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- MI: Stop was initiated on roadway but ended in driveway; stop on curtilage here was reasonable
- Malwarebytes: Your car’s app could be telling Big Tech who you are and where you go
- S.D.Tex.: Govt can’t raise new 4A exception in motion to reconsider
- NY4: Def was missing and police couldn’t find him; entry into backyard and then house were reasonable under Mitchell and Brigham City
- FL5: Only matching description of anonymous caller’s burglary report wasn’t RS; nothing about def suggested he was a burglar
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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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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)
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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: Ineffective assistance
S.D.Tex.: Govt can’t raise new 4A exception in motion to reconsider
While executing a search warrant, officers compelled defendant to provide the passcode to the safe. The court suppressed the contents of the safe because it was not a valid consent. The government doesn’t get to argue inevitable discovery on a … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Checking VIN number during traffic stop is reasonable
During a traffic stop, asking for identification and about travel plans and checking the VIN is reasonable under N.Y. v. Class. United States v. Sanchez, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 223586 (D.N.M. Sep. 30, 2026). Defendant was a passenger in a … Continue reading
MS: Execution style murder in public in broad daylight was exigency to get suspect’s CSLI
Defendant’s allegedly committing an execution style murder in public in broad daylight was exigency to get his CSLI at that moment to locate him. Carpenter recognized exigency exceptions. Anderson v. State, 2026 Miss. App. LEXIS 406 (Sep. 15, 2026). Defendant … Continue reading
NC: Standing to contest search of hotel room doesn’t include other guest’s cell phone
As a guest of a guest, defendant had standing to contest the search of the hotel room, but he didn’t have standing to contest the search of the other tenant’s cell phone. State v. Miller, 2026 N.C. App. LEXIS 763 … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: No 2255 discovery of SW materials based on mere speculation
In this 2255, petitioner doesn’t get discovery of his search warrant materials. “The Government responds that Wilson ‘has failed to provide good cause as to why he is entitled to the materials that he requests’ and instead, he ‘only speculates … Continue reading
CA8: SW affidavit can’t be supplemented, but a revised one can be filed
In the Eighth Circuit at least, the government can’t supplement a search warrant affidavit. Here, however, they submitted a revised affidavit which clarified what amounts to an immaterial fact. Affirmed. United States v. Smith, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 26544 (8th … Continue reading
CA6: No interlocutory appeal of denial of motion to suppress
There is no interlocutory appeal of denial of a motion to suppress in the federal system. United States v. Cox, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 25677 (6th Cir. Aug. 24, 2026). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not making a frivolous motion … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Not exactly following the inventory policy doesn’t make it unreasonable under 4A
Not exactly following the inventory policy doesn’t make it unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Maldonadochavarria, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 180956 (W.D. Mo. July 13, 2026). “Here, King was placed in handcuffs and moved from the Rite Shop … Continue reading
D.N.M.: 2¼ hour detention was still with RS despite 10th Cir.’s 90-minute limit
“Defendant was detained from approximately 4:45 a.m. until his release at around 7:00 a.m., a total duration of two hours and 15 minutes. … Having concluded that the initial detention was lawful, the Court must next address whether the detention … Continue reading
Cal.1: Search condition for mental health diversion was within court’s discretion
The trial court acted within its statutory discretion imposing a search condition on defendant during his mental health diversion. His criminal history justified it. Thompson v. Superior Court, 2026 Cal. App. LEXIS 459 (1st Dist. July 30, 2026). One defendant … Continue reading
FL5: State failed to show justification for delay for dog sniff
This being a warrantless search during a traffic stop with a drug dog, the state bore the burden of proof on justification for detention for the dog sniff, and it failed to show that the stop was lawfully continued. Reversed. … Continue reading
IL: A backpack is not as personal a repository of stuff as a purse or wallet; officers ordered it left in vehicle for safety reasons and it was inventoried
Defendant’s backpack is not as much a personal repository as a wallet or purse. When officers ordered the occupants out of the car, the backpack was at defendant’s feet, and he was ordered to leave it behind. The inventory was … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Facts underlying QI will be submitted to jury
In a qualified immunity order, the court decides to submit underlying fact questions to the jury to decide it. Steelman v. City of Shannon Hills, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118665 (E.D. Ark. May 29, 2026). 2255 petitioner’s claim about his … Continue reading
RI: Challenge to one sentence of 8-page cell phone records SW fails; totality has to be considered
Defendant’s challenge to the search warrant for his cell phone records focused on one sentence adding nothing to the calculus. On the totality, the 8-page affidavit showed probable cause for the cell phone records. State v. Pinkerton, 2026 R.I. LEXIS … Continue reading
TX14: Affidavit for SW gets deferential standard of review by both the trial court and appellate court
The affidavit for search warrant gets a deferential standard of review by both the trial court and appellate court. Gaither v. State, 2026 Tex. App. LEXIS 4588 (Tex. App. – Houston (14th Dist.) May 19, 2026). “The federal district court … Continue reading
LA5: SW for cell phone including “cloud based storage accessible by the device” not overbroad
The search warrant for defendant’s cell phone included “or within cloud based storage accessible by the device.” The warrant was not overbroad. State v. Pampas, 2026 La. App. LEXIS 848 (La. App. 5 Cir May 5, 2026). Defense counsel’s failure … Continue reading