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- W.D.La.: Israel’s capture of Palestinian cell phone calls was foreign search in case here
- IN: Officer’s interpretation of traffic law wasn’t reasonable so stop was void
- 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
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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 -
Latest Slip Opinions:
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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)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
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
AZ: Passenger in a vehicle has standing to contest GPS surveillance of vehicle, but here GFE applies because pre-Jones
The passenger in a vehicle subjected to GPS monitoring even for a few days and on public roads has standing to contest the monitoring. Here, however, the GPS device was placed in February 2010, more than two years prior to … Continue reading
Cal.1: School search rationale applies to street cop called in to back up school resource officer
A school principal received a report from a CI student that the juvenile had a gun in school. He sent for the student who came to the office where a school resource officer and a street officer were waiting. “For … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Motion to reconsider denial of motion to suppress only raised a trial issue, not a suppression issue, so denied
Defendant’s motion to reconsider the prior denial of a motion to suppress is denied because he raises essentially only an issue for trial as to where a gun was found, not to suppress evidence. United States v. Keeling, 2018 U.S. … Continue reading
CA10: Franks doesn’t apply to private actors providing false information to LEOs
Even assuming private volunteer animal cruelty investigators provided false information that was used to get search warrants issued for plaintiffs’ property for evidence of cockfighting, qualified immunity applies because no case holds that the Franks doctrine applies to a private … Continue reading
D.Me.: Getting def to reveal cell phone passcode was 5A claim, not a 4A claim
Defendant’s cell phone was seized with a warrant. Defendant was questioned and he lawyered up, but the officer ignored it and kept asking questions. Finally, defendant gave up the passcode for the phone. This is a Fifth Amendment issue, not … Continue reading
Volokh Conspiracy: A Few Thoughts on Collins v. Virginia & Four Thoughts on Byrd v. United States
Volokh Conspiracy: A Few Thoughts on Collins v. Virginia by Orin Kerr Volokh Conspiracy: Four Thoughts on Byrd v. United States by Orin Kerr
Reason: The Fourth Amendment, the Exclusionary Rule, and Illegal Government Searches
Reason: The Fourth Amendment, the Exclusionary Rule, and Illegal Government Searches by Damon Root:
SCOTUSBlog: Argument preview: Justices to consider scope of Fourth Amendment’s “automobile exception”
SCOTUSBlog: Argument preview: Justices to consider scope of Fourth Amendment’s “automobile exception” by Amy Howe:
SCOTUSBlog: Argument preview: For Fourth Amendment purposes, does it matter who is on the car-rental agreement?
SCOTUSBlog: Argument preview: For Fourth Amendment purposes, does it matter who is on the car-rental agreement? by Amy Howe:
National Review: Opinion: We Were Wrong about Stop-and-Frisk
National Review: Opinion: We Were Wrong about Stop-and-Frisk by Kyle Smith:
The Hill: Opinion: Bulk surveillance is the wrong way to approach security
The Hill: Opinion: Bulk surveillance is the wrong way to approach security by Neema Singh Guliani & Jason Pye:
MN: Birchfield not retroactive
Application of Birchfield in Minnesota was determined to be procedural rather than substantive for purposes of retroactive effect. Johnson v. State, 2018 Minn. App. LEXIS 10 (Jan. 2, 2018). Defendant’s detention was with reasonable suspicion. “Considering the totality of the … Continue reading
CA5: Forgoing license check not unreasonable under Rodriguez where investigation is proceeding apace
“Burcham’s argument based on Rodriguez v. United States, 135 S.Ct. 1609 (2015), is unavailing. Rodriguez is distinguishable; the district court did not err in finding that Jenkins’s decision to extend the stop was justified by additional reasonable suspicion developed from … Continue reading
OH8: Drug dog on scene while ticket being written caused no additional detention
Defendant’s stop was with reasonable suspicion based on corroborated informant hearsay. “Because the police were still in the process of writing the traffic ticket when the canine arrived and conducted the sniff, and thus the stop was not unlawfully extended.” … Continue reading
MyNewsLA.com: Apartment building owners sue LA over rent stabilization, argue ordinance hurts tenants
MyNewsLA.com: Apartment building owners sue LA over rent stabilization, argue ordinance hurts tenants by Toni McAllister:
D.D.C.: Suppressed evidence [a confession] leads to grant of pretrial release
The question of the effect of suppressed evidence on the question of bail is considered at length in United States v. Taylor, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 205 (D.D.C. Jan. 2, 2018), albeit here in a suppressed confession. The court concludes … Continue reading
CA8: Denying any knowledge of a car or its contents is abandonment of a cell phone found inside it; cell phones subject to abandonment
Defendant was believed connected to a shooting involving a Buick. He was taken back to the Buick after arrest, and he denied all knowledge of the Buick. Inside was found a cell phone that the police seized and obtained a … Continue reading
California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas versions of Search and Seizure
Want to write a version of Search and Seizure for your state? Have two years to spend on advancing your own knowledge of the subject? Lexis plans state specific versions of Search and Seizure for these states. Email the author … Continue reading