Archives
-
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
-
Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
-
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
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
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
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
-
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)
-
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] -
“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
E.D.N.Y.: Def’s search incident of his backpack for fraudulent use of a Metrocard was valid at least on GFE and inevitable discovery
Defendant was stopped for using a school student’s Metrocard to get on the NYC subway because he looked and was a so older. His backpacked was removed, and he was handcuffed. His backpack was searched incident to his arrest. The … Continue reading
CA8: Parked RV was “vehicle on the premises” even though connected to water and electricity
A parked RV qualified as a “vehicle on the premises” even though it would have taken 30 minutes to make it ready to move. It had a satellite dish on the roof and it was connected to water and electricity. … Continue reading
AR: State’s failure to get ruling on GFE below bars that argument on appeal; statute on BAC penalties violates Birchfield
Arkansas’s refusal to submit to a BAC test has criminal penalties, and it violates the Fourth Amendment. The trial court’s finding of voluntary consent was decided without an evidentiary hearing and is clearly erroneous. The state’s failure to get a … Continue reading
CA5: Search of wrong house by inadequate investigation means no QI
It was clearly established that search of the wrong house because of inadequate investigation violated the Fourth Amendment. Gerhart v. Barnes, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 10626 (5th Cir. Apr. 26, 2018), prior opinion Gerhart v. McLendon, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
Two on protective sweep
On plain error review, the protective sweep was reasonable. The officers had information that a suggested second person could have been in the house, and he or she hadn’t been found or found not to exist. United States v. Ford, … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Affidavit for SW failed to show nexus, but GFE was enough to save it
“The bare assertion that defendant departed his home prior to engaging in a drug transaction does not ‘directly connect the residence with the suspected drug dealing activity.’ Id.” Peffer, 880 F.3d at 272-73 (quoting Brown, 828 F.3d at 383-84). The … Continue reading
techdirt: Appeals Court: Driving Attentively While Black Isn’t Probable Cause For A Traffic Stop
techdirt: Appeals Court: Driving Attentively While Black Isn’t Probable Cause For A Traffic Stop by Tim Cushing:
Reason.com: The Golden State Killer and Your Genetic Privacy
Reason.com: The Golden State Killer and Your Genetic Privacy by Ronald Bailey “Any right of privacy in commercial DNA testers?” This was inevitable.
Vice: ICE Agents Should Know the Law, but They’re Fine with Warrantless Raids
Vice: ICE Agents Should Know the Law, but They’re Fine with Warrantless Raids by Eoin Higgins: A leaked training manual says officers should be familiar with Fourth Amendment procedures. So what explains their aggressive actions on a New York farm?
The Verge: A pioneer in predictive policing is starting a troubling new project
The Verge: A pioneer in predictive policing is starting a troubling new project By Ali Winston and Ingrid Burrington:
NYTimes: Women Describe Invasive Strip Searches on Visits to City Jails
NYTimes: Women Describe Invasive Strip Searches on Visits to City Jails by Jan Ransom:
NY3: Forced prison body cavity search was unreasonable
Defendant’s forced body cavity search in prison was unreasonable under all the circumstances. People v. Holton, 2018 NY Slip Op 02836, 2018 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2830 (3d Dist. Apr. 26, 2018):
D.D.C.: Drug testing school teachers violated 4A
Drug testing of some school teachers in the District of Columbia violated the reasonable expectation of privacy and didn’t serve government interests. There was no indication one group of teachers (really small kids) even deserved to be included for a … Continue reading
AZ: Statutory GFE interpreted same as 4A GFE absent reason not to
The state’s statutory good faith exception is coextensive with the Fourth Amendment good faith exception, absent a compelling argument from the defendant. A pre-Birchfield breath test was valid under the good faith exception of Davis, already applied in Arizona. Alsarraf … Continue reading
CO: Def was ticketed, but car was impounded without reasonable justification; suppressed
Defendant was issued a citation for a traffic offense, and then the officers decided to impound his car. There was no justification for the impoundment, and the search of the vehicle is suppressed. People v. Brown, 2018 CO 27, 2018 … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Backup officer to traffic stop immediately used drug dog, and that wasn’t unreasonable
Defendants’ failure to stop at stop signs was justification for the stop. A backup officer with a drug dog did a dog sniff around the car while the basic stuff of the traffic stop was being done. This did not … Continue reading
CA10: Under the Franks doctrine, relevance doesn’t equate with materiality; district court erred in finding Franks violation from omission of report
Under the Franks doctrine, relevance doesn’t equate with materiality. Defendant was the target of a health fraud investigation with a detailed affidavit that omitted a reference to a letter from state regulators that made no reference to health care fraud. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: A 16 year old girl, over the age of consent, was in a hotel room with a 45 year old man; that alone was not exigency
A 16 year old girl, over the age of consent, was in a hotel room with a 45 year old man. That alone did not create exigent circumstances. Certainly the parents would be concerned, but there was no evidence that … Continue reading
OH6: Challenge to credibility of one witness at suppression hearing wasn’t the PC challenge made on appeal
A challenge in the trial court that one of the officers wasn’t credible isn’t the same argument as there being a failure of probable cause. Therefore, the probable cause issue hasn’t been preserved. State v. Gibbs, 2018-Ohio-1549, 2018 Ohio App. … Continue reading