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- S.D.Ohio: Patdown on stop for fictitious tags was reasonable
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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)
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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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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
GA: Raising particularity in half of one sentence of argument isn’t a presentation of the issue
Raising particularity in half of one sentence of argument isn’t a presentation of the issue. Walker v. State, 2026 Ga. LEXIS 301 (Sep. 22, 2026). Defendant admitted that marijuana might be in the car, so the smell of marijuana which … Continue reading
Reason: Homeland Security Is Monitoring Activists Building Anti-Flock Tech
Reason: Homeland Security Is Monitoring Activists Building Anti-Flock Tech by Daniel Boguslaw (“Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fusion centers have started monitoring anti-surveillance activists, according to records obtained by Reason. An intelligence report compiled in Massachusetts and redistributed by a … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Def can’t repackage a losing 4A standing claim into a due process claim
A defendant can’t repackage a losing Fourth Amendment standing claim into a due process claim, at least via a 2255. United States v. Vega, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 214580 (W.D. Pa. Sep. 22, 2026):
GA: No case says SW required to ask for cell phone password
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not arguing that a warrant was required for a request for a cell phone password. No case anywhere says that’s required. Reynolds v. State, 2026 Ga. LEXIS 303 (Sep. 22, 2026). The inventory search of … Continue reading
VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would not be suppressed
Defendant doesn’t get to suppress the body cam of her detention where the officer told her to stand in one place and then she later assaulted the officer. It was not a Fourth Amendment violation. Ross v. Commonwealth, 2026 Va. … Continue reading
NM: Trial court’s finding of consent is reversed because the court engaged in its own internet investigation beyond what the parties provided
The suppression order for defendant on coerced consent is reversed. The trial court engaged in its own research into facts to make the decision on acquiring the affidavit for a later warrant, the distance between things, and the temperature at … Continue reading
Reason: No Warrant, No Suspicion, No Problem: Flock and Border Cellphone Searches Excluded From 4th Amendment Rules
Reason: No Warrant, No Suspicion, No Problem: Flock and Border Cellphone Searches Excluded From 4th Amendment Rules by Elizabeth Nolan Brown (“Cops keep carving out tech exceptions to the Fourth Amendment—and courts are giving them their blessing.”):
Reason: Flock’s Gunfire Alerts Raise a New Fourth Amendment Question
Reason: Flock’s Gunfire Alerts Raise a New Fourth Amendment Question by Del Schlangen (“Gun owners should be paying attention to how police use gunfire microphones in conjunction with license plate cameras.”):
N.D.Ohio: Car in driveway was on curtilage and plain view prohibited
Defendant backed into his driveway and that was curtilage. The police had neither a warrant nor exigent circumstances to come and look at his car to justify a plain view of an open container than led to finding a gun. … Continue reading
PA: 18 U.S.C. § 2558A doesn’t mandate social media searches, only reporting what they discover; still a private search
The searches of social media by Facebook and Google then reported to NCMEC were private searches. The fact there’s a duty to report that which they find doesn’t mean any searches were mandated by government. Commonwealth v. Thomas, 2026 PA … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Delay of USPS Express Mail for dog sniff didn’t violate 4A
With no guaranteed delivery time on a USPS Express Mail package, briefly delaying it in transit to look up the names on it (sender and recipient and addresses) didn’t violate any Fourth Amendment rights. Separating it for a dog sniff … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Warrantless arrest at door for CSAM didn’t support plain view seizure of cell phone
Officers came to defendant’s house without an arrest or search warrant to arrest him for a CSAM offense. He answered the door in his underwear. They asked about cell phone and saw it and seized it. Payton applies, and the … Continue reading
OH2: Parking on the grass justified stop
Parking on the grass justified this stop. State v. Green, 2026-Ohio-3654 (2d Dist. Sep. 18, 2026).* On the totality, defendant’s stop was with reasonable suspicion of a traffic violation, and it was not unreasonably extended. State v. Livesay, 2026 Tenn. … Continue reading
CA11: NCMEC’s cybertips are reliable enough to support PC and the GFE
NCMEC’s cybertips are reliable enough to support probable cause and the good faith exception. United States v. Gibbs, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 28546 (11th Cir. Sep. 17, 2026). Even if plaintiff could show that the official’s conduct was wrongful and … Continue reading
MS: Execution style murder in public in broad daylight was exigency to get suspect’s CSLI
Defendant’s allegedly committing an execution style murder in public in broad daylight was exigency to get his CSLI at that moment to locate him. Carpenter recognized exigency exceptions. Anderson v. State, 2026 Miss. App. LEXIS 406 (Sep. 15, 2026). Defendant … Continue reading
OH1: Statute says ID can’t be sought when def in back of police car because it’s not a “public place”
While identification can be sought during a stop on reasonable suspicion under Hiibel under the Fourth Amendment, state statute says “public place,” and the back of a police car isn’t. State v. Bell, 2026-Ohio-3614 (1st Dist. Sep. 16, 2026). 2254 … Continue reading
CA3: Strip search outside of jail without SW or exigency violates 4A, but QI here
Strip search of an arrestee outside of a jail without warrant or exigency violates the Fourth Amendment, but the officer gets qualified immunity. Beatty v. Gardner, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 28373 (3d Cir. Sep. 16, 2026):
CA3: Ptfs pled a 4A claim for CPS workers demanding entry without sufficient exigency
Plaintiffs plausibly pled violations of the Fourth Amendment for child protective services demanding and gaining entry into the home without a sufficient showing of exigency to protect the children. Also, the special needs doctrine doesn’t apply here. O’Bryant v. N.J. … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Water Authority’s entry onto curtilage to cut off water for nonpayment was not an unreasonable search
Entering the curtilage to turn off water service for nonpayment of the bill is not a Fourth Amendment seizure or entry. Holland v. Jersey Shore Area Joint Water Auth., 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209672 (M.D. Pa. Sep. 16, 2026)*:
D.N.J.: Pretrial detainee’s cell search and seizure of papers caused no prejudice nor revealed legal strategies
Defendant was in a federal detention center pending trial, and his cell was searched and legal materials for trial were seized. His Fourth Amendment claim fails on its face. His Sixth Amendment claim also fails because a BOP attorney screened … Continue reading