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- CA9: With a SW for a murder weapon, a frisk of the occupants is reasonable
- W.D.Mich.: Drug dealers commonly keep proceeds and drugs at home, and that’s nexus
- OH8: For Rodriguez purposes, checking out-of-state DLs just 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
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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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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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
D.Nev.: To have standing in a package, one must be addressee or sender
In this conspiracy case involving mailed packages, none of the defendants were shown as the sender or addressee of this package. The defendant pursuing the motion didn’t even directly possess the package: He drove a woman to the post office … Continue reading
CA5: Interstate bus passenger had no standing against a dog sniff of the luggage compartment
An interstate bus passenger had no standing against a dog sniff of the luggage compartment of the bus. United States v. Rodriguez-Lara, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 3774 (5th Cir. March 2, 2017):
OR: Oregon clarifies the reasonable suspicion standard
Oregon clarifies the reasonable suspicion standard. State v. Maciel-Figueroa, 361 Ore. 163, 2017 Ore. LEXIS 166 (March 2, 2017), aff’g State v. Maciel-Figueroa, 273 Ore. App. 298, 356 P.3d 674 (2015):
W.D.Tenn.: Because ‘guns and drugs go together,’ faint smell of MJ plus furtive movement justified frisk
Defendant was stopped for a cracked windshield, which it clearly was. “Ordering Henderson to step out of the car was only a de minimis intrusion of his personal liberty, and it did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights.” “Officer Putman … Continue reading
Playpen SWs: arstechnica: To keep Tor hack source code secret, DOJ dismisses child porn case
arstechnica: To keep Tor hack source code secret, DOJ dismisses child porn case by Cyrus Farivar DOJ: “Disclosure is not currently an option.”
WaPo: How hard is it to get an intelligence wiretap? Pretty hard.
WaPo: How hard is it to get an intelligence wiretap? Pretty hard. by By Ellen Nakashima:
CA10: The common law “in the presence” requirement for warrantless misdemeanor arrests isn’t mandated by 4A
There was probable cause to arrest defendant when he became combative about being questioned for a theft from a Walgreens two days earlier which resulted in a six month sentence. Plaintiff’s argument that the off-duty officer couldn’t arrest without an … Continue reading
MS: No IAC for not pursuing an obvious scrivener’s error; warrant issued same day it was applied for
The search warrant was clearly issued September 4th. The typo “Aug.” was on some of the papers, but reading the entirety of the paperwork, it was obvious this was only a scrivener’s error. The warrant was issued the same day … Continue reading
LA4: Calling police to a dead body in your home and then letting them in is consent
“Defendant called the police to report that he found his friend dead in the residence. The call was dispatched as an unclassified death. Det. Gex was the only responding police officer who testified. He arrived at the scene between 8:00 … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: There is no such thing as a negligent search and seizure claim
There is no such thing as a negligent search and seizure claim. Rudd v. City of Jonesboro, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28682 (E.D.Ark. March 1, 2017). The search of plaintiff’s truck in a garage was reasonable and officers get qualified … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Def’s handcuffing was not an arrest, but it was custody for Miranda purposes
“The Court finds that Sydnor was not placed under formal arrest when officers handcuffed him at the beginning of the search. However, Sydnor was in custody for purposes of Miranda during the search. Regarding the statements themselves, the first one … Continue reading
TX14: When trial court finds two theories, defendant has to argue both on appeal or he defaults one
The state raised alternate theories and both were found by the trial court. The defendant didn’t put on a defense to the state’s search incident argument. On appeal, he didn’t argue the search incident issues and defaulted them. Mixon v. … Continue reading
IN: No RS for a protective sweep after def was arrested
A protective sweep of a closed room requires reasonable suspicion that an attack could be launched from the room. After defendant was arrested, there was no reasonable suspicion there was anybody else in the house; therefore, no reasonable suspicion. Johnson … Continue reading
WI: The low threshold for def’s BAC level contributed to exigent circumstances
Defendant was unconscious after hitting a deer with his motorcycle when his blood was drawn in the hospital. There was probable cause, and, because of the delay, the officer reasonably concluded there were exigent circumstances because defendant’s offense threshold was … Continue reading
NJ strip search for $6.50 traffic ticket violates state statute
New Jersey by statute prohibits strip searches except for a crime. Defendant was arrested for an outstanding $6.50 traffic ticket and strip searched. The state can’t bootstrap this arrest into a search incident. State v. Evans, 2017 N.J. Super. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA8: Adding search condition to supervised release after serving 26 years didn’t violate ex post facto clause
Defendant served about 26 years of a 30½ year sentence, and, after release, a search condition was added, and it did not violate the ex post facto clause. United States v. Winston, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 3685 (8th Cir. March … Continue reading