aff’g 292 Ore. App. 214, 418 P.3d 785 (2018) … Continue reading
Courthouse News: Judge Rules FBI Cannot Hide Use of Social Media Surveillance Tools
Courthouse News: Judge Rules FBI Cannot Hide Use of Social Media Surveillance Tools by Nicholas Iovino (“The FBI cannot hide whether it uses powerful surveillance tools to monitor the social-media activity of millions of Americans and noncitizens, a federal judge … Continue reading
NY4: Summary judgment on false arrest and excessive force claim without considering officers’ testimony in underlying criminal trial was error
Summary judgment against the defendants for false arrest and excessive force was improperly granted without considering the transcript of plaintiff’s criminal trial and the officers’ testimony there. Hernandez v Denny’s Corp., 2019 NY Slip Op 08302, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. … Continue reading
WA: Affidavit and SW didn’t need to specify statutes of crimes under investigation when it was apparent it was murder
The search warrant of defendant’s place for trace evidence of a dead body rather than the body itself was reasonable because the police had information that the body had been burned in a fire pit. In addition, the affidavit and … Continue reading
USA Today: Facial recognition: The fight over the use of our faces is far from over
USA Today: Facial recognition: The fight over the use of our faces is far from over by Terry Collins:
E.D.Tenn.: Facebook photo of def felon with a firearm apparently taken in a home justified a SW for his home
Defendant’s alleged threat on Facebook involving use of firearms, along with a picture of a firearm suggested it was in a home. The search warrant of defendant’s home was with probable cause. Defendant’s effort to “dissect” the affidavit paragraph by … Continue reading
CA6: Informant’s reliability is the question, and that leads to finding of reliability of his or her hearsay
The CI’s first hand information isn’t constitutionally required for informant hearsay to be deemed credible. The question is the reliability of the informant, not so much the information which usually can’t all be pinned down anyway. United States v. Crawford, … Continue reading
techdirt: Supreme Court’s Warrant Requirement For Cell Site Location Info Apparently Killed Another Domestic Surveillance Program
techdirt: Supreme Court’s Warrant Requirement For Cell Site Location Info Apparently Killed Another Domestic Surveillance Program by Tim Cushing: