Archives
-
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
-
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
The Hill: Congress must restore 4th Amendment protections for email privacy
The Hill: Congress must restore 4th Amendment protections for email privacy by Brian McNicoll: Additionally, unfettered access to private emails does not seem to comport with the Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure without a duly sworn warrant. Congress … Continue reading
Police One: What cops need to know about TASER use, the Fourth Amendment and excessive use of force
Police One: What cops need to know about TASER use, the Fourth Amendment and excessive use of force by Mike Callahan By analyzing case law, we can glean constitutional guidance concerning when the use of a TASER is lawfully appropriate … Continue reading
EFF Asks Massachusetts High Court to Require Clear Limits Before Allowing Searches of Digital Devices and Information
EFF Asks Massachusetts High Court to Require Clear Limits Before Allowing Searches of Digital Devices and Information by Stephanie Lacambra: Along with several other advocacy groups, EFF signed on to an amicus brief this week in the case of the … Continue reading
W.D.La.: Deciding against def after remand on suppression motion on different ground didn’t violate mandate
On remand from reversal of denial of defendant’s suppression motion, the court analyzed the evidence anew, albeit from a different perspective, and it denies the motion to suppress on different grounds. This does not violate the Fifth Circuit’s mandate. Defendant … Continue reading
Reason: Majority of States Lack Transparency on Asset Forfeiture
Reason: Majority of States Lack Transparency on Asset Forfeiture by C.J. Ciaramella: Want to know how much stuff police are seizing from people and where all that money goes? Good luck. Asset forfeiture programs in the majority of states across … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Mixed motive for otherwise valid inventory doesn’t make it unreasonable
A mixed motive for an inventory search doesn’t make it unreasonable as long as the inventory was reasonable. United States v. Dowl, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7184 (E.D. Mich. Jan. 19, 2017):
UT: Def counsel failed to provide effective assistance in getting 4A issue before court for resolution
Defense counsel failed to adequately defend the accused on his motion to suppress by not briefing and failing to get it before the court for a hearing, essentially abandoning the client. The issue was left cloudy enough in the record … Continue reading
MA: Anonymous tip only corroborated on obvious details not sufficient
The state failed to corroborate at all the basis of knowledge or reliability of the anonymous source. The described car showing up at the appointed time isn’t enough. Commonwealth v. Pinto, 2017 Mass. LEXIS 21 (Jan. 23, 2017):
MD: Even with MJ decrim, smell of pot in car is PC
Despite decriminalization of less than 10g of marijuana, the officer here had probable cause to search vehicle where he detects odor of marijuana emanating from vehicle, as marijuana in any amount remains contraband, notwithstanding decriminalization of possession of less than … Continue reading
IN: Smell of meth was PC, aside from knowledge of purchase of precursors
Officers knew that defendant had bought precursors to make methamphetamine, and that they were likely in his car. There was enough information for probable cause for a search of the car, independent of what the officers smelled. The appellate argument … Continue reading
OR: Detention at gunpoint wasn’t attenuated from statement
Defendant’s stop and detention was with a show of force, and his statement wasn’t attenuated from his de facto arrest. Suppression order affirmed. State v. Pichardo, 360 Ore. 754 (Jan. 20, 2017), aff’g 275 Ore. App. 49, 364 P.3d 1 … Continue reading
Dallas News: The FBI ran a child porn site to catch predators, and now the accused are crying foul
Dallas News: The FBI ran a child porn site to catch predators, and now the accused are crying foul by Kevin Krause: When Daryl Glenn Pawlak logged into a large child pornography website and downloaded images using his work computer, … Continue reading
EFF: When the Law Stands in the Way of Tech Companies Standing Up for Their Users
EFF: When the Law Stands in the Way of Tech Companies Standing Up for Their Users by Andrew Crocker: It’s no secret online service providers hold tons of sensitive data about their customers, which is why EFF calls on companies … Continue reading
Bloomberg: Microsoft Asserts Clients’ Rights in FBI E-Mail Searches Fight
Bloomberg: Microsoft Asserts Clients’ Rights in FBI E-Mail Searches Fight by Kartikay Mehrotra: –First hurdle is convincing judge it can sue on their behalf –Tech industry says future of mobile, cloud computing at stake
MN: 5A not violated by order to use fingerprint to open cell phone for search
Defendant’s cell phone was properly seized, and the order compelling him to provide his fingerprint to unlock the phone didn’t violate his privilege against self-incrimination because there was nothing testimonial about it. State v. Diamond, 2017 Minn. App. LEXIS 9 … Continue reading
KY: Blood and debris trail to def’s open door and his refusal to talk about who was inside or what happened justified entry
Exigent circumstances justified the officers’ entry into defendant’s home. There was a blood trail that did not go all the way back to his apartment, but there was a debris trail, too, he was badly hurt and bleeding, and he … Continue reading
NY2: Search of house for weapon after protective sweep was unreasonable
Defendant was reported to have assaulted people outside his house with a small bat and a brandishing a firearm. Police arrived, and he ran inside. Police kicked the door in, secured him, cleared the house [a protective sweep] putting the … Continue reading
Cert.granted: District of Columbia v. Wesby on qualified immunity
Cert.granted: District of Columbia v. Wesby, 15-1485 (Jan. 19, 2017). Issues: (1) Whether police officers who found late-night partiers inside a vacant home belonging to someone else had probable cause to arrest the partiers for trespassing under the Fourth Amendment, … Continue reading
CA6: Franks challenges subject to clearly erroneous standard of review; here, materiality not shown
The District Court’s findings under Franks are subject to the clear error standard of review. Here, the officer learned a new fact between the wiretap application and the search warrant application, and there is some surface appeal to apply Franks. … Continue reading