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- VA: Search incident between def’s shorts and underwear was reasonable
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- 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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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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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)
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"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
E.D.Ky.: Ambiguities in affidavit for SW not a Franks violation
Alleged ambiguities in the affidavit for the search warrant didn’t show a Franks violation where there clearly was probable cause. United States v. Jenkins, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69247 (E.D. Ky. Apr. 21, 2020). A 911 call from a cell … Continue reading
FL2: Search incident of backpack for being in park after hours invalid
Defendant was stopped for sitting in a park with his bicycle after hours, a violation of a county ordinance. The search incident of his backpack for this offense violated the Florida Constitution. Booker v. State, 2020 Fla. App. LEXIS 5718 … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Merely saying in a motion to suppress def was arrested without probable cause doesn’t state grounds
Defendant does not offer further context or analysis. Based upon his failure to fully address this issue, the Defendant’s argument regarding an alleged illegal search and seizure is denied without prejudice. See United States v. Collins, 796 F.3d 829, 836 … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: SW for apt and seizure of computers and cell phones includes power to search them later
A search warrant to search an apartment and seize computers and cell phones includes the power to search them later. United States v. Quinonez, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 55789 (S.D. Fla. Mar. 30, 2020). The officer’s statement that the CI’s … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Franks challenge fails because of complete lack of materiality
Moreover, Perkins did not — and cannot — make a preliminary showing that any alleged ‘false statement or material omission [was] necessary to the probable cause finding in the affidavit.’ If the Court were to strike every contested statement from … Continue reading
D.Alaska: No Franks duty to tell issuing magistrate of failed challenges to same CP search software elsewhere
The FBI agent applying for the search warrant had no Franks duty to tell the issuing magistrate that Torrential Downpour, the software they were using, had been challenged elsewhere where the challenges had failed. United States v. Schwier, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: Specialized P2P software for a CP search doesn’t otherwise create a REP issue that doesn’t exist
The government’s use of specialized software to search peer-to-peer files didn’t create a reasonable expectation of privacy claim. “RoundUp, software with certain technological modifications to a public, open-source P2P network sharing client, is designed to access public files that individuals … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Search of room six hours before SW issued (not to mention lies about it) leads to suppression
The search of defendant’s room was six hours before the search warrant was issued. It was an investigative search and not a protective sweep. The officer admitted that he was looking for something to put in the affidavit for the … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Controlled buy is PC; CI’s alleged lie isn’t Franks issue
A controlled buy was probable cause. The claim that the CI lied isn’t cognizable under Franks. United States v. Sheridan, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 36163 (N.D. Ohio. Mar. 3, 2020). There were disputed questions of fact on whether it was … Continue reading
NC: Ordering traffic detainee to get in police car and shut door after stop should have been over unreasonably extended it
The officer unreasonably extended the stop past the time for resolving the alleged traffic violations. He told defendant to get into the police car, and defendant did, but left the passenger door open with his right leg out. The officer … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Franks motion that only sets up a “swearing match” for witnesses is inadequate
Defendant’s unsworn motion for a Franks hearing fails to identify the materiality of the alleged misstatement and that it was knowingly false. Setting up a “swearing match” for a hearing doesn’t satisfy Franks. United States v. Figueroa-Rivera, 2020 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
TX9: Witness and ADAs allegedly providing false information for SWs are absolutely immune from civil cases
Witnesses who had provided affidavits in the underlying criminal case were entitled to absolute witness immunity, regardless of whether they gave false testimony. Prosecutors in that case who allegedly participated in falsifying evidence and writing a perjured search warrant were … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: There were false statements in the boilerplate, but they weren’t material
The USMJ determined that defendant made his burden of showing material falsity in the boilerplate information in the affidavit for search warrant and granted a Franks hearing. In a really long opinion, the USDJ agrees with the falsity but finds … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Search incident of def’s room on his arrest was valid even though he’d just been removed
The search incident of defendant’s room was valid because it occurred shortly after his arrest when he was still there, despite his being handcuffed which doesn’t per se make a search incident invalid. “Because defendant failed to allege facts which, … Continue reading
OH8: No IAC for not arguing prior authority should be overruled
Appellate counsel wasn’t ineffective for not arguing that a prior decision should be overruled when it would not likely be. State v. Newton, 2020-Ohio-376, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 340 (8th Dist. Jan. 30, 2020).* Defendant’s claims of deficient performance were … Continue reading
OH12: Officer’s objectively reasonable mistake as to traffic violation will support stop
The dashcam didn’t catch defendant’s lane violation because the officer saw it through the driver’s window. The trial court credited that a traffic violation supported the stop. Even an objectively reasonable mistake as to the traffic offense supports the stop, … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: In a 3 page affidavit for SW, showing the crimes under investigation was particular enough
The affidavits for search warrant are only three pages long, and they reference the crimes under investigation on page one or the first paragraph. That is enough here to show particularity. “The Court concludes that the fact that these brief … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: For purposes of entry on an arrest warrant, officers can reasonably believe def had two addresses
“Under the facts of this case, the Court concludes that law enforcement agents had the requisite reasonable belief that Sparks was residing at 6825 Walrond Avenue and/or 5501 Smart Avenue and was present at the addresses at the time of … Continue reading
CA9: Tasering a man in his own bed not cooperating in being arrested could be found excessive
A jury could reasonably conclude that using a Taser on plaintiff lying on his own bed, on his cell phone trying to call his lawyer, who didn’t violently resist but just pulled his arm away, was an unreasonable use of … Continue reading