Archives
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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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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)
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"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
N.D.Ill.: Defense counsel was ineffective for not seeing def’s guest standing in girlfriend’s apartment
Defendant established a failure of performance of defense counsel in his 2255 for not filing a motion to suppress on guest standing. He didn’t file a motion to suppress solely because defendant said he didn’t “live at” his girlfriend’s place, … Continue reading
OR: Def didn’t abandon backpack by not affirmatively claiming ownership of it during vehicle search by consent
The officer had reasonable suspicion something was up and the driver of a van already stopped consented to a search of the van, but that did not include a backpack that didn’t belong to him. Defendant did not abandon the … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Lack of full detail and minor discrepancies from reports didn’t make officers unbelievable
In a Bronx stop and frisk, the fact that the four NYPD Stop, Question and Frisk Report Worksheets for each person frisked didn’t have the detail of the officers’ hearing testimony or resulted in minor discrepancies doesn’t make them unbelievable. … Continue reading
D.Neb., M.D.Fla., C.D.Cal. also sustain an NIT search warrant for IP addresses
Another NIT warrant upheld in a child pornography case. United States v. Laurita, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103405 (D.Neb. Aug. 5, 2016)* (collecting cases):
M.D.Fla.: CSLI information captured by Stingray would be unreasonable under 4A except defs had no standing in burner phones they disassociated themselves from
Use of a Stingray to capture defendants’ cell phone location information in real time was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment [without much discussion], but the defendants lack standing to complain. The mere fact the government referred to the phones as … Continue reading
New law review article: How Governments Pay: Lawsuits, Budgets, and Police Reform
Joanna C. Schwartz, How Governments Pay: Lawsuits, Budgets, and Police Reform, 63 UCLA L. Rev. 1144 (2016). Abstract:
M.D.Fla.: Reliance on a state court tracking order years ago was entitled to good faith
Under the Stored Communications Act, one must still prove standing as an “aggrieved person.” A state court cell phone tracking order is entitled to good faith exception deference, particularly since it was issued prior to any cases on the subject. … Continue reading
WSJ Blog: Study Links Police Bodycams to Increase in Shooting Deaths
WSJ Blog: Study Links Police Bodycams to Increase in Shooting Deaths by Jacob Gershman: In the wake of high-profile police shootings, the Obama administration has encouraged local police departments to equip their officers with body-worn cameras. The devices, said Attorney … Continue reading
New law review article: A Tactical Fourth Amendment
Brandon L. Garrett, A Tactical Fourth Amendment, 102 Va.L.Rev. __ (2016). Abstract:
TX11: A search for evidence under an unconstitutional statute still suppressed in Texas despite good faith
Search for evidence under a statute later declared unconstitutional in state court had to be suppressed because Texas has only a limited good faith exception. Siller v. State, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 8733 (Tex.App. – Eastland Aug. 11, 2016). Speculative … Continue reading
CA5: Def consented after drug dog didn’t alert, and it was valid
Defendant was stopped at an immigration checkpoint at Laredo, saying he was going to San Antonio. The officer found the story dubious, ran the paperwork in seconds, and then got a drug dog which did not alert. Then defendant consented … Continue reading
D.Ore.: Driver doesn’t have standing to challenge search of passenger’s person
Although the stop of defendant’s car was unreasonable, defendant still doesn’t have standing to question the search of his passenger. United States v. Kuespert, 773 F.2d 1066 (9th Cir. 1985). United States v. Abarza, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103035 (D.Ore. … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: PC to arrest isn’t a high burden, and the govt can’t meet it here
“Here, the Government has adduced no testimony or other evidence explaining the basis of Defendant’s arrest or even identifying the officers who arrested her. The Government has also not introduced any evidence of the circumstances of Defendant’s arrest, including when … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Rule 41 violation isn’t necessarily a 4A violation
A violation of Rule 41 simply is not a Fourth Amendment violation. The case defendant cites isn’t on point. “[T]he defendant ignores the fact that, thirteen years after [that] decision, and almost thirty years before the search that resulted in … Continue reading
TX9: RS for a stop supported defendant’s fleeing charge
The officer had reasonable suspicion to stop defendant for domestic assault, so defendant’s flight was an offense. Rodriguez v. State, 2016 Tex. App. LEXIS 8494 (Tex. App. – Amarillo Aug. 8, 2016). Plaintiffs in a civil case sought search warrant … Continue reading
techdirt: Botnet Bill Could Give FBI Permission To Take Warrantless Peeks At The Contents Of People’s Computers
techdirt: Botnet Bill Could Give FBI Permission To Take Warrantless Peeks At The Contents Of People’s Computers by Tim Cushing: The DOJ may be headed into the business of breaking blinds in bulk. Innocuous-sounding legislation that would allow the FBI … Continue reading
NYTimes: Justice Department to Streamline Tracking of Police Killings
NYTimes: Justice Department to Streamline Tracking of Police Killings by Charles Savage: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is moving forward with a plan to better track killings by police officers, as heightened national scrutiny of such deaths has reinforced criticism … Continue reading
CA7: Reused civil eviction order was without legal authority and qualified immunity denied
Defendants used a civil eviction order twice. The first time was lawful and based on a court order. The landlord let the plaintiffs back in. Then the first order was somehow stamped by the clerk to reuse it to evict … Continue reading
CA7 grants rehearing en banc in case described as “parking while black”
From How Appealing: Seventh Circuit grants rehearing en banc in a case the dissent criticized as “enabling police seizures for ‘parking while black’”: Thanks to a reader of the blog, I have learned that yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals … Continue reading
Utah v. Strieff, 2016 Supplement, § 10.02; maybe overcoming Strieff
Utah v. Strieff is discussed in six sections in the 2016 supplement, primarily in § 10.02: § 10.02 on the attenuation doctrine Page 10-12 Add at end of section: In Utah v. Strieff,63 the officer had been tipped that drugs … Continue reading