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- D.Mont.: Delay of USPS Express Mail for dog sniff didn’t violate 4A
- S.D.W.Va.: Warrantless arrest at door for CSAM didn’t support plain view seizure of cell phone
- OH2: Parking on the grass justified stop
- CA11: NCMEC’s cybertips are reliable enough to support PC and the GFE
- MS: Execution style murder in public in broad daylight was exigency to get suspect’s CSLI
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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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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)
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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: Burden of pleading
NE requires suppression issue be renewed when evidence admitted at trial
Failure to renew a suppression issue decided against you pretrial when the evidence is admitted is waiver in Nebraska. Besides, the issue on appeal would lose on the merits because the officer had reasonable suspicion for the stop and then … Continue reading
NY: Denial of ownership of a key fob found under def at his arrest is abandonment of the car
Defendant could be detained during the search of his house under a warrant. When he got up off the floor, there was a key fob underneath him, and he denied it was his. The officers used the panic button to … Continue reading
OH1: Blood draw from unconscious driver is by consent and reasonable
“Under [Ohio statute] an unconscious driver is deemed to have consented to a blood draw,” and that doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. State v. Albright, 2021-Ohio-292, 2021 Ohio App. LEXIS 301 (1st Dist. Feb. 3, 2021).* 2255 petitioner’s Fourth Amendment … Continue reading
AR: Reasonableness of a probation search has to be presented to revocation court first
Defendant didn’t argue in the revocation court that the probation search was unreasonable, so it can’t be argued on appeal. Mathis v. State, 2021 Ark. App. 49, 2021 Ark. App. LEXIS 57 (Feb. 3, 2021). Defendant was on release and … Continue reading
CA9: ICE warrant authorized knocking at appellant’s door, and co-occupant consented to entry
ICE officers could approach appellant’s door under Jardines with an immigration arrest warrant even though it is not a judicial warrant. “The immigration warrant licensed the officers to solicit consent to entry for the limited purpose of enforcing the civil … Continue reading
CA1: Defense must argue cost v. benefits of exclusionary rule or issue is likely waived
When invoking the exclusionary rule, the defendant necessarily has to show that the deterrence value of exclusion outweighs the costs of exclusion. United States v. Cruz-Ramos, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 2284 (1st Cir. Jan. 27, 2021), n. 9:
E.D.Wis.: No REP as to pole camera surveillance, one in an apt building hallway
Two surveillance cameras were installed; one on a pole, one in a hallway of an apartment building. Defendant, a visitor, had no reasonable expectation of privacy. A codefendant already litigated this motion and lost, and he should have acknowledged the … Continue reading
D.V.I.: Failure to put on proof at suppression hearing leads to show cause order to defense
Defendant filed a motion to suppress a statement and a search. At the hearing, however, the search wasn’t challenged. Defendant has to show cause why that part of the motion should not be denied. United States v. Henry, 2021 U.S. … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Ptf’s 4A claim wasn’t sufficiently articulated to state a claim
“Mr. Ryan also alleges that there wasn’t any ‘adversarial pursuit of the Fourth Amendment’s protection of privacy can not be invalidated simply because a person’s right to want to be private evidences unlawful activity because the person does not want … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Franks challenge in PC clothing fails for no offer of proof
“At first glance, the Defendant’s motion does not appear to be a true Franks hearing request as it does not appear to contest the veracity of the statements of the affiant or assert that she made false allegations. Rather, it … Continue reading
CA6: Def waived Franks argument on appeal by only arguing PC below
Defendant’s Franks argument on appeal fails because the motion to suppress was based on a lack of probable cause and didn’t direct the court to any alleged false statement under Franks. United States v. Baker, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 113 … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: Indian tribes not subject to 4A claims
“Plaintiff cannot bring a claim based on a Fourth or Fourteenth Amendment violation against an Indian tribe like the Defendant. Oviatt v. Reynolds, 733 F. App’x 929, 933 (10th Cir. 2018) (dismissing Fourth Amendment claim against an Indian tribe ‘because … Continue reading
MA: SnapChat video of def with a firearm two days before SW was PC
A SnapChat video of defendant with a gun two days earlier was probable cause for a search warrant. Commonwealth v. Watkins, 2020 Mass. App. LEXIS 139 (Sept. 16, 2020). “Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint asserts a Fourth Amendment claim for unreasonable search … Continue reading
CA11: Govt waives abandonment by not pleading it in the district court
Government waives abandonment by not pleading it in the district court. United States v. Ross, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 21028 (11th Cir. July 7, 2020), on remand from United States v. Ross, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 19642 (11th Cir. June … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: State officer’s alleged 4A violation doesn’t permit removal of criminal case to federal court
Defendants removed their state criminal cases to federal court under 28 U.S.C. § 1443 based on claimed search and seizure issues. This isn’t a proper ground to remove, and they have a state law remedy. Texas v. Calzada, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
IL: Arguing only lack of arrest warrant waives lack of PC
Pleading and litigating a motion to suppress in the trial court that the officers lacked an arrest warrant or an exception waived his appellate claim of a lack of probable cause. People v. Montes, 2020 IL App (2d) 180565, 2020 … Continue reading
NJ: No REP in text messages in recipient’s cell phone
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in text messages in the receiving cell phone. The court also discusses the third party doctrine as to private persons. State v. Armstrong, 2020 N.J. Super. LEXIS 86 (June 2, 2020). Defendant’s conclusory … Continue reading
OH9: Def’s motion to suppress should not have been granted for his failure to plead a violation of the constitution or law
Defendant’s motion to suppress should not have been granted for his failure to plead a violation of the constitution or law. State v. Leatherwood, 2020-Ohio-3012, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 1956 (9th Dist. May 20, 2020):
W.D.Wash.: A filter team is required for execution of an allegedly overbroad SW
A filter team isn’t required just because a Facebook account search warrant is alleged to be overbroad. United States v. Sam, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79023 (W.D. Wash. May 5, 2020). Hearsay in a search warrant isn’t less believable solely … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Desire to file a Franks motion doesn’t expand discovery rights
“Generally, the fact that a defendant wishes to seek a Franks hearing ‘does not entitle him or her to additional discovery before the Franks hearing.’” The government stated it has provided discovery required by Rule 16. Defendant’s request for further … Continue reading