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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:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
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Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
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Eighth Circuit
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Tenth Circuit
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D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
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LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
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General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
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
Electronic Frontier Foundation
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) -
“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
HI: Failure to include affidavit for SW in record precludes appellate review
Failure to include the affidavit for search warrant in the record precludes appellate review. As best the court can on the merits, defendant would lose anyway. State v. Bibbs, 2025 Haw. App. LEXIS 451 (Sep. 22, 2025). The search of … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Affidavit emailed with SW to judge was considered “attached”
In overcoming a warrant particularity challenge cured by the affidavit, the government satisfied its burden that the affidavits in support of the warrant were emailed to the issuing judge as two pdf files in the same email. They weren’t, of … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Def’s own statement can be PC without having to prove it
No case says that officers can’t rely on defendant’s own statement when relying on it as probable cause. They don’t have to prove it up. United States v. Alexander, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 185275 (N.D. Ohio Sep. 22, 2025). “Sales’ … Continue reading
The Intercept: Courts Block Meta From Sharing Anti-ICE Activists’ Instagram Account Info With Feds
The Intercept: Courts Block Meta From Sharing Anti-ICE Activists’ Instagram Account Info With Feds by Shawn Musgrave (“A federal judge in San Francisco on Wednesday temporarily blocked a federal administrative subpoena aimed at unmasking Instagram accounts that named and shamed … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Officer’s mere belief def might be the shooter in an incident based on history alone isn’t RS
An officer’s alleged belief that defendant was capable of being the shooter in an incident based on his history isn’t reasonable suspicion. United States v. Neville, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186545 (E.D. Va. Sep. 22, 2025):
S.D.N.Y.: No § 1983 claim for officer’s wrongfully obtaining ALPR information for personal reasons
Plaintiff’s § 1983 claim that a police officer used ALPR technology to track her for personal reasons didn’t state a Fourth Amendment claim because of the lack of a reasonable expectation of privacy in LPN information. “Here, even if Carpenter … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Two minute “roadblock” for GPS tracked stolen cell phone was reasonable
A two minute “roadblock” to stop robbery suspects with a stolen cell phone transmitting its GPS location was with reasonable suspicion. United States v. Jones, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 185143 (E.D. Pa. Sep. 19, 2025). The limitation on search warrants … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Arrest on outdated warrant doesn’t depend on its underlying validity
Plaintiff’s arrest on an outdated warrant doesn’t depend on the underlying validity of the warrant. Here, the warrant wasn’t purged from the system before plaintiff’s stop and arrest. Otero v. District of Columbia, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 185918 (D.D.C. Sep. … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: No REP in bankruptcy trustee records
A person forced into bankruptcy has no reasonable expectation of privacy in his firm records. United States v. Girardi, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186007 (C.D. Cal. Sep. 19, 2025). Defendant well argued his suppression motion in state court and he … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: The dog sniff at the center of a Supreme Court petition
SCOTUSBlog: The dog sniff at the center of a Supreme Court petition by Kelsey Dallas:
LA1: Accelerant detection dog’s alert supported PC despite negative lab test
The fact the accelerant detection dog alerted supports probable cause despite later negative lab tests. State v. Hale, 2025 La. App. LEXIS 1749 (La. App. 1 Cir Sep. 19, 2025). Officers did not violate curtilage by observing shell casings in … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: Search of room adjoining arrest wasn’t valid as SI or protective sweep
Defendant had standing as an occasional overnight guest in his ex-girlfriend’s apartment when he was there when the police arrived to arrest him. The search of another room was neither valid as a search incident or protective sweep. Motion to … Continue reading
TNR: Brett Kavanaugh’s Shadow Docket Attack on Your Civil Liberties
TNR: Brett Kavanaugh’s Shadow Docket Attack on Your Civil Liberties by Blame Brett (“Whether motivated by animus or naïveté, the justice’s rationale for permitting law enforcement to racially profile suspects has dark implications for democracy.”)
E.D.Pa.: Def succeeds in suppressing a stop when he even lacked standing to challenge the search
Defendant was a passenger in the car that was stopped. While he wouldn’t have standing in the car, he persuaded the court that the stop lacked justification based on credibility of witnesses, and the motion to suppress is granted. United … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Trial cross-exam was properly limited into SW affidavit statements what would have led to minitrials
On defendant’s motion for new trial, the court properly limited cross-examination over statements in a search warrant affidavit that would have led to mini-trials and misled the jury. United States v. Payne, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 184595 (W.D.N.Y. Sep. 19, … Continue reading
LA1: Information negating PC should have been included, but doesn’t matter here
Omitted information didn’t negate probable cause. “When considering the totality of the other facts included in the affidavit, the negative lab results do not negate the existence of probable cause for the search warrant. Here, the trial court admonished the … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: “Roving patrols,” reasonable suspicion, and Perdomo
SCOTUSBlog: “Roving patrols,” reasonable suspicion, and Perdomo by Rory Little:
IA: Wallet subject to SI
A wallet in one’s pocket is subject to search incident. State v. Beyer, 2025 Iowa App. LEXIS 822 (Sep. 17, 2025).* Reaffirming: “No longer may local antiscavenging ordinances support a finding that garbage placed outside defendants’ property for collection is … Continue reading
IA: RS for this DUI stop was the gait of def walking toward his car
Reasonable suspicion for this DUI stop was the gait of defendant walking toward his car. State v. Nockels, 2025 Iowa App. LEXIS 812 (Sep. 17, 2025). Plaintiff was hurt during police response to a domestic dispute. “Hoover filed this suit … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Parole search waiver included curtilage of house
Plaintiff’s parole search waiver for his house includes his curtilage. Kennedy v. White Cty., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 180862 (E.D. Ark. Sep. 16, 2025). Admission of a photograph of defendant’s house taken from off the property did not violate the … Continue reading