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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)
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: Franks doctrine
CA4: Denial of post-trial Franks motion here subject to plain error review
Defendant’s motion for a Franks hearing came post-trial. The court of appeals declines to deny it for lack of timeliness and denies it on the merits. The Franks burden is heavy, and the record is scant. So, he’s relegated to … Continue reading
D.Nev.: The fact def’s FIPF prior had a suspended sentence wasn’t material for Franks
A state telephonic search warrant was issued based on allegations that defendant was a felon in possession of a firearm. The fact he got a suspended sentence and it was omitted from the application for the warrant isn’t material. United … Continue reading
W.D.Ark.: The “traffic stop” was actually a PC stop for drugs
This was not even a traffic stop, although it appeared one to the defendant. Actually, it was based on a CI’s information involving drugs and was with probable cause, so the extension of the stop with reasonable suspicion didn’t even … Continue reading
WaPo: Two people were killed in a botched drug raid. Investigators say the official story was a lie.
WaPo: Two people were killed in a botched drug raid. Investigators say the official story was a lie. by Brittney Martin and Eli Rosenberg:
WaPo: A [SF] judge signed a warrant to search a journalist. But police didn’t tell her the whole story.
WaPo: A judge signed a warrant to search a journalist. But police didn’t tell her the whole story.
W.D.Va.: Def satisfies burden to get a Franks hearing by showing material omissions
Defendant satisfies his burden to get a Franks hearing by showing material omissions from the affidavit. United States v. Anderson, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122131 (W.D. Va. July 23, 2019):
CA4: Def counsel not ineffective for not filing CSLI motion before Carpenter
Defense counsel can’t be ineffective for not anticipating Carpenter by filing a CSLI motion before it was decided. United States v. Jackson, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 21716 (4th Cir. July 22, 2019). Defendant’s motion to prevent a search of his … Continue reading
OH5: PC is determined on the totality, not each isolated fact
Defendant’s challenge to probable cause for the search warrant isolates each fact. Applying the totality of circumstances, there is probable cause. State v. Beightler, 2019-Ohio-2946, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 3037 (5th Dist. July 18, 2019).* Defendant doesn’t meet the Franks … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Moving place of search of belongings away from alley where def was arrested to inside wasn’t unreasonable
Officers had a warrant for defendant’s person and belongings. It wasn’t unreasonable to move the place of the search from the alley where he was arrested inside, even as a search incident. United States v. Sanchez, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
PA: Motions for return of property seized by SW are addressed to judge supervising the GJ that sought them
Motions for return of property seized by search warrant issued for a Statewide Investigating Grand Jury are to be addressed to the judge supervising the grand jury. In re Return of Seized Property, 2019 Pa. LEXIS 3845 (July 17, 2019). … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Govt gets benefit of GFE which overrides Franks [without sufficiently telling us why]
Defendant twice asked the USMJ for a Franks hearing and never got one. On review, application of the good faith exception is sustained. “Here, the Government has shown that McMahon and the other law enforcement officers that executed the search … Continue reading
UT: 40 minute delay for dog was reasonable where it was tied up in another part of same investigation
The 40 minute delay for the dog sniff, already based on reasonable suspicion, was reasonable. The dog was at a residence related to the same investigation then came to where the car was stopped. The court also mentions the weather … Continue reading
CA6: Complaint about minor irrelevant details doesn’t satisfy Franks burden
Defendant failed to satisfy his pleading burden under Franks about the omission of “several seemingly irrelevant details excluded from the affidavit” for which materiality isn’t attempted to be shown. United States v. Shaffer, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 20200 (6th Cir. … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Govt bears burden of showing attachment limiting search was actually attached, and it failed
For the government to rely on the good faith exception by claiming the attachment limiting the warrant was attached to the search warrant, it bears the burden of showing that, and it didn’t. United States v. Chang, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
CA8: Second attempt at knock-and-talk wasn’t unreasonable under Jardines
Officers went to defendant’s home for a knock-and-talk and could smell green marijuana. Their second attempt at a knock-and-talk wasn’t unreasonable under Jardines. United States v. White, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 19446 (8th Cir. June 28, 2019). “Ferguson, however, does … Continue reading
CA6: Dist Ct erred in concluding it was reasonable to believe ptf abandoned his home; finding of QI reversed
The district court erred in granting qualified immunity to officers who decided that the plaintiff had abandoned his rented home by disclaiming ownership in the property. He was clearly a guest at the minimum or a renter at most, and … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Record supports def abandoned CD-Rom of CP
The record supports the conclusion that defendant abandoned a CD-Rom of child pornography, and defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not pursuing it. Rogers v. Sec’y, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107788 (M.D. Fla. June 27, 2019).* The trial court’s finding there … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Ptf sufficiently pled a civil Franks claim that survives summary judgment and QI
Plaintiff sufficiently pled a civil Franks claim that survives summary judgment and qualified immunity. Wooden v. Armenteros, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106113 (S.D. Fla. June 25, 2019).* “At this stage of the proceedings, viewing the evidence in the light most … Continue reading
MA: SW in ongoing criminal enterprise was based on “powerful evidence”
“A Superior Court judge erred in granting a criminal defendant’s pretrial motion to suppress evidence seized by police from the defendant’s home and place of business, where the affidavit in support of the search warrants contained sufficient information to justify … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Waving a gun at a crowd is PC for assault
Defendant’s waving a gun at a crowd was probable cause, and it was on video. United States v. Leonard, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97917 (S.D. Fla. June 11, 2019).* “The defendants have not shown that Det. Miller was reckless or … Continue reading