Archives
-
Recent Posts
- OH8: For Rodriguez, checking out-of-state DLs takes longer
- 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
-
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
D.Conn.: Search incident included under the bed next to defendant
Search incident included a search under a bed near where the defendant was arrested, and cocaine was found there. The court rejects protective sweep under the bed as an alternative. United States v. Bohannon, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65446 (D. … Continue reading
OH2: Mistaken entry of LPN into computer that resulted in erroneous stop still made the stop reasonable
The Ohio officer entered in the license number of an Illinois vehicle but omitted a letter in smaller type on the side that made the number complete because he didn’t know it was required. The wrong LPN came back as … Continue reading
SC Media: San Francisco agency wants warrantless data from connected car crashes of self-driving cars
SC Media: San Francisco agency wants warrantless data from connected car crashes by Robert Abel:
E.D.Ky.: An “unreasonable” overseizure as to quantity and not place might be suppressible; hard case to understand
Overseizure under a valid warrant is hard to prove. This case makes it seem like at least an “unreasonable” overseizure, whatever that is, might still be a general search, but it doesn’t directly say so. This case is not good … Continue reading
OH3: SW was clearly conclusory, but still saved by GFE
The affidavit to support the search warrant was clearly conclusory, but the court can’t say that the officers didn’t objectively rely on the search warrants for purposes of the good faith exception. It wasn’t in “bad faith,” so it must … Continue reading
NYTimes: Reined-In N.S.A. Still Collected 151 Million Phone Records in ’16
NYTimes: Reined-In N.S.A. Still Collected 151 Million Phone Records in ’16 by Charlie Savage: The National Security Agency vacuumed up more than 151 million records about Americans’ phone calls last year via a new system that Congress created to end … Continue reading
IL: Arrest of driver would not make passengers think they were free to leave; continuation of stop was with RS
Passengers would not think they were free to leave based on the arrest and handcuffing of defendant driver. The continuation of the stop, however, was with reasonable suspicion because of furtive movements. People v. Veal, 2017 IL App (1st) 150500, … Continue reading
N.D.Fla.: No right in federal court to interlocutory appeal of denial of a suppression motion
“A defendant may not take an interlocutory appeal from an order denying a motion to suppress evidence. Di Bella v. United States, 369 U.S. 121, 123-24, 82 S. Ct. 654, 7 L. Ed. 2d 614 (1962).” So, defense counsel’s failure … Continue reading
CA4: $41,000 cash could be seized in execution of a warrant for marriage and immigration fraud based on def’s explanation
$41,000 cash could be seized in execution of a warrant for marriage and immigration fraud even though its evidentiary significance wasn’t instantly obvious. United States v. Kimble, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 7776 (4th Cir. May 2, 2017):
PA: Def’s stop was on a ruse and there was no RS; apparent drug sale 5 weeks earlier not RS on day in question
Officers stopped defendant on the street, falsely claiming he was involved in a disturbance at a McDonald’s. The officer did know defendant was involved in a drug transaction five weeks earlier, but nothing on the day in question. Defendant’s stop … Continue reading
NJ: Protective weapons search may be obviated by officers’ control of the situation
Reasonable suspicion that a vehicle may contain a weapon can be obviated by the number of officers controlling the scene. Here, the officers outnumbered the occupants of the car and had everybody out, so nobody was getting access to a … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Even though California recognizes recreational marijuana, smell is still RS of driving under influence
Even though recreational use of marijuana is recognized in California, smoking while driving is still an offense, and smell is at least reasonable suspicion. United States v. Pearson, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65260 (C.D. Cal. April 28, 2017).* “Based upon … Continue reading
The Intercept: Taser Will Use Police Body Camera Videos ‘To Anticipate Criminal Activity’
The Intercept: Taser Will Use Police Body Camera Videos ‘To Anticipate Criminal Activity’ by Ava Kofman: Although intended as a grim allegory of the pitfalls of relying on untested, proprietary algorithms to make lethal force decisions, ‘RoboCop’ has long been … Continue reading
D.Me.: Putting an iPhone into airplane mode was not a violation of any REP
Putting a seized iPhone into “airplane mode” until a search warrant could be issued was not a search or seizure, and it did not offend a privacy interest. What officers did was contemplated by Riley. United States v. Cain, 2017 … Continue reading
MD: Issue on appeal more nuanced and different that one presented to the trial court
Defendant’s issue on appeal is more nuanced, yet not the same as the one argued before the trial court, so there is no authority to decide it. So, the court does for the sake of argument, and it finds nexus. … Continue reading
CA11: Officers had RS when they called for a Spanish speaking officer to translate
Officers had apparent reasonable suspicion but they couldn’t communicate with the six people in the rental car because none of them spoke English. They called for another officer who did, and he arrived in 12 minutes. Based on the observations … Continue reading
MD: When officers tried to stop def he fled into a high speed chase; he wasn’t seized before the chase
Defendant had warrants out and he’d called 911 and said he had a gun and he’d use it. There was reasonable suspicion for his stop before he engaged in a high speed chase. He never stopped before the chase so … Continue reading
CA5: LPN check showing insurance status “unconfirmed” is RS for stop
CA5 for the first time concludes that an LPN check that shows the vehicle’s insurance status “unconfirmed” is reasonable suspicion for a stop. Other federal appellate courts have already so held. United States v. Broca-Martinez, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 7612 … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Def corroborated officer’s smelling MJ by admitting he smoked in the car the previous night
Defendant corroborated the officer’s observation of the smell of marijuana coming from the car when he admitted having smoked marijuana in the car the night before. He also corroborated the drug dog by admitting he kept marijuana where the dog … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Search for gun outside house in curtilage was reasonable based on exigency or public safety
A search outside for a gun was reasonable for both public and officer safety. Officers responded to a domestic call at 2 am and there were four brothers there who concerned them. United States v. Sturdevant, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading