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- Reason: Miami Sheriff Hired a Private Law Firm To Pursue—and Profit From—Asset Forfeiture Cases
- D.Conn.: Pole camera on def’s house and curtilage didn’t show inside house, so it’s reasonable
- OH12: Officer’s violation of knock-and-announce statute justifies suppression
- Reason: Documents Reveal the Postal Service’s Broad Surveillance of Political Activists
- CA4: Not having child in a booster seat justified stop
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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
D.Ariz.: Driving below “normal speed of traffic” is undefined and couldn’t form basis for stop
There is no statutory definition of ‘normal speed of traffic.’ And, Officer Anderson did not testify that the SUV was driving less than the ‘normal speed of traffic’ as required by the statute. Rather, he stated that the SUV was … Continue reading
GA: A temporary protective order is not a substitute for a SW; they’re also issued on a citizen complaint
A temporary protective order issued on a citizen’s complaint cannot substitute for a search warrant to permit entry into defendant’s property to seize firearms. State v. Burgess, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 191 (Mar. 14, 2019):
MN: A blood sample in a lab is not “information” within the physician-patient privilege statute
A blood sample in a lab is not “information” within the physician-patient privilege statute. The state sought a search warrant for the blood sample. State v. Atwood, 2019 Minn. LEXIS 122 (Mar. 13, 2019). “[B]y the time Defendant complied with … Continue reading
ABAJ: Compelled-password decision is ‘death knell’ for Fifth Amendment, state justice argues
ABAJ: Compelled-password decision is ‘death knell’ for Fifth Amendment, state justice argues by Debra Cassens Weiss:
CA11: Strip club survives summary judgment on unreasonable search claim when it was raided by 36 officers including SWAT team
A strip club was subjected to a raid with 36 officers, including the SWAT team. People were manhandled during the raid. The plaintiff club stated a claim sufficient to overcome summary judgment that the raid and search was unreasonable. WBY, … Continue reading
CNBC: Robert Kraft case reveals how police can secretly install cameras inside a private business
CNBC: Robert Kraft case reveals how police can secretly install cameras inside a private business by Scott Zamost, Hannah Kliot, and Bianca Fortis:
NY2: Jail call here was more prejudicial than relevant and should have been excluded
Admission of defendant’s jail call here was more prejudicial than relevant because it omitted context. The jury was at a loss as to what arrest was being talked about. People v. Robinson, 2019 NY Slip Op 01799, 2019 N.Y. App. … Continue reading
Tennessee finally adopts the good faith exception under Herring
Tennessee finally adopts the good faith exception. State v. McElrath, 2019 Tenn. LEXIS 100 (Mar. 12, 2019) (concurring-dissenting 1; concurring-dissenting 2):
CA1: Cell phones are not tracking devices, following CA7 & 3
“In affirming, we reject his arguments that there was error in the issuance of precise location information warrants (‘PLI warrants’) by a magistrate judge in Maine on a finding of probable cause, which allowed monitoring of the locations of Ackies’s … Continue reading
N.D.Fla.: 2254 doesn’t give jurisdiction over state law search and seizure claims
Defendant’s habeas claim that state law wasn’t followed in issuing a search warrant doesn’t state a 2254 claim. [Aside from Stone v. Powell, of course.] Roland v. Sec’y, Dept. of Correction, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40581 (N.D. Fla. Mar. 13, … Continue reading
CA11: Nearby drug dog helped expedite and detention was reasonable
There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s detention for a drug dog. It also helped expedite matters that a drug dog was across the street from the stop. United States v. Rodriguez, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 7236 (11th Cir. Mar. 12, … Continue reading
M.D.N.C.: Lack of explanation of how IAC search claim would have prevailed is insufficient
2255 argument that defense counsel was ineffective for not arguing a search issue fails for not elaborating on what that argument should have been and for not including the search warrant materials. Byrd v. United States, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA6: No QI for stopping ptf for “flipp[ing] him the bird”
Officer Minard stopped the plaintiff for a minor traffic offense, and he let her off with a warning. Despite the break, she “flipped him the bird,” and the officer blue lighted her again and this time ran into her trying … Continue reading
CNN: ICE supervisors sometimes skip required review of detention warrants, emails show
CNN: ICE supervisors sometimes skip required review of detention warrants, emails show by Bob Ortega: (CNN)Brent Oxley, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officer in Little Rock, Arkansas, was happy in his work, which he says “gave me the feeling … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: An observation in the premises before SW was sought was excluded from consideration and PC still existed
A walk through of defendant’s premises before seeking a search warrant resulted in observation of digital scales and that observation got into the search warrant application. Excluding that still resulted in probable cause. United States v. Baker, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
D.Colo.: One federal court’s practical explanation of how to analyze a particularity problem.
This is one federal court’s practical explanation of how to analyze a particularity problem. United States v. Suggs, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38071 (D. Colo. Mar. 11, 2019). The search warrants were particular enough.
GA: 536 day delay in getting SW for cell phone was unreasonable
Defendant’s cell phone was lawfully seized but apparently forgotten about. In preparation of the case, an assistant prosecutor found out about it and sought a search warrant, 536 days after seizure. The delay was unreasonable, and the phone’s contents are … Continue reading
D.Me.: Nexus for a cell phone SW can be based on officer’s stated experience
In addition to specific facts, officers may state their experience that nexus in a cell phone can be found as to certain crimes, and courts should credit that if reasonable. United States v. Fogg, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 38498 (D. … Continue reading
Techspot: US Customs to speed up facial recognition adoption at airports despite privacy concerns
Techspot: US Customs to speed up facial recognition adoption at airports despite privacy concerns by David Matthews US Government maintains the technology is critical to national security