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- VA: Search incident between def’s shorts and underwear was reasonable
- Reason: Border Cops Seize Nurse’s Phone Filled With Psychiatric Patient Information
- MI: Handcuffing uncooperative def at scene of accident wasn’t unreasonable
- S.D.Ga.: Def’s car in driveway next to sidewalk was not on curtilage
- S.D.Ind.: Post search database search of occupants of a place didn’t show SW affidavit was false at time it issued
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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
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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: Franks doctrine
CA1: Gunshot from within while waiting for SW justified entry and sweep
Police froze and surrounded defendant’s home while they sought a search warrant. While they were waiting, a gunshot came from within, so they entered in response. The government satisfied inevitable discovery even though this protective sweep ended up in the … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Reissuance of a better SW to Google after a motion to suppress wasn’t unreasonable
As to one challenged search of Google, when the government says it won’t use challenged evidence at trial, the motion to suppress becomes moot. A motion to suppress another search warrant to Google led to reissuance of a search warrant … Continue reading
AF: Franks violation led to exclusion
Defendant showed a Franks violation for a reckless statement for a search authorization of his room for marijuana. Balancing the interests, the exclusionary rule would be applied. United States v. Hernandez, 2020 CCA LEXIS 362 (A.F. Ct. Crim. App. Oct. … Continue reading
CA4: Potentially glaring Franks claim proved immaterial
Defendant’s Franks claim was based on the fact that one Blount lived at the place to be searched, and Blount was associated with 7 addresses. Blount, however, had been in prison and couldn’t have lived there for a while. Nevertheless, … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Paraphrasing and not quoting what a witness said isn’t a Franks violation
“Jones offers a laundry list of complaints about the text of the search warrant affidavit: … [¶] Jones fails to make a ‘substantial preliminary showing that specified portions of the affiant’s averments are deliberately or recklessly false.’ [Officer] Brotherton did … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Apparent typo in a telephone number in a search warrant isn’t a Franks violation
An apparent typographical error in a telephone number in a search warrant isn’t a Franks violation. United States v. Green, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174674 (D. Minn. Sept. 23, 2020). Filter teams to protect privileged material are not per se … Continue reading
IA: All exculpatory evidence doesn’t have to be presented to issuing magistrate under Franks
“Case failed to make a preliminary showing to warrant a Franks hearing. See Baker, 925 N.W.2d at 615 (‘[A]n officer applying for a search warrant is not required to present all inculpatory and exculpatory evidence to the magistrate, only that … Continue reading
CA5: When multiple SW applications were presented together, the others supported a “sparse” one
One affidavit of many involving the multiple search warrants presented at the same time was “sparse” but the issuing magistrate could rely on the totality. Reversed and remanded, however, for a Franks review which the district court declined to do. … Continue reading
CA3: Merely pleading snitches are unreliable isn’t a Franks offer of proof
“Rodriguez-Colon does not meet this [Franks] requirement. His challenge contains no offer of proof and merely questions the general reliability of confidential sources. For instance, he argued to the District Court that if granted a hearing, “[i]t is anticipated that … Continue reading
CA5: § 1983 4A claim that evidence was inadmissible at trial was Heck barred, and then waived on appeal
Plaintiff’s § 1983 Fourth Amendment claim was framed as a claim the evidence was inadmissible at trial. Thus it was barred. His appeal was over denial of IFP status, which was also denied, and he waived the Fourth Amendment claim … Continue reading
OH3: Contents of bookbag shown by baggies of drugs hanging out of it
Based on the officer’s observation of baggies of drugs hanging out of a bookbag, the contents were readily apparent. State v. Burroughs, 2020-Ohio-4417, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 3301 (3d Dist. Sept. 14, 2020). Defendant’s objection to the R&R had a … Continue reading
CA5: Mistaken identity arrest for half brother with same name gets QI
Plaintiff’s case for a mistaken identity arrest when his half-brother with the same name was the target fails on qualified immunity. Baker v. McCollan, 443 U.S. 137 (1979) is close enough to show qualified immunity. Nerio v. Derekevans, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Dep’t of Fish & Game checkpoint was reasonable
The Idaho Dep’t of Fish & Game division’s wildlife checkpoint here was reasonable under all the circumstances. Plaintiff wasn’t a hunter and his stop would have resulted in one question and he’d have been on his way. Tanner v. Schriever, … Continue reading
CA5: Alleged violations of the Posse Comitatus Act must be “widespread and repeated” to justify suppression
Alleged violations of the Posse Comitatus Act, here by AFOSI, must be “widespread and repeated” to justify suppression. Defendant didn’t show this was. United States v. Salinas, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 28616 (5th Cir. Sept. 9, 2020). “A detective assigned … Continue reading
CA2: Omissions from affidavit were material and denied QI
District court’s denial of qualified immunity affirmed. Omissions from the affidavit for the search warrant were material to the finding of probable cause. Pourkavoos v. Town of Avon, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 28183 (2d Cir. Sept. 3, 2020):
S.D.Fla.: Deputy sheriff stated false imprisonment claim against ATF officers
Plaintiff, a Monroe County deputy sheriff, stated a claim so far for false imprisonment against ATF agents who stopped him for no reason while he was working Hurricane Irma in the Florida Keys. His excessive force claim, however, is dismissed. … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: That later police reports would shed more light on affidavit for SW, that’s not a Franks issue
Affidavits for search warrants are presumed to be accurate under Franks, and that’s why the defense has to make a substantial preliminary showing of falsity. Alleging merely that other more timely reports would shed light on the subject is not … Continue reading
OH2: Giving false name and DOB after SW executed supports obstruction charge
Defendant was removed from his house after a search warrant was served by the SWAT team. His false name and DOB to the officers supported his obstruction conviction. State v. Castleberry, 2020-Ohio-4233, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 3129 (2d Dist. Aug. … Continue reading
CA6: Pleading false information used to get SW overcame QI at this stage
Pleading that defendants used false information to get a search warrant for them. That was enough to get around qualified immunity, and the district court erred in dismissing at this stage. Marvaso v. Sanchez, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 26723 (6th … Continue reading
OK: False name given during execution of SW admissible to impeach credibility
“The State’s questions about Appellant having given a false name to authorities during the execution of a search warrant earlier in the summer of 2015 was relevant as a general matter to impeach Appellant’s credibility.” Knapper v. State, 2020 OK … Continue reading