Archives
-
Recent Posts
- CA5: Bogus traffic stop can’t support frisk
- Jezebel: One Piece of Flock Camera Data Put This Innocent Woman in Jail for 13 Days
- CA3: Coast-to-coast collective knowledge
- Reason: Border Agents Search Phones Without Warrants. This Case Asks the Supreme Court if That’s Constitutional
- The Economist: Why licence-plate readers are angering Americans
-
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: Consent
OH12: Trial court’s finding of no RS and no consent affirmed
The state failed to prove that the stop was with reasonable suspicion. “While Officer Ianson’s questioning was not expressly coercive, the circumstances surrounding the request to search made the questioning impliedly coercive. Thus, the circumstances suggest that Massey merely submitted … Continue reading →
CA9: A visitor to premises has no standing in the curtilage
A visitor to premises has no standing in the curtilage. United States v. Castellanos, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 1278 (9th Cir. Jan. 18, 2022). The officer had reasonable suspicion to stop defendant when the officer shined a flashlight on him, … Continue reading →
IN: Even with a typo in the address of the place to be searched in the warrant, the correct otherwise particularly described place was searched
The address on the search warrant was wrong, but the physical description for defendant’s place was different than place with the wrong address. Defendant’s place was the target and it was searched under the warrant. The search warrant was sufficiently … Continue reading →
CA2: Officers had reasonable belief the person granting consent was a co-occupant
Crediting the police officers’ version, the district court found that the officers had substantial reason to believe the person granting consent was an occupant of the place searched. United States v. Vega, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 38169 (2d Cir. Dec. … Continue reading →
D.Mont.: Coercive situation made def’s consent in own home involuntary
On the totality, defendant’s consent was not freely given. The situation was coercive and in his own home. United States v. Simpson, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 243401 (D.Mont. Dec. 21, 2021)*:
CA10: Buses and trains in ABQ
A DEA officer’s lifting but not manipulating defendant’s duffle bag on a Greyhound bus that stopped in Albuquerque for passengers and service was not timely raised by the defense. But it was not a search. “It is not unusual on … Continue reading →
S.D.Ind.: Handcuffed def could have jacket pocket searched incident to arrest
The search of defendant’s jacket pockets when he was arrested was valid under the search incident doctrine even though he was handcuffed. United States v. Coates, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 232798 (S.D.Ind. Dec. 6, 2021). Defendant had a right to … Continue reading →
CA1: Protective sweep for weapons requires only objective reasonableness, and actual fear not required
A First Circuit panel overrules its caselaw as inconsistent with SCOTUS cases that a frisk for weapons must be both objective and with subjective fear: “United States v. Lott that officers cannot do a ‘frisk for weapons … where, although … Continue reading →
CA6: Failure to object to co-occupant’s apparent consent supported consent
An occupant of defendant’s house with apparent authority consented to an entry. When the officers expressed an interest in defendant’s cell phone, he didn’t voice any concerns. “He maintains that the male occupant’s invitation to the officers to enter Mason’s … Continue reading →
D.Ariz.: Covid-19 testing is (essentially) so minimal it is not a 4A intrusion
“Nasal swab testing for COVID-19 does not create an intrusion under the skin, does not involve any genetic testing, and there is no use of the sample for law enforcement purposes. Accordingly, the Court finds that Gold is unlikely to … Continue reading →
MO: Traffic stop not custodial for Miranda
A traffic stop is not a custodial arrest requiring Miranda warnings. Defendant’s admissions he had drugs wasn’t excludable. State v. Ybarra, 2021 Mo. App. LEXIS 1031 (Nov. 23, 2021). Not objecting to the state offering a search warrant application into … Continue reading →
D.Colo.: 911 call about being shot by unknown assailant in a locked building was implied consent to enter or justified by emergency
Defendant called 911 to report he was shot by a masked assailant and asked for help. That was implied consent for EMTs and police to enter either by implied consent or the emergency exception. Once investigating, they concluded defendant more … Continue reading →
TX10: Def’s invitation to look in vehicle console for receipt for allegedly stolen property led to plain view of drugs
Defendant was suspected of leaving a Lowes with a stolen shop vac. He was seen at a nearby McDonalds and officers came up to him. He volunteered that the receipt was in his console and they could look for it. … Continue reading →
CA8: Merely asking for ID not a seizure
Merely asking for ID is not a seizure. “Officer Hotz’s conduct would not have communicated to a reasonable person that he could not leave. Officer Hotz was alone, she did not display a weapon, she did not touch the defendants, … Continue reading →
D.Vt.: Def has to show his REP in his Facebook account; what are the privacy settings?
Defendant didn’t show a reasonable expectation of privacy in his Facebook account by showing what he did to keep the account private. Even if he did, there was probable cause for the Facebook warrant. United States v. Whitcomb, 2021 U.S. … Continue reading →
W.D.Ky.: Fireman jumping through def’s car window to stop him was unjustified and a search and seizure
A volunteer fireman diving into defendant’s car to keep him from driving away was a search and seizure. And, the community caretaking function did not apply. “Here, Wahl lacked any specific and articulable facts that Fairrow would be dangerous to … Continue reading →
CO: Anonymous, uncorroborated, and stale tip on school safety hotline not RS
An anonymous tip through a school safety hotline was also uncorroborated and stale and did not provide reasonable suspicion for a school search. In the Interest of C.C-S., 2021COA127, 2021 Colo. App. LEXIS 1440 (Oct. 20, 2021). See techdirt: Students … Continue reading →
OH12: Consent to “check” car for weapons includes containers in it
Defendant’s open-ended consent to “check” the car for weapons was broad enough to permit looking in containers. State v. Williams, 2021-Ohio-3704, 2021 Ohio App. LEXIS 3610 (12th Dist. Oct. 18, 2021). Defendant made a lane violation when turning, and that … Continue reading →
D.Kan.: Def had a loaner car loaned by a person with no authority over it; no standing
Defendant had no standing in a car that was loaned to him by another who himself might not have even had standing. Defendant was looking for a car that wasn’t “hot,” and he was loaned one by a source that … Continue reading →
W.D.Pa.: Warrantless production of state ALPR data to FBI not governed by Carpenter
The FBI requested the state search its Automated License Plate Reader database for defendant’s LPN to trace the movement of his car. Carpenter simply cannot be made to apply to ALPR data. 106 records were found. United States v. Bowers, … Continue reading →