Archives
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Recent Posts
- W.D.Pa.: Def can’t repackage a losing 4A standing claim into a due process claim
- GA: No case says SW required to ask for cell phone password
- VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would not be suppressed
- NM: Trial court’s finding of consent is reversed because the court engaged in its own internet investigation beyond what the parties provided
- Reason: No Warrant, No Suspicion, No Problem: Flock and Border Cellphone Searches Excluded From 4th Amendment Rules
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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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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)
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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: Dog sniff
CA6: Without RS, two officers get no QI, but another acting at their request does
Three officers were involved in defendant’s stop. Two were involved in the decision to stop, but, based on the factual dispute in the record, they do not get qualified immunity on the decision to make the stop. The third officer, … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Dog sniff of car left parked on street was reasonable
The police used a dog to sniff around a car parked on the street that they believed belonged to defendant but defendant disavowed. No search warrant was needed. United States v. Davis, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 219490 (E.D. Tenn. Dec. … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: FedEx’s taking a package off its conveyor belt for a dog sniff wasn’t a seizure that interfered with def’s possessory interest
“[T]he police did not ‘seize’ the package until after the dog alerted to the presence of drugs. It was not a seizure to remove the package from the FedEx conveyor belt, carry it 200 feet to the back of the … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: False positives by drug dog don’t necessarily undermine PC for SW; GFE can still apply
The fact a drug dog has alleged false positives (i.e., hits on things but no drugs found) does not mean that a dog alert that led to a search warrant still cannot be relied upon in good faith. United States … Continue reading
WI: Use of a tracking dog in a burglary that led to def’s house was reasonable and in hot pursuit
Police received a 4 am burglary call, and an officer with a dog tracking smell and the officer tracking footprints in the dew on the ground led to defendant’s property. The officer knocked and defendant’s mother let the police in. … Continue reading
OH5: It was reasonable to run the dog around a car in a traffic stop where it happened without extending the stop during waiting time
The trial court did not err in denying the motion to suppress where the officer ran the dog around the car within the time of the normal traffic stop. Therefore, the traffic stop was not illegally extended because the purpose … Continue reading
CA11: Public safety exception permitted entry of hotel room on PC to neutralize a firearm
Defense counsel’s failure to object to the search of his hotel room wasn’t prejudicial because inevitable discovery applied. He was accused of brandishing a gun shortly before, and the gun hadn’t been found. Officers had probable cause to get a … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Affidavit for SW doesn’t need to support drug dog’s training, too
The affidavit for a search warrant based in part on a dog sniff doesn’t have to also justify the dog’s training to show probable cause. Failure to provide it isn’t a Franks violation. United States v. Tullous, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
OH6: Trial court didn’t commit plain error in not inquiring into drug dog’s training when defense didn’t
The trial court did not commit plain error in not inquiring into the drug dogs training when defendant didn’t raise it. State v. Jones, 2019-Ohio-3704, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 3777 (6th Dist. Sept. 16, 2019). The particulars of a drug … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Almost immediate dog sniff during stop didn’t prolong it
The officer had an objective basis for the stop, so defendant’s pretext claim fails. The dog sniff occurred almost immediately during the stop and the stop wasn’t prolonged for it. United States v. Martinez, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155124 (N.D. … Continue reading
CA7: Dog alert on apparent residual odor isn’t a false positive under Harris
The fact a drug dog alerts on residual odor doesn’t mean there was a false positive. “Our review of the record and the order denying suppression satisfies us the judge conducted the proper Harris evaluation and committed no error in … Continue reading
OH7: Dog alert on a car alone didn’t give PC to search passenger
Dog alert on a car alone didn’t give probable cause to search a passenger. State v. Chapman, 2019-Ohio-3339, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 3422 (7th Dist. Aug. 20, 2019):
M.D.Pa.: Dog alert satisfied CA3 standards because it was to specific place
The search of defendant’s U-Haul truck was justified by a dog alert. “Assuming arguendo that Third Circuit precedent supported defendants’ more taxing standard for what constitutes a positive and reliable alert, Trooper Hoy still had probable cause to search the … Continue reading
AL: Drug dog alert on cash without presence of drugs won’t support forfeiture
A drug dog alert on money without the presence of drugs cannot support a forfeiture. Martinez-Camacho v. State, 2019 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 102 (Aug. 2, 2019):
UT: 40 minute delay for dog was reasonable where it was tied up in another part of same investigation
The 40 minute delay for the dog sniff, already based on reasonable suspicion, was reasonable. The dog was at a residence related to the same investigation then came to where the car was stopped. The court also mentions the weather … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Typo that SW had to be served same day it was issued could be overlooked
Typo on a search warrant that it had to be executed the same day it was issued could be overlooked. It was issued mid-afternoon; it clearly didn’t require that the probable cause would cease to exist at 11:59 pm that … Continue reading
ND: Knock on car window when def asleep inside with engine running was within community caretaking function
Defendant was unresponsive in a parked car with the engine running. “The officer’s knocking on Bridgeford’s vehicle window was within the scope of the officer’s community caretaking function. Because the officer was acting within his role as a community caretaker, … Continue reading
OH12: Automobile exception search permits search of locked toolbox
With a dog alert on a car, the search of a locked toolbox under the automobile exception was permissible. State v. Sullivan, 2019-Ohio-2279, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 2372 (12th Dist. June 10, 2019). Exigent circumstances could not be used to … Continue reading
D.Me.: False name justified extending traffic stop for dog sniff
“The dog sniff began roughly 12 minutes and 45 seconds into the traffic stop. At that point, Martin had provided two driver’s licenses that spelled his name differently and had verbally provided a separate birth date that did not match … Continue reading