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- MD: While protective sweep information made it into SW affidavit, there was PC without it
- N.D.Ga.: A Customs forensic search of a cell phone away from the border was still a border search
- CA6: State officer’s arrest for violation of federal MJ law likely wouldn’t violate 4A
- D.N.M.: Shared driveway outside of fence and gate was not curtilage
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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
Privacy Foundation
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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. 
Category Archives: Uncategorized
D.Minn.: Automobile exception applies when drugs tossed from car
The automobile exception applies when officers see a baggie of drugs tossed from a car. United States v. Hatley, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 147032 (D. Minn. September 8, 2014) The USMJ’s findings that there was probable cause for the automobile … Continue reading
Politico: Facebook unfriends the DEA
Politico: AP Facebook unfriends federal drug agency: The social network wants assurances the federal drug agency is not operating any more fake profiles.
WaPo: San Diego Police Department says, ‘Just trust us.’
WaPo: San Diego Police Department says, ‘Just trust us.’ by Radley Balko: I noted in August the bizarre position staked out by the San Diego Police Department with respect to the use of body cameras: A department spokesman told local … Continue reading
IA: Two people did a private search of a flash drive finding CP; govt search didn’t exceed scope of private search
Defendant loaned his tool bag to a friend who found a flash drive in the bag, and, because of the way it was hidden, he was curious and looked at it finding probable child pornography. Then he called a woman … Continue reading
NLJ: Oyez Project Dives Deep Into the Fourth Amendment
NLJ: Oyez Project Dives Deep Into the Fourth Amendment by Marcia Coyle: Justice Elena Kagan has called the Fourth Amendment “a growth industry” for the the U.S. Supreme Court. Now the Oyez Project, long a purveyor of high court information, … Continue reading
WHO13: Ankeny Cop Tries To Search Car Because ‘Everybody that Plays Frisbee Golf Smokes Weed’
WHO13: Ankeny Cop Tries To Search Car Because ‘Everybody that Plays Frisbee Golf Smokes Weed’ by Aaron Brilbeck: ANKENY, Iowa — Ankeny’s police chief is apologizing after a video surfaced showing an officer trying to search a motorist’s car because, … Continue reading
ID: The area outside a tent campsite in a national forest was not defendant’s curtilage
The area outside a tent campsite in a national forest was not defendant’s curtilage. Forest Service officers came upon the campsite and it was apparent that the occupants of the tent there were smoking marijuana. The officers did not enter … Continue reading
Note to readers: Updated citations haven’t been coming from Lexis; page proofs to paper supplement done
I noticed about 3 or so months ago that Lexis has not been sending me second or even third versions of cases as the citations or text update. For instances, when headnotes appear, I’d get a case again. Then the … Continue reading
Inquistor: ‘Do You Accept Jesus Christ?’ Cop Asks Woman During Traffic Stop, Now She’s Suing Him
Inquistor: ‘Do You Accept Jesus Christ?’ Cop Asks Woman During Traffic Stop, Now She’s Suing Him When Indiana State Trooper Brian Hamilton pulled over 60-year-old Ellen Bogan for some sort of supposed traffic violation in August, he asked for her … Continue reading
NY Post: Terror suspect can retract guilty plea after feds admit warrantless wiretaps
NY Post: Terror suspect can retract guilty plea after feds admit warrantless wiretaps by Selim Algar: A Brooklyn architect who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for admitting he tried to join a Pakistani terrorist group will be allowed … Continue reading
WaPo: DEA created a fake Facebook profile in this woman’s name using seized pics – then impersonated her
WaPo: DEA created a fake Facebook profile in this woman’s name using seized pics – then impersonated her by Terrence McCoy: At first glance, the Facebook profile is the perfect deception. Purportedly belonging to brown-haired woman named Sondra Prince, it … Continue reading
Having trouble getting in sometimes? I have been
Two different computer guys tell me it’s malware, so I scan for it. Hopefully the host server does, too. Sometimes I can’t get in with Chrome or Firefox but can with IE. Go figure. Patience. The domain name is paid … Continue reading
WaPo: Supreme Court fails frequently, professor writes
WaPo: Supreme Court fails frequently, professor writes by Robert Barnes: After nearly four decades as a lawyer and 30 years teaching would-be lawyers, and after writing a leading textbook on constitutional law and helping establish a law school, and after … Continue reading
NYTImes: Today’s Police Put on a Gun and a Camera
NYTImes: Today’s Police Put on a Gun and a Camera by Kirk Johnson: PULLMAN, Wash. — Amateur videos of police officers doing their jobs have become part of the fabric of urban democracy, with embarrassing or violent images spreading via … Continue reading
Missing posts for book supplement added back in
Those cases that will definitely make it into the 2015 book supplement have been added back in. Those marked with an * weren’t. Yes, and still behind.
PA: Cell phone not per se subject to plain view for seizure and search for its potential information
A cell phone is not per se subject to the plain view exception just because it contains information that the police might suppose conceivably has some relationship to the crime they are investigating. Commonwealth v. Wright, 2014 PA Super 189, … Continue reading
We’ve been down for 9 days; back up Sunday
Longest ever down in 11½ years. Most likely cause: WordPress plug-ins got corrupted. Right now it’s missing a few posts from late August to September 5th. They’re backed up somewhere and will be added back in shortly. In the interim, … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Justification for stop “does not pass the laugh test” but still objectively reasonable
“Although this is a close decision, the Court denies Defendant’s motion. Sergeant Timberlake’s testimony that he stopped Davidoff’s van for a lane change [on an almost vacant interstate highway] does not pass the laugh test. He obviously stopped Davidoff’s vehicle … Continue reading
Politico: Uphill battle on police militarization
Politico: Uphill battle on police militarization by Byron Tau: Police leadership is often fiercely protective of the right to run their departments as they please. Police crowd-control techniques and military-like equipment used in response to protests in Ferguson, Missouri, following … Continue reading
NE: Anonymous call here too thin to base a stop
An anonymous call without anything really supporting a crime was an insufficient basis for a stop. State v. Rodriguez, 288 Neb. 878, 2014 Neb. LEXIS 139 (August 29, 2014): In Navarette and White, the investigatory stops were approved, but both … Continue reading