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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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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)
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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
N.D.Ga.: Citing wrong U.S.C. section doesn’t undermine PC if any crime is shown
Citation to the wrong U.S. Code section in a search warrant affidavit doesn’t undermine the probable cause if one can discern that some federal crime has occurred. The affidavit here described mass sale of cell phone apps in violation of … Continue reading
CA10: State court’s harmlessness determination was binding under Stone v. Powell
Defendant raised the legality of a search in the trial court, but not everything that was seized. The court of criminal appeals considered the remainder and found it harmless error. On habeas, defendant had a full and fair opportunity to … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Plain view doesn’t apply to a cell phone where the officers had to turn it on to make their view
Plain view doesn’t apply to a cell phone where the officers had to turn it on to make their view. United States v. Ramirez, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 190665 (D.Kan. March 26, 2013):
ID: A party doesn’t have to cite specific case law to preserve its Fourth Amendment argument if it otherwise says the right words
The state doesn’t have to cite specific case law to preserve its argument; just make the argument. Here, it was that defendant was stopped for wandering on the road and that produced no DL and that he was driving a … Continue reading
GAO: Face Recognition Technology: FBI Should Better Ensure Privacy and Accuracy
GAO: Face Recognition Technology: FBI Should Better Ensure Privacy and Accuracy:
MI: No RS required for administrative SW for rental unit inspections once every 3 years
“Appellant city challenges the district court’s denial of its application for an administrative search warrant to conduct a rental-housing inspection [where inspections are only done every three years], arguing that the district court erred in determining that individualized suspicion of … Continue reading
D.R.I.: Protective sweep of car justified by def being, inter alia, in a violent biker gang and having a 19 pg criminal history
Protective sweep of car was justified because defendant was a member of a violent biker gang, nervousness, 19-page criminal history, volunteering he hadn’t been drinking when not asked, among other things. United States v. Severns, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76103 … Continue reading
Dashcam and bodycam undermine reasonable suspicion in two cases
These two make one wonder how many times officers have just fabricated reasonable suspicion and courts have bought it: The dashcam video supports the defendant’s argument that he was stopped without reasonable suspicion of driving with lights off when they … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: CI was a known regular and brought with the affidavit for SW; issuing magistrate could question
“Here, probable cause existed for the Niagara Falls City Court judge to issue the search warrant for Walnut Avenue. Law enforcement agents presented information through their affidavit that included the confidential informant’s reliability and the results of two controlled purchases. … Continue reading
VT: Video recording of def’s telephone conversation with defense counsel required suppression of breath test
Defendant was in the room with the breath testing machine, and his telephone conversation with his lawyer was recorded. Recording was accidental, but defendant correctly believed that it was. This requires suppression of the breath test because his consultation with … Continue reading
WaPo: ‘The Volokh Conspiracy’ Blog: Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions
WaPo: ‘The Volokh Conspiracy’ Blog: Short Circuit: A roundup of recent federal court decisions by Eugene Volokh: Is ‘the rule of law’ just an empty phrase trotted out when convenient? Hardly, argues Evan Bernick of the Center for Judicial Engagement, … Continue reading
MA: Cell phone SW was issued without PC, but it was harmless error in light of DNA
Massachusetts requires a warrant for CSLI after a certain date, and retroactivity depends on whether the issue was raised at trial. Here, the issue hadn’t been raised at trial from a 2011 crime although the case was on direct review … Continue reading
TN: There is no constitutional requirement that the homeowner be identified in a SW
The IP address for the house defendant was staying in was linked to child pornography, and the search warrant for the premises clearly described the single family dwelling. Thus, all the personal property of those associated with the property, except … Continue reading
CA3: Officers had PC to believe ptf was in a motor home for entry to arrest
Plaintiff was calling police dispatch from a cell phone. Dispatch was able to trace the cell phone apparently via the 911 system. Officers had an arrest warrant for plaintiff, and they had probable cause to believe that she was in … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: 911 call of burglary in progress and open door with blood justified entry
911 received a burglary in progress report, and officers responded finding the door open and damaged, blood on the broken window, and the home alarm going off. Exigent circumstances permitted the entry because it was reasonable to infer that the … Continue reading
Today is the 50th Anniversary of Miranda v. Arizona
WaPo: The right to remain silent, brought to you by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI by Richard Willing. Say what you will about Hoover, he knew from the FBI’s experience that warned suspects would still talk and their statements … Continue reading
OH2: Stop was on a hunch and suppressed
Defendant was stopped for having 10 or more scrap tires on his truck which would have required special state registration. The photographs of the truck showed seven tires. The stop was based on a hunch and not reasonable suspicion. The … Continue reading
ND: CI’s info of def carrying meth on Amtrak was corroborated by its details proving otherwise true and another ongoing meth investigation
Defendant was the target of a methamphetamine investigation when DTF officers received information via a CI that she would be arriving on an Amtrak train from Washington State carrying meth. This was in addition to the original meth investigation. When … Continue reading