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- W.D.N.Y.: No due process right to adversarial hearing before issuance of a DNA warrant
- E.D.Wis.: Lifetime GPS monitoring of some sex offenders traveling out of state doesn’t violate 4A
- 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
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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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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)
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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
S.D.Fla.: Throwing a bag aside when seeing the police is an abandonment
Throwing a bag aside when seeing the police is an abandonment. It was speculation he would retrieve it if the police didn’t get it. United States v. Morrow, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14604 (S.D. Fla. Jan. 20, 2017),* adopted, 2017 … Continue reading
Ars Technica: Judge sides with Microsoft, allows “gag order” challenge to advance
Ars Technica: Judge sides with Microsoft, allows “gag order” challenge to advance by Cyrus Farivar Microsoft Corp. v. United States DOJ, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18691 (W.D. Wash. Feb. 8, 2017) Court: “First Amendment rights may outweigh the Government interest … Continue reading
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: 11th Circuit: Cops weren’t given enough notice that police tactics used for decades are unconstitutional
WaPo: ‘The Watch’ Blog: 11th Circuit: Cops weren’t given enough notice that police tactics used for decades are unconstitutional by Radley Balko:
LA5: PC developed in lengthy investigation excused lack of SW by inevitable discovery
It wasn’t reasonable for the police to believe that defendant’s father had apparent authority to consent to a search of locked box. However, inevitable discovery applies because the investigation was well underway, and there was probable cause for a search … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Untimely motion to suppress summarily denied
Defendant’s untimely motion to suppress is denied. United States v. Drexler, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13833 (D.Nev. Feb. 1, 2017). Defendant was arrested for bank robbery, and a search incident to arrest of his person was valid and based on … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Officer’s claim of a burglary in progress and that a protective sweep was justified was completely unjustified
It should have been apparent to the officers that the defendant was a friend of the homeowner and was a guest in the premises, and their entry was unjustified under a claim of a burglary in progress or that a … Continue reading
MA: There is no requirement of a search protocol in the SW but it is advisable to restrain execution in computer searches
An IP address as a source of child pornography provides sufficient probable cause and nexus to search the subscriber’s home and computer. There are no search protocols for the warrant but it is advisable to use them. An administrative subpoena … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Mere shareholder in a business had no standing to challenge SW
As a mere shareholder in a business, defendant had no standing to challenge the search warrant of the property. At the time of the search, he had no personal interest in it. United States v. Taylor, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
OH10: Officers could open defendant’s car door when he was apparently passed out in the front seat
Officers could open defendant’s car door when he was apparently passed out in the front seat. State v. Hall, 2017-Ohio-446, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 441 (10th Dist. Feb. 7, 2017):
SW for a pacemaker: WaPo: A man detailed his escape from a burning house. His pacemaker told police a different story.
WaPo: A man detailed his escape from a burning house. His pacemaker told police a different story. by Cleve R. Wootson Jr.:
NYLJ: Facebook, DA Argue Over Constitutionality of Search Warrants
NYLJ: Facebook, DA Argue Over Constitutionality of Search Warrants by John Stashenko:
Fortune: Social Media at the Border: Can Agents Ask for Your Facebook Feed?
Fortune: Social Media at the Border: Can Agents Ask for Your Facebook Feed? by Jeff John Roberts:
M.D.Pa.: Motion to suppress denied without prejudice for failure to plead any facts or law or brief the issue with cases
Motion to suppress denied without prejudice for failing to cite facts or authority or provide a cogent argument. United States v. Guerrier, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14405 (M.D. Pa. Feb. 2, 2017):
W.D.Tex.: Border search cursory search of defendant’s cell phone was reasonable
A border search cursory search of defendant’s cell phone was reasonable, even under Cotterman. They also had more than reasonable suspicion. United States v. Escarcega, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 185466 (W.D. Tex. July 29, 2015):
NY1: Pawnbrokers have been heavily regulated for a century; rules for information storage are reasonable
Pawnbrokers have been a heavily regulated industry for over a century. NYC’s requirement of provision of certain information in digital format is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment (compare California Bankers Assn. v. Schultz) and the limited administrative searches are reasonable. … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: General motion to suppress denied for not pleading any facts or law
“In light of the fact that Defendant fails to specify which statements he is seeking to suppress and the insufficiency of Defendant’s explanation for why the arrest warrant lacks probable cause, I am unable to properly consider these motions. Fourth … Continue reading
IN: 4A doesn’t require a SW be obtained at the earliest possible time
Officers were tipped off to the defendant coming through with drugs eight hours before he was stopped. The stop was for speeding and weaving, and a drug dog was used which alerted. The fact the officers had eight hours warning … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: Spending money is not an exigent circumstance justifying a warrantless search to recover the money
Defendant spending money is not an exigent circumstance justifying a warrantless search to recover the money. United States v. Jett, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13544 (S.D. Ind. Feb. 1, 2017):
CA6: CSLI by court order was valid; lengthy pole camera observation of publicly seen areas reasonable
Lengthy CSLI was obtained by a cell site simulator but with a court order. Pleading the pen register statute is no help to the defense because there is no exclusionary remedy. Pre-Jones GPS tracking was valid under Davis. Finally, lengthy … Continue reading