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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
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FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
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General (many free):
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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)
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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) -
“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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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, Little Rock 
Category Archives: Burden of pleading
W.D.N.C.: PC for car moots Gant argument
Defendant argues that the search of his car was void under Gant because he was handcuffed outside it. There was, however, probable cause for a vehicle search. United States v. Phillips, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209424 (W.D.N.C. Sep. 3, 2025).* … Continue reading
CA5: A trespasser has no REP
A trespasser has no reasonable expectation of privacy when on the property trespassed upon. Here, there were numerous signs for the TX DOT saying “no trespassing.” United States v. Parkerson, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 26220 (5th Cir. Oct. 8, 2025). … Continue reading
CA2: One has to preserve the 4A claim for a conditional plea
Defendant didn’t properly preserve his Fourth Amendment claim for appeal from a conditional plea. United States v. Smurphat, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 26002 (2d Cir. Oct. 7, 2025). “A search warrant limited to a single dwelling apartment is sufficiently particular … Continue reading
CO: In a civil case, legal justification for a warrantless search is an affirmative defense
“In a case of first impression, a division of the court of appeals holds that legal justification for a warrantless search is an affirmative defense that the defendant must prove in a civil action under section 13-21-131, C.R.S. 2025. The … Continue reading
CA6: No REP in LPN
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in license plate information. Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not raising that. Williams v. United States, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 21583 (6th Cir. Aug. 22, 2025). While a sexual assault examination of a … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Failure to plead how 4A was violated denies return of laptop
The motion for return of the target’s laptop for violating the Fourth Amendment is denied because he doesn’t plead how the Fourth Amendment was violated. Commodities Future Trading Commission v. Alexandre, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 160456 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 19, 2025). … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Vague and unsupported allegations of 4A violation during pretrial crime scene walk through denied
Defendant is a pardoned Jan. 6th defendant who had a pretrial walk through at the Capitol in October 2024. He claims the AUSA and FBI tried to read his notes in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Despite his pardon, he … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Skeletal motion to suppress denied on its face
Skeletal motion to suppress without facts or law denied. United States v. Matar, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 141206 (W.D.N.Y. June 25, 2025):
TX7: SW sworn to before wrong officer still in GF
The search warrant affidavit was not sworn to before a judge as required by the statute, but it was sworn to before an officer with the authority to take oaths. That was sufficient for the good faith exception to apply. … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: Being a cash courier doesn’t establish standing
Giving a substantial amount of cash to a courier to take it from Arizona to Maryland doesn’t create standing. United States v. $549,860.00 in United States Currency, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131436 (S.D. Ill. July 10, 2025). Defendant’s place was … Continue reading
OH12: Adoption of suppression motion brief by reference on appeal is waiver
Adoption of his suppression motion brief by reference without briefing it was waiver. Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a conversation with his girlfriend in the presence of a CI. State v. Davis, 2025-Ohio-2382, 2025 Ohio App. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Heck bar has to be pled in first defensive pleading
The Heck bar is an affirmative defense that has to be pled by defendants under F.R.C.P. 8(c). Megna v. Musial, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 127980 (E.D. Wis. July 7, 2025). Defendant’s driving justified his stop. State v. Craven, 2025 Wash. … Continue reading
TX5: State has to prove SW application properly sworn to; no GFE where it wasn’t pled
Where it couldn’t be established that the officer swore to a notary or clerk when applying for a search warrant for blood, the motion to suppress was properly granted. The state doesn’t get the benefit of the good faith exception … Continue reading
CA10: Ptf has burden on “clearly established law” and failed
The plaintiff in a § 1983 case has the burden on clearly established law, and here the showing completely failed. “Anemic.” Bailey v. Beale, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 14449 (10th Cir. June 12, 2025).* “[T]he individual officers did not violate … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Pro se def’s post-trial motion to dismiss for 4A issue he didn’t fully appreciate timely is denied
Pro se defendant can’t raise a post-trial Fourth Amendment claim because he didn’t fully understand the FBI 302 discussing the search. “What Defendant is experiencing are the real-world consequences that he was warned of when he elected to proceed pro … Continue reading
TX5: Def driving his boss’s truck by permission had standing
Defendant driving his boss’s truck by permission had standing. Here, the issue was the scope of his consent to search it. The trial court’s conclusion he only was agreeing that he wasn’t the owner of the truck was sustained on … Continue reading
CA7: Skeletal 4A claim doesn’t support relief
A caution about pleading in a § 1983 Fourth Amendment case: Plaintiff loses because of his skeletal claims in the complaint. “We express no opinion on whether the officers needed to handcuff Petersen, transport him in a police vehicle to … Continue reading
CA7: Cautionary tale in § 1983 case: “this appeal is a mess”
A confusing case presented from both sides, a cautionary tale: “this appeal is a mess.” Cave v. Valenti, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 9405 (7th Cir. Apr. 21, 2025):
S.D.N.Y.: SW affidavit differs from crime in indictment such that court grants Franks hearing
Because the affidavit for search warrant differs so much from the ultimate crime defendants were charged with, defendant at least gets a Franks hearing. There’s some suggestion of materiality, but that’s not decided yet. United States v. Peraire-Bueno, 2025 U.S. … Continue reading