July 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Archives
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Recent Posts
- CA11: Yahoo not a govt actor in scanning emails for CSAM
- Treatise 25% off through 7/8
- SCOTUS: Geofence warrants governed by Carpenter and are a search; remanded for resolution of issues (interesting take on third party doctrine, too)
- The Guardian: ‘It’s dangerous and it’s going to erode trust’: redesign of US government websites stokes surveillance fears
- W.D.N.Y.: Possibility of co-conspirators in mass murder justified emergency disclosure request to Apple, Verizon, and Facebook
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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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www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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)
ACLU on privacy
Privacy Foundation
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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: Consent
CA5: Consent not overborne by appeal to emotion that consenter would be in trouble only if certain facts were true
Defendant was hiding in his grandmother’s house with a 13 year old runaway. Her free will to consent was not overborne by an appeal to her emotion that she’d be in trouble only if she knew the girl was in … Continue reading →
E.D.Tenn.: Consent to search car extended the time of the stop for the drug dog
Defendant’s consent to search his rental car extended the length of the stop, so the use of a drug dog didn’t. United States v. Chin, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 67388 (E.D. Tenn. May 16, 2014), R&R 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading →
OR: Bag outside apartment door couldn’t be considered abandoned without some inquiry
A warrantless search of a bag found a few feet from defendant’s apartment door was not objectively considered abandoned without some effort to find out the owner. Until the bag was objectively considered lost or abandoned, the officer could not … Continue reading →
S.D.Ohio: PC was shown for SW for a pain clinic’s records
Probable cause was shown for the search warrant for defendant’s pain clinic and home for medical and financial records. And undercover officer got scripts without a proper examination. United States v. Callihan, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66580 (S.D. Ohio May … Continue reading →
MA: Broad computer search by consent isn’t later limited by SW
Defendant was arrested in an internet sting involving communication with purported minors. He consented to a search of his computer, but the police got a search warrant for back up.“That police took the additional precautionary step of obtaining a search … Continue reading →
AR: Alternative argument on timing of consent not ruled on below, so it’s defaulted
Consent was found against the defendant, and it’s affirmed on appeal because “the record is devoid of any evidence that appellant was coerced into consenting.” Her alternative argument that the consent was obtained after the search was already started was … Continue reading →
ID: Defendant’s consent to enter to look for wanted felon cured alleged curtilage violation
Police came to defendant’s trailer on rural property looking for a wanted felon. He consented to an entry to look for the guy, and inside the officers smelled then saw raw marijuana and paraphernalia. Even if the entry onto the … Continue reading →
E.D.Wis.: If defendant doesn’t tell his lawyer something, the lawyer can’t be ineffective about it
Defendant contends that the search of his vehicle was without his consent, and defense counsel was ineffective for not raising that issue. The court finds as a fact that defendant never mentioned that to defense counsel, therefore, counsel couldn’t be … Continue reading →
E.D.N.C.: If information omitted doesn’t undermine PC, no Franks violation
At worst, the officer’s omission of three things from the affidavit for search warrant was negligent, not reckless, and, even if the material was included, it doesn’t defeat the finding of probable cause. “Thus, because Mr. Simpson has failed to … Continue reading →
MT: Counting pills in a prescription bottle is within a probation officer’s authority during a home visit
Counting pills in a prescription bottle is within a probation officer’s authority during a home visit. If the PO could search and take a UA, he could count pills. State v. Fischer, 2014 MT 112, 374 Mont. 533 (April 29, … Continue reading →
CA4: Having no keys and breaking in through window belies apparent authority to consent
Officers came to plaintiff’s house with his former girlfriend who they contend consented to the entry. She, however, had no key to the house and they broke in through a window. Plaintiff stated a § 1983 claim because it wasn’t … Continue reading →
M.D.Pa.: Officers reasonably believed person named in warrant resided with defendant, so entry valid
The DUSM here credibly testified that the target of his arrest warrant actually resided at the place searched, notwithstanding that the testimony proved incorrect. The belief was reasonable, so defendant’s rights were not violated. United States v. Vasquez-Algarin, 2014 U.S. … Continue reading →
N.D.W.Va.: When response to request for consent is ambiguous, failure to object is grant of consent
Defendant’s response to a request for consent was ambiguous. Then his failure to object is inferred to be consent. United States v. Merritt, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57886 (N.D. W.Va. March 26, 2014), adopted 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 57887 (N.D. … Continue reading →
N.M.: When you know the jail calls are recorded, you consent merely by making a call.
When you know the jail calls are recorded, you consent merely by making a call. State v. Melendrez, 2014 N.M. App. LEXIS 40 (April 23, 2014). Defendant’s call from his child sex offense victim was properly recorded with the child’s … Continue reading →
WA: Comment on refusal to take BAC test didn’t violate constitutions
Assuming that a field sobriety test is a search, this was reasonable and based on reasonable suspicion. Comment on refusal to take a BAC test was not unconstitutional because there was no constitutional right not to take the test. State … Continue reading →
N.D.Ill.: Consent by person with apparent authority “trumped” defendant’s remote refusal
A woman answered the door at 10 am in a bathrobe, suggesting she lived there or at least spent the night. Further inquiry showed apparent authority. Her consent “trumped” defendant’s remote refusal. United States v. Terry, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading →
CA11: Stop of wrong car on a BOLO was still with RS, and the search was valid because only stop was argued
Officers received a robbery report at 12:30 am that multiple men in a 2011 white Charger had robbed a man at outside an apartment building. Within minutes and four miles away, they pulled in behind a white Charger which is … Continue reading →
M.D.La.: Smell of marijuana on traffic stop justified its continuation
“Corporal Spelying’s continued detention of the defendant to ask him questions regarding his suspended license and his travel itinerary did not violate the Fourth Amendment” because he could smell marijuana immediately into the stop. United States v. Robertson, 2014 U.S. … Continue reading →
W.D.Mo.: Dog alert on an airplane PC for SW
Defendant was flying a small aircraft, and he diverted from the flight plan. Local police were alerted, and a dog sniff was made of the airplane. The police went to the hotel where defendant was staying to talk to him, … Continue reading →
CA10 explains the presumption of apparent authority for consent with parents and adult children living at home
Defendant was convicted of murder. The body was found, and it was obviously dumped. The FBI learned that the victim had been seen last with the defendant in the car at a casino and defendant had a gun consistent with … Continue reading →