Archives
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Recent Posts
- MD: Hot pursuit can be days later, here exigent CSLI to find him
- D.D.C.: Alleged illegal arrest doesn’t void DNA SW
- S.D.Fla.: Inventory that omitted “miscellaneous personal items” was not unreasonable
- CA4: That ptf charged with witness intimidation didn’t do it again wasn’t material for Franks
- CO: Not 4A or state constitutional violation for govt to access def’s computer via peer-to-peer sharing with BitTorrent software
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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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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)
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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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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: Warrant execution
MA: No right to counsel at execution of SW
“The defendant has presented no case law supporting his proposition that the target of a search warrant has a right to have counsel present during the execution of a warrant. The officers executed a warrant to search the defendant’s cell … Continue reading
IN: Search of def’s car when he shows up at home while SW being executed there was reasonable even though SW didn’t mention car
“Do law-enforcement officers violate either constitution by searching a person’s vehicle when the person drives that vehicle up to his or her house while officers are there executing a search warrant for the house that does not address vehicles? Based … Continue reading
RI: Reasonable use of force to take inmate’s DNA under SW wasn’t grounds for suppression
The trial court erred in granting defendant’s motion to suppress the taking of his DNA by force under a search warrant when he refused to cooperate. He already had a reduced expectation of privacy in the jail, and the state’s … Continue reading
NY4: Failure to complete inventory report of the search doesn’t void search
“Contrary to defendant’s contention, even assuming, arguendo, that the police officers failed to comply with the inventory provisions of CPL 690.50(5), we conclude that noncompliance with that subdivision ‘does not undermine the validity of the search warrant or the search’” … Continue reading
AL: SW to “any law enforcement officer ” in the state can be directed to one from a different county than the place of the search
A search warrant to “any law enforcement officer ” in the state can be directed to one from a different county than the place of the search. When defendant admitted that he had child pornography on the computer at his … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: SW was issued before entry; even if not, emergency justified the entry
“On this record, Reynolds has not shown that the search of his room was illegal. The officers did not enter it until they had a valid warrant. For the sake of completeness, the Court also finds that entering Reynolds’s room … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Six days to draft a cell phone SW was reasonable
The government was diligent in getting a warrant over six days, including a weekend, where the agents and the USAO spent most of three days drafting it. “Still, the Fourth Amendment obligated the United States to ‘diligently obtain[ ] a … Continue reading
techdirt: On The Same Day The FBI Claimed No Vendor Could Crack IPhones, Another Way To Crack IPhones Made The News
techdirt: On The Same Day The FBI Claimed No Vendor Could Crack IPhones, Another Way To Crack IPhones Made The News by Tim Cushing:
D.C.: Four day delay in getting SW for car and then searching it was unreasonable and interfered with def’s possessory interests
A four day delay between the seizure of defendant’s car and obtaining a search warrant for it unreasonably infringed on defendant’s possessory interest in the car. The exclusionary rule should be applied here because the delay was all the actions … Continue reading
IL: Hospital drawing blood was not acting as an agent of the state
A hospital drawing blood was not acting as an agent of the state. People v. Deroo, 2020 IL App (3d) 170163, 2020 Ill. App. LEXIS 313 (May 20, 2020). Defendant’s motion to dismiss his indictment for seizure of a sheep … Continue reading
NY2: Inclusion of some unauthorized persons in the list of those to execute the SW doesn’t void it
The search warrant here was directed to local police officers, the state police, and a special operations group of the sheriff’s office which included correctional officers which were not LEOs capable of executing warrants. Their inclusion didn’t void the warrant. … Continue reading
LA1: Claim probation violation warrant lacked justification that led to search incident has to be argued on appeal
Defendant claimed his probation violation arrest warrant was defective and then argued the search incident to his arrest was thus invalid. On appeal, he doesn’t argue the validity of the arrest warrant, so the argument is waived. State v. Anglin, … Continue reading
ME: No REP in paperwork kept in prison
Plaintiff had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his prison paperwork under Hudson v. Palmer or state law. If legal mail were involved, plaintiff would have to show actual injury [n.5]. Anctil v. Cassese, 2020 ME 59, 2020 Me. LEXIS … Continue reading
CT: Dismissal not appropriate remedy here for violation of A-C privilege in execution of SW
Defendant did not show that all the documents seized were attorney-client privileged for purposes of litigation. Some were. However, dismissal is not the appropriate remedy, despite the fact privileged information made it into the media from the arrest warrant materials. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Defense counsel’s failure to inform def of potential 4A claims isn’t itself an IAC claim
“Williams’ assertion that counsel failed to inform him that state law enforcement officers are not authorized to make federal arrests provides no support for a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.” Considering the merits of any search claim, defendant’s stop … Continue reading
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
N.D.Ohio: Private party, here the owner, can be enlisted to help in computer search
Both the Fourth Amendment and Ohio law permitted law enforcement to seek private assistance in executing a search warrant, here of a computer, and the search was conducted by the company that owned the computer. United States v. Powell, 2020 … Continue reading
TX6: Even if def’s vehicle was over the property line and not on the property subject to SW, was the officer’s mistake reasonable?
Officers had a search warrant for vehicles on a particular piece of property. Defendant contended his vehicle wasn’t on the property. Even if the officer was wrong, was his belief unreasonable? “The Brinegar Court explained the requirement of reasonableness in … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Search incident for violation of no-contact order unjustified
The USMJ’s order is affirmed. The motion to suppress the search warrant is denied because there was probable cause. The search incident for evidence of violation of a no-contact order was properly ordered suppressed. United States v. Watson, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
CA2: Barring cross-examination on execution of SW on cell phone wasn’t shown to be prejudicial
The district court didn’t err in sustaining the government’s objection to cross-examination about the execution of the search warrant on defendant’s cell phone because there was no showing that the warrant wasn’t improperly executed. United States v. Vargas, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading