Archives
-
Recent Posts
- 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
-
Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
-
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: Franks doctrine
CA6: No QI immunity in an alleged unreasonable opposite sex strip search at jail with alleged unreasonable touching
Plaintiff overcame qualified immunity in her suit against five male jailers who stripped searched her and allegedly touched her genitalia and breasts when she was nude in wrestling her on the floor at book-in. Because of a spit mask they … Continue reading
TX: After Franks hearing that removed information from the affidavit, there is no heightened standard of PC
After removing false information after a Franks hearing, the standard of review of probable cause remains the same. There is no heightened standard of probable cause after Franks. Hyland v. State, 2019 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 542 (June 5, 2019). … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Broad discovery in hopes of finding a Franks violation isn’t proper under Rule 16
Defendant doesn’t get broad discovery just to see whether a Franks claim might be able to be made. He needs to be more specific and not just fish around. United States v. Walker, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92699 (E.D. Cal. … Continue reading
CA11: 4A claim can’t be brought in a successor 2255
Defendant filed a successor 2255 over the alleged nonexistence of his search warrant, and this doesn’t state ground for a successor petition. “Even if Mallety had presented evidence that the search of the Eden Street apartment was conducted without a … Continue reading
CA6: Summary judgment for Sheriff on a civil Franks claim is reversed because there’s an issue for a jury
Summary judgment for the Sheriff on a civil Franks claim that he could smell marijuana from a really long way away is reversed. Other officers couldn’t smell it until they were right upon it, and he professed in the past … Continue reading
LA5: Car in driveway near the street wasn’t on the curtilage
Defendant’s car in the driveway within an hour of the crime enabled the police to look in the windows and see proceeds from the crime inside without violating the curtilage. A search warrant was obtained, and the look was reasonable. … Continue reading
NY3: Officer’s subjective intent to search doesn’t matter where there was PC under automobile exception
The officer’s alleged subjective intent to search didn’t matter because there was justification under the automobile exception anyway. People v. HinesPeople v. HinesPeople v. Hines, 2019 NY Slip Op 03853, 2019 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3884 (3d Dept. May 16, … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: In camera submissions to rebut Franks claim should have had a hearing
An in camera submission of materials to rebut defendant’s Franks claim required a hearing. Defendant was entitled to see it and then respond. United States v. Lewis, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81937 (E.D. Wis. May 15, 2019), reconsideration denied, 2019 … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Franks doesn’t apply to grand jury testimony and resulting subpoenas
Franks doesn’t apply to grand jury testimony and resulting subpoenas. United States v. Tolbert, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76939 (D. N.M. May 7, 2019):
AR: Claim of misstatement or incorrect fact in SW affidavit doesn’t state Franks claim without allegation it was reckless or intentional
Merely stating that information in the affidavit for search warrant was incorrect doesn’t preserve a Franks challenge without also alleging that it was recklessly or intentionally made. King v. State, 2019 Ark. 114, 2019 Ark. LEXIS 125 (Apr. 18, 2019). … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Omission of def’s acquittal in a somewhat related case before the SW was issued was a Franks violation, but adding it in still leads to PC
The affidavit for search warrant omitted that defendant had been tried and acquitted of incest shortly before. Recasting the affidavit to include that fact, however, still leads to probable cause. “The Court determines that probable cause remains even after the … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Factual assertion in SW affidavit based on inference was reasonable and not false
Defendant’s Franks challenge fails. The officer’s assertion of fact was a reasonable inference based on what he saw and wasn’t false. United States v. Cruz-Arroyo, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47172 (D. P.R. Mar. 19, 2019).* Defendant’s Franks challenge fails for … Continue reading
D.Nev.: The fact the officers claimed to smell marijuana but didn’t find any doesn’t mean they were lying
It was testified that the car smelled like burnt marijuana. The fact none was found doesn’t indicate that officers were lying. United States v. Davila, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42805 (D. Nev. Jan. 31, 2019),* adopted, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA7: SW not required by Riley and Carpenter for cell phone and computer searches at border
The Seventh Circuit finds that the border search exception was not affected by Riley and Carpenter such that a search warrant is required for search of electronics at the border. United States v. Wanjiku, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 8154 (7th … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Even if def accused drug dealer’s alleged cover business was omitted from affidavit, there still was PC
The officers lack of complete detail to fully explain defendant’s version that he might have had a lawful explanation for what he was doing doesn’t rise to the high bar of a Franks violation. In addition, it’s not uncommon for … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Def had standing in a truck he was loaned
Defendant has standing in his daughter’s truck because he showed that she let him use it. The officer’s mistake of law concerning the expiration date of the vehicle’s license was reasonable. “Month of expiration” under Missouri law isn’t obvious. United … Continue reading