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Recent Posts
- 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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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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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
CA8: Passenger in his gf’s rented car driven by yet another had no standing
Defendant was a passenger in a rental vehicle rented by his girlfriend but being driven by a third person. He was not on the rental agreement as a driver or a co-renter. He had no standing. United States v. Russell, … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: A wire mesh “ceiling” over a storage unit doesn’t provide a REP from someone climbing a ladder and looking
A defendant lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy in a storage unit with a wire mesh “ceiling” where the officer used a ladder and looked over the wall. There was insufficient effort to maintain privacy from others just looking. United … Continue reading
MN: Request for consent to DNA after def lawyers up doesn’t violate 5A
“Because a request that a suspect consent to provide a DNA sample does not constitute interrogation under Miranda v. Arizona, … and DNA evidence is not testimonial or communicative in nature, a police officer does not violate a suspect’s Fifth … Continue reading
Reason: ‘Hit and Run’ Blog: ‘Armed’ is Same as ‘Armed and Dangerous’ When it Comes to Police Searches, 4th Circuit Concludes
Reason: ‘Hit and Run’ Blog: ‘Armed’ is Same as ‘Armed and Dangerous’ When it Comes to Police Searches, 4th Circuit Concludes by Brian Doherty: Opinion from 4th Circuit Court of Appeals implies that exercising your Second Amendment rights means you … Continue reading
CBS News: Police body cameras on the rise, but how effective are they?
CBS News: Police body cameras on the rise, but how effective are they?: The New York Police Department is implementing the country’s largest body camera program. More than 20,000 officers will wear the cameras once the rollout is complete by … Continue reading
CA8: Supervised release term of “random inspections of his computer’s internet and email usage history” reasonably justified search of def’s computer
Supervised release term of “random inspections of his computer’s internet and email usage history” reasonably justified search of defendant’s computer. United States v. McCoy, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 1695 (8th Cir. Jan. 31, 2017):
NJ: Passenger’s furtive movements justify ordering him from car
A passenger’s furtive movements can justify ordering him out of the car. As an aside, the court chides defense counsel for not addressing the issue before appeal so the parties could develop the record. [Most other states would say it … Continue reading
FL: Hot pursuit for misd possession of MJ and nonviolent fleeing does not permit warrantless entry into the home
Hot pursuit for misdemeanor possession of marijuana and nonviolent fleeing does not permit a warrantless entry into the home. State v. Markus, 2017 Fla. LEXIS 233 (Jan. 31, 2017), aff’g Markus v. State, 160 So. 3d 488 (Fla. 1st DCA … Continue reading
BuzzFeed: Gorsuch Might Play Key Role In Cellphone Privacy Issues If Confirmed To The Supreme Court
BuzzFeed: Gorsuch Might Play Key Role In Cellphone Privacy Issues If Confirmed To The Supreme Court by Hamza Shaban: The Court is likely to consider cellphone location data, encryption, and other privacy issues in the coming years.
Reason: Trump Nominates Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court; Fourth Amendment?
Reason: Trump Nominates Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court by Damon Root: Gorsuch has also rejected pro-government deference in the Fourth Amendment context. For instance, in his 2016 dissent in United States v. Carloss, Gorsuch strongly objected to the majority’s … Continue reading
NACDL gets grant to fund NACDL Fourth Amendment Center
Letter from NACDL Past President Gerry Morris of Austin, Texas today, in part: I am pleased to report that the Foundation for Criminal Justice has received a significant new grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The … Continue reading
CA9: ATF officer’s SW affidavit said dealers of illegal drugs and guns often use cell phones showed nexus; recording phone’s SN at book-in wasn’t unreasonable
Noting in the affidavit for search warrant that defendant was allegedly involved in drug and gun sales and that drug dealers regularly use cell phones was enough to get a search warrant for his cell phones contents. Recording the serial … Continue reading
DE: Just being involved in a shooting doesn’t give nexus to search a cell phone
The state here failed to show nexus between defendant’s cell phone and a shooting incident. In addition, the search warrant lacked all particularity — it sought to search three cell phones for data and calls without time limit or scope. … Continue reading
ID: Driving on a suspended DL supports a search incident of the person
The officer knew defendant had a suspended DL, and seeing him drive to a convenience store justified his detention and arrest. A frisk incident to the arrest produced drug paraphernalia which was validly found. State v. Lee, 2017 Ida. App. … Continue reading
SSRN: Government Lawyers in the Trump Administration
SSRN: Government Lawyers in the Trump Administration by W. Bradley Wendel of Cornell University School of Law, posted today. Abstract: The words and actions of candidate, President-Elect, and now President Donald Trump indicate that this Administration will aggressively seek to … Continue reading
Talk Business: GPS technology benefits used car industry, privacy concerns remain
Talk Business: GPS technology benefits used car industry, privacy concerns remain; used car sales to rise in 2017 by Jeff Della Rosa
CDT: President Trump Should Continue Justice Scalia’s First & Fourth Amendment Legacy
CDT: President Trump Should Continue Justice Scalia’s First & Fourth Amendment Legacy by Lisa Hayes. But he won’t. He has no knowledge of Scalia’s legacy other than what he’s told. There’s a different agenda at play (Roe v. Wade). Maybe … Continue reading
The Hill: Fourth Circuit shreds civil liberties for public gun carry
The Hill: Fourth Circuit shreds civil liberties for public gun carry by E. Gregory Wallace: Should a person forfeit certain constitutional rights just because he or she chooses to carry a firearm lawfully in public? That’s exactly what a federal … Continue reading
CA3: Disavowal of cell phone in car was a waiver of standing
The search of the call log on the cell phone in the car defendant was driving a year before Riley was valid. He also disavowed the cell phone and lacks standing. United States v. Monestime, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 1501 … Continue reading
CA8: Smell of MJ from car was PC
Defendant was stopped for no license plate and weaving. When the window came down, the smell of marijuana was apparent. The driver appeared under the influence. The passenger became agitated, and that confirmed to the officer he was too. A … Continue reading