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Recent Posts
- 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 $ -
Research Links:
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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
Privacy Foundation
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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.Utah: Def told his friend that police failed to seize something they were looking for in the search of his house, and that justified an obstruction enhancement under USSG 3C1.1
“The Presentence Reported noted that, after his arrest, Petitioner called an individual who was living at his home. Petitioner instructed this person to get rid of additional evidence that police had not found during the execution of the search warrant. … Continue reading
WaPo: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint suspend selling of customer location data after prison officials were caught misusing it
WaPo: Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint suspend selling of customer location data after prison officials were caught misusing it by Brian Fung: Verizon, AT&T and Sprint will no longer share its customers’ location information with several third-party companies who failed … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: Opinion analysis: With facts like these … Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach
SCOTUSBlog: Opinion analysis: With facts like these … Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach by Heidi Kitrosser:
CA3: Mere presence of transgender student in bathroom of gender identity violates no privacy right of ptfs
Plaintiffs objected to transgender students using school bathrooms in accord with their gender identity claiming a right of privacy. The district court denied an injunction and they appealed. The Third Circuit affirmed because there was no infringement on their privacy … Continue reading
GA: Controlled buy by CI corroborates CI and is PC in itself
“‘Under the common sense approach to search warrants, a controlled buy strongly corroborates the reliability of the informant and shows a fair probability that the contraband would be found.’… Indeed, ‘even if the informant had no known credibility, the controlled … Continue reading
CA3: Hiding computer evidence when def learns SW coming is “contemporaneously with arrest” for U.S.S.G. 3C1.1
Defendant panicked when he heard the police were coming to his house to search, and he moved files to his computer recycling bin. The court finds this was “contemporaneously with arrest” for U.S.S.G. 3C1.1, but, because they were easily recovered, … Continue reading
M.D.Ga.: Standardized procedure for inventory not shown, and it is suppressed
The government failed to prove a standardized inventory procedure in the local police department. And, the inventory appeared to be an investigative search, not a legitimate inventory, so it is suppressed. United States v. Dennis, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99472 … Continue reading
PA: Information from CI’s recording in the home not suppressible even though full conversation might be
Recordings made in defendant’s house were not relied upon in issuing the search warrant for his house, so they can’t be a basis of suppression under the wiretap statute. As a Fourth Amendment matter, under Hoffa, the recordings made inside … Continue reading
NYTimes: Ketamine Used to Subdue Dozens at Request of Minneapolis Police, Report Says
NYTimes: Ketamine Used to Subdue Dozens at Request of Minneapolis Police, Report Says by Christopher Mele:
MO erroneously suggests bad faith for exclusionary rule requires pattern and practice evidence
The question of consent from a disturbed and hallucinating man is moot–the state relies on exigent circumstances. In the process, however, the court suggests that defendant’s argument the police acted with bad faith might require pattern and practice evidence of … Continue reading
VI: BOLO information shared at beginning of shift satisfies collective knowledge
BOLO information shared with officers at the beginning of their shift qualifies as collective knowledge. Emanuel v. People, 2018 V.I. Supreme LEXIS 10 (June 15, 2018) (relying on United States v. Braden, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 115755 (W.D. Tenn. July … Continue reading
MI: Inability to meet plain error standard on a 4A claim doesn’t preclude an IAC claim for it
The fact defendant on appeal couldn’t satisfy the plain error standard for a search and seizure claim doesn’t mean that he can’t show ineffective assistance of counsel on the same claim. An IAC claim requires a more developed record. People … Continue reading
VI: Decriminalization of small quantities of marijuana doesn’t eliminate an officer’s ability to search for it with PC
The fact of decriminalization of an ounce or less of marijuana does not obviate the ability of the police to conduct a frisk or a search for marijuana. The probable cause calculus remains the same, although the result of the … Continue reading
NY3: No statutory or const’l requirement issuing magistrate’s name be printed on SW papers
Nothing requires the issuing magistrate’s name be printed on the search warrant papers, the affidavit or warrant. People v. Douglas, 2018 NY Slip Op 04388, 2018 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4360 (3d Dept. June 14, 2018). A search warrant was … Continue reading
TX8: Hospital can’t be sued under § 1983 for medical negligence and battery in conducting intensive body, pelvic, and rectal searches for CBP that produced nothing at all
Plaintiff, an El Paso resident, was stopped at the border coming into El Paso from visiting a friend and subjected to several searches for drugs, including taking her to the appellant hospital for x-rays and a pelvic exam. Nothing was … Continue reading
SC: Failure to register offense didn’t justify electronic monitoring condition under Grady
Defendant was convicted of a sex offense in 1979. In 2011 he was convicted of a sex offender registration offense. An electronic monitoring condition was unreasonable and a violation of the Fourth Amendment on this record under Grady v. North … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Consent irrelevant to a parole search
Defendant was reasonably subjected to a parole search, and withdrawal of his consent was irrelevant. United States v. Perales, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99191 (D. Idaho June 11, 2018). The officer had reasonable suspicion to detain defendant for being a … Continue reading
The New American: Do Tech-sniffing K9s Violate the Fourth Amendment?
The New American: Do Tech-sniffing K9s Violate the Fourth Amendment? by Joe Wolverton, II: For several years, police and the FBI have been secretly training dogs to sniff out thumb drives, SD cards, and other small electronic devices. These special … Continue reading
Wired: Senators Demand Answers from Amazon on Echo’s Snooping Habits
Wired: Senators Demand Answers from Amazon on Echo’s Snooping Habits by Issie Lapowsky: In the letter, Republican senator Jeff Flake and Democratic senator Chris Coons, who serve respectively as chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Long-term pole camera surveillance over the fence surrounding defendant’s junkyard violated his REP
Long-term pole camera surveillance over the fence surrounding defendant’s junkyard violated his reasonable expectation of privacy where the average person couldn’t see over the fence merely walking by. The court differentiates the flyover cases because long-term video surveillance is unusual … Continue reading