Archives
-
Recent Posts
- CA2: No 4A requirement for SWs being issued with notice to target
- CA6: Denying ptf access to his own bathroom during a search of his house stated 4A claim
- W.D.Mo.: Not exactly following the inventory policy doesn’t make it unreasonable under 4A
- GA: No IAC for not challenging complete cell phone download before search
- DNYUZ: CBP Workers Allegedly Used Government Databases to Spy on Exes, Crushes, and Colleagues
-
-
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: Consent
DE: Cell tower dump was reasonable under 4A
Defendant was convicted of robbery and kidnapping of a woman from her apartment complex to go to her ATM machine. Police got cell tower dumps for the nearest towers to the occurrence at the specific times to locate cell phones … Continue reading →
SD: Parole officer could authorize search of def’s computer hard drive for child porn
Defendant was on parole for felony DUI when he became a suspect in a child pornography case. His parole officer authorized a search of his computer hard drive for child pornography, and defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not challenging the … Continue reading →
Cal.4: Def passed out 45 min. after arrival at hospital; officer’s failure to get SW for blood draw was inexcusable, so no GFE either
Defendant was transported to the hospital after a vehicle accident. The officer was attempting to talk to him. Defendant was lethargic and had a hard time answering questions. About 45 minutes into the hospital stay, he passed out. Blood was … Continue reading →
VA: Def’s consent to a patdown for weapons didn’t include full search of the person
Defendant only consented to a patdown, not a full search of his person. “As Officer Murphy reached into Carter’s jacket pocket, he asked, ‘Nothing on you is gonna poke, prick, or stab me?’ Carter replied, ‘No, sir.’ This exchange did … Continue reading →
OH7: Ohio SW can be for info on California server; SCA contemplates it and CA law says providers must comply with out-of-state process
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not challenging a social media account search warrant issued in Ohio on a California server. The SCA contemplates this, and California law directs computer companies to honor process from other states. Defendant can’t win on … Continue reading →
NY Nassau: Mere theory someone else is inside when it’s not even practical doesn’t support a protective sweep
Police were sent to defendant’s house/dentist office on a report of his menacing with a firearm. Defendant came out and submitted. The entry into the house for exigency or protective sweep was not shown by the state to be justified. … Continue reading →
D.P.R.: No REP of corporate officers in medical records in health care fraud case
Records were taken by a corporate whistleblower on a flash drive from a Puerto Rican health care provider. That led to a 122-count indictment for health care fraud. A motion to suppress was filed over the records. Defendants were corporate … Continue reading →
CA11: Crew of foreign registered ship boarded in international waters has no 4A standing
Defendant had no Fourth Amendment standing when he was a foreign national on a ship of a foreign country that drew the Coast Guard’s attention south of the Cayman Islands. The Coast Guard finally boarded the ship after the country … Continue reading →
IL: Dog’s alert before trespass on the car meant GFE applied
Where the dog indicated an alert almost immediately and before the dog trespassed on the car, the officer had probable cause, and the good faith exception would be applied. People v. Kendricks, 2023 IL App (4th) 230179, 2023 Ill. App. … Continue reading →
NY Kings Co.: The logic that people always have their cell phones on them is enough for nexus to get this SW
Defendant was arrested two days after a shooting. A search warrant was obtained for his cell phone. He resisted because there was no allegation he had the phone on him at the time of the shooting. Essentially, people always have … Continue reading →
MO: Male passenger couldn’t consent to search of female passenger’s purse
Defendant was a passenger in a car, and the police ordered the occupants out. She left her purse inside, and another male passenger consented to search of the interior. His consent did not include her purse. The state’s argument she … Continue reading →
MI: Biting and kicking were reasonable responses to an unlawful arrest that can be resisted at common law
Defendant was unlawfully arrested for failing to produce an ID. While Michigan retains the common law right to resist an unlawful arrest, defendant’s biting and kicking was found reasonable. People v. Murawski, 2023 Mich. App. LEXIS 9151 (Oct. 26, 2023) … Continue reading →
CA8: Minor child could consent to search and seizure of camera hidden in her bathroom
This court rejects the notion that a minor never has the apparent authority to consent to a search, here of a camera in the house. The minor was defendant’s 14-year-old daughter, and defendant and the mother had visitation. She found … Continue reading →
D.S.D.: Def’s lies to police during arrest completely undermines his credibility in a pro se Franks challenge
Defendant pro se makes allegations of a Franks violation but nothing substantive is offered for the “substantial preliminary showing.” Moreover, because he lied to the officers during his arrest, the court finds him without credibility. United States v. Ward, 2023 … Continue reading →
MD: False information in cold case arrest warrant suppresses statement made on arrest
17-year-old information from an admittedly unreliable CI who had the information two-three years before telling in 2008 coupled with a false statement in an affidavit for warrant about an identification that was just wrong did not provide probable cause for … Continue reading →
D.D.C.: Even joint venture search in Dominican Republic of a Venezuelan citizen doesn’t violate 4A
Defendant is charged with hostage taking in the Dominican Republic. Trial starts next week. He is a citizen of Venezuela in the Dominican Republic, and the search there did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights since he had no connection … Continue reading →
CA5: No excessive force without a seizure; here, ptf told to “get back”
“At no point was D.J. prevented from leaving the scene—rather, he was repeatedly asked to do so, to ‘get back’ and move away while Deputy Moring was securing the perimeter. True, he was prevented from further approaching Perkins and Deputy … Continue reading →
CA6: Recently discovered alleged Franks violation not sufficient for successor habeas petition
Even if there was a recently discovered Franks violation in the underlying search warrant affidavit that produced evidence against defendant, that doesn’t satisfy the standard for a successor habeas petition. In re Rooks, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 31471 (6th Cir. … Continue reading →
ND: It was unreasonable for police to think landowner who rented bedroom to another could consent to its search
Defendant stayed in a bedroom in another’s house, and he paid rent. It was unreasonable for officers to conclude that the homeowner could consent to search of the room. Also, the door to the room was closed when the police … Continue reading →
CT: IAC in cell phone search decided on lack of prejudice, not the merits
Defendant was convicted of accessory to murder. He claimed trial counsel was ineffective for not moving to suppress the 2013 search of his cell phone. Police sought a warrant for the phone, and the DA prepared it. While the papers … Continue reading →