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- Gizmodo: How You Could End Up in a Government Surveillance Database and Never Know It
- 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
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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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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
Atlantic: The Principle of Professional Law Enforcement Is Now on the Line
Atlantic: The Principle of Professional Law Enforcement Is Now on the Line by Benjamin Wittes: If the president can, with impunity, remove the deputy attorney general, the very notion that law enforcement has a higher function than serving power becomes … Continue reading
Atlantic: Drug Use Is Detectable on Your Fingerprints
Atlantic: Drug Use Is Detectable on Your Fingerprints by Rod McCullom
Law.com: Why Some Judicial Nominees Struggle When Asked About ‘Brown v. Board of Education’
Law.com: Why Some Judicial Nominees Struggle When Asked About ‘Brown v. Board of Education’ by Tony Mauro: For some nominees, the concern is that by answering explicitly, they would be viewed as biased. For others, the decisions they are being … Continue reading
CA4: The facts not included in the affidavit for SW only would have enhanced the PC
“We conclude that, contrary to Combs’ assertions, there is no evidence that Davis intentionally or recklessly omitted material information from the affidavit. In fact, Davis’s testimony at the suppression hearing shows that the facts not included in the affidavit would … Continue reading
CA1: Suppression motion was untimely without a showing of good cause, and it would not be determined on appeal
“Sweeney neither challenged the finding of untimeliness before the district court, nor does he now argue that his delay in filing the motion to suppress was excused by good cause. As such, because of his waiver, we need not address … Continue reading
Cal.-LA Cty: REP of apartment tenants barred discovery against them as witnesses
Tenants of an apartment complex had a reasonable expectation of privacy from being brought into a discovery dispute. They had a right not to have their privacy invaded. Castillo v. LA Props. Heffesse LLC, 2018 Cal. Super. LEXIS 119 (Super. … Continue reading
ABAJ: How will prosecutors handle privileged documents from Michael Cohen raids?
No, the attorney-client privilege isn’t dead, and neither is the crime fraud exception. ABAJ: How will prosecutors handle privileged documents from Michael Cohen raids? by Stephanie Francis Ward:
CA2: SW for computers doesn’t require they be specifically identified
The Fourth Amendment does not require that a search warrant for computers specifically identify them [because that’s not possible]. A search warrant to seize computers permits their search under Rule 41. United States v. Beal, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 9056 … Continue reading
OH7: Driving on a suspended license doesn’t justify search incident of the car
Driving on a suspended license does not justify a search incident of his vehicle. Even worse, however, there was no justification for the arrest anyway. He was interrogated while handcuffed and admitted that there was heroin in his shoe. There … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: No PC for the warrant, but it wasn’t “so lacking” in PC that the GFE wouldn’t apply
There was no probable cause for issuance of the search warrant, but it wasn’t “so lacking” in probable cause because there was at least something. “The officers, therefore, acted in good faith in executing the warrant because, although the affidavit … Continue reading
D.Neb.: The gov’t put def on notice standing was an issue, and def didn’t respond with proof; no standing
The government argued no standing. “Despite being on notice that standing was an issue, Defendant did not introduce evidence at the suppression hearing to establish his relationship to the property searched in this case.” Going to the merits anyway, defendant … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: No standing to complain of CSLI for somebody else’s phone
Defendants have no standing to challenge the seizure of CSLI on telephone numbers they don’t complain are theirs. United States v. Pizarro, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 60539 (S.D. N.Y. Apr. 10, 2018).* Police seizure of an SD card was by … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: 2255 is not the place to first litigate a suppression motion
2255 petitioner can’t raise his search and seizure claim via post-conviction relief where there was no effort to pursue the issue in the case on the merits. Even if he could, he’d lose on the merits of the search because … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: SW particularity and the scope of search that occurred are separate “arguments [that] must not be confused”
The search warrant was particular, and the search was not overbroad, confined within the scope of the warrant. They are separate “arguments [that] must not be confused.” United States v. Aley, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59527 (W.D. Ky. Apr. 9, … Continue reading
PACER text entry
(This is a TEXT ENTRY ONLY. There is no pdf document associated with this entry.) ORDER granting Plaintiff’s motion to extend time 85. It appears Defendant R. Johnson refused service by mail 69. Plaintiff appears to believe the U.S. government … Continue reading
Baltimore Sun: Opinion: Predicting more biased policing in Baltimore
Baltimore Sun: Opinion: Predicting more biased policing in Baltimore: Police Commissioner Darryl De Sousa and Mayor Catherine Pugh recently announced measures meant to reduce violent crime in Baltimore, including ‘predictive policing,’ which they plan to be fully operational in the … Continue reading
US News & World Report: Judge: NYPD Cellphone Tracking Tech to Remain Secret
US News & World Report: Judge: NYPD Cellphone Tracking Tech to Remain Secret by AP: The New York Police Department won’t have to release details about its portable cellphone tracking system commonly known as Stingrays.”
NYTimes: Opinion: Don’t Let the Police Wreck Stop-and-Frisk Reforms
NYTimes: Opinion: Don’t Let the Police Wreck Stop-and-Frisk Reforms: We won the stop-and-frisk case in 2013, when a federal court ruled the New York City Police Department’s use of the practice was unconstitutional. But as the lawyers in the case, … Continue reading
NH: Warrantless DNA testing of blood obtained from hospital if error was harmless
Defendant was driving in a car crash that critically injured him and his passenger. He came to the ER, and the hospital drew five vials of blood for diagnostic testing for his condition. At the hearing all that it would … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: Even if Karo didn’t permit monitoring a tracker on a package brought into the house, there was PC anyway
Even if Karo required excising or excluding the statement in the affidavit for search warrant that the package was in the target residence for the anticipatory warrant, there was probable cause without it, so it doesn’t matter. United States v. … Continue reading