Archives
-
Recent Posts
- N.D.Ga.: PIT maneuver here was not excessive force
- LA4: Acting like carrying a gun and wearing a ski mask in New Orleans in June was RS
- MI: Lifetime SO registration and GPS monitoring was reasonable
- S.D.N.Y.: Four-year-old SW materials were subject to redaction and in camera submission to see about release
- E.D.Ark.: Facts underlying QI will be submitted to jury
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
-
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
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)
-
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
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
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] -
“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: Exclusionary rule
C.D.Ill.: Exclusionary rule does not apply to revocation of supervised release
The exclusionary rule does not apply to revocation of supervised release. United States v. Phillips, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25603 (C.D. Ill. Feb. 16, 2018). Defendant’s 2255 Fourth Amendment IAC claim wasn’t timely: “Petitioner’s motion to vacate was not filed … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Messages through Airbnb’s website and app are governed by ECPA
A search warrant under ECPA to Airbnb was granted. Through its website and app, Airbnb allows messaging, and that makes it subject to ECPA. The government needs to determine which part of this can be unsealed to not compromise an … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: It’s not prosecutorial misconduct to present evidence allegedly unlawfully seized to a GJ
It’s not prosecutorial misconduct to present evidence allegedly unlawfully seized to a grand jury. That was settled in Calandra in 1974. United States v. Boston, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23751 (E.D. Mich. Feb. 14, 2018). “Accordingly, the court finds that … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: Argument preview: Should courts read statutory exclusionary rules broadly?
SCOTUSBlog: Argument preview: Should courts read statutory exclusionary rules broadly? by Richard Re:
E.D.N.Y.: The exclusionary doesn’t apply at sentencing
The exclusionary doesn’t apply at sentencing. United States v. Carrillo, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21731 (E.D. N.Y. Feb. 9, 2018):
MN: Exclusionary rule doesn’t apply in civil eviction
The landlord was changing all the locks in an apartment complex for uniformity and warned the tenants. They showed up at defendant’s apartment and knocked, but defendant didn’t answer. They tried unlocking the door but the master key didn’t work. … Continue reading
NY4: CSLI obtained by exigency mere third party information not subject to suppression
Police discovered defendant may have been involved in a quadruple homicide, and they submitted an exigent circumstances request for his CSLI for the four days around the homicide, and that put him there. His motion to suppress the CSLI was … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Exclusionary rule doesn’t apply in civil case
The FTC moved for a preliminary injunction and appointment of a receiver which was granted on an emergency basis. Defendants now claim a Fourth Amendment violation from seizure of records. The claim is waived by not raising it sooner. Even … Continue reading
Volokh Conspiracy: The Fourth Amendment, the Exclusionary Rule, and Illegal Government Searches
Volokh Conspiracy: The Fourth Amendment, the Exclusionary Rule, and Illegal Government Searches by Damon Root Why illegally obtained evidence is generally inadmissible in court.
CA1: Exclusionary rule as to a statement won’t be applied to military disciplinary review board case
In a military disciplinary case, the court holds that a statement obtained without warnings could still be used before a disciplinary review board because the exclusionary rule is disfavored. Sasen v. Spencer, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 517 (1st Cir. Jan. … Continue reading
Reason: The Fourth Amendment, the Exclusionary Rule, and Illegal Government Searches
Reason: The Fourth Amendment, the Exclusionary Rule, and Illegal Government Searches by Damon Root:
PA: Even if HIPAA violated (it wasn’t), there’s no exclusionary remedy
Defendant’s medical records from the state he was extradited from were not unlawfully obtained under HIPAA or the Uniform Act for Obtaining Witnesses from Without State. A “subpoena” under the act includes subpoenas duces tecum. Moreover, even if HIPAA had … Continue reading
NV: Illegally recorded conversation by recorder in child’s backpack can be used by expert in child custody proceeding
In this child custody case, the father put a recording device in the child’s backpack to record the child’s interactions with the mother. While the recording violated state law, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in permitting an … Continue reading
CA10: 4A claim (not IAC) can’t be raised in habeas [this still comes up? Yes, because pro se inmates don’t know]
Petitioner’s habeas case was based on his alleged illegal arrest and search. Dismissed under Stone v. Powell. Keys v. Faulk, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 24509 (10th Cir. Dec. 5, 2017). Throwing a lit cigarette from a car which hit police … Continue reading
VI: Evidence suppressed in another case couldn’t be used here as 404(b) evidence
Evidence suppressed in another case against defendant for a Fourth Amendment violation not admissible in this case as 404(b) evidence. People v. Walters, 2017 V.I. LEXIS 165 (Dec. 4, 2017). Defendant argued his arrest was unlawful but not that his … Continue reading
UT: There was PC for the warrant, and whether there is a state exclusionary rule doesn’t have to be decided
The trial court erred in concluding there was no probable cause for the issuance of the search warrant, but the good faith exception applied. Instead, there was a substantial basis for issuance of the search warrant, and the exclusionary rule … Continue reading
Cal.App., LA: Accepting deferred entry of judgment denies a statutory right to appeal denial of suppression motion
Having accepted deferred entry of judgment to resolve his criminal case, defendant had no statutory right to appeal the denial of his suppression motion. People v. Cortez, 2017 Cal. App. LEXIS 891 (App.Div. Los Angeles Sept. 14, 2017). The search … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: “Failure to follow Internal Revenue manual does not mandate suppression of any evidence obtained in violation thereof.”
Tax records were collected in an audit.”Failure to follow Internal Revenue manual does not mandate suppression of any evidence obtained in violation thereof.” United States v. Wright, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 167300 (S.D. Ohio Oct. 10, 2017). “[I]f an objectively … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Exclusion warranted for stop without RS
Two plainclothes officers jumped out of a car and approached to men who fled. The court finds the officers didn’t identify themselves. This wasn’t reasonable suspicion, and the court finds exclusion warranted for the police conduct. United States v. Bell, … Continue reading
OH follows Hudson on knock-and-announce under state constitution
The Ohio Supreme Court follows Hudson under the state constitution and holds that a violation of knock-and-announce does not justify suppression of the search. The state constitution has been applied more broadly than the Fourth Amendment on occasion, but not … Continue reading