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- AP: Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, memo says
- D.Colo.: Large volume of emails can be seized for later narrowing search and still be particular
- UT: State used SW to get defense expert’s computer data; ordered destroyed, but case not dismissed
- E.D.Mo.: Refusal to promptly ID oneself justified handcuffing during brief investigative detention
- OH2: Dog handler’s testimony of dog certification was sufficient to show reliability
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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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FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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"On the Docket"–Medill
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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)
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
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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) -
“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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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: Airport searches
Reason: DHS Continues Airport Cash Seizures, a Year After the Justice Department Ended Them Due to Constitutional Concerns
Reason: DHS Continues Airport Cash Seizures, a Year After the Justice Department Ended Them Due to Constitutional Concerns by C.J. Ciaramella (“A year after the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stopped seizing suspected drug money from airline passengers because of significant … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Southwest employee wasn’t acting as govt agent in inventorying a suitcase and finding drugs
Defendant tried to retrieve a suitcase from Southwest Airlines in Omaha while not having been on a flight or having a claim check. The suspected bag arrived on the next flight from Phoenix, and it was taken by a SWA … Continue reading
CA11: Officers’ random drug stops on the jetbridge of departing passengers at ATL were unreasonable
Officers’ random drug stops on the jetbridge of departing passengers at ATL were unreasonable on the face of the pleadings. The officers get qualified immunity, but their employer does not. André v. Clayton County, Georgia, No. 23-13253 (11th Cir. Aug. … Continue reading
WaPo: DNA obtained by ruse by TSA
WaPo: Interrogating a cold-case killer: ‘Honey, your DNA was in the crime scene’ (“Police videos show Eugene Gligor being arrested and questioned for the 2001 murder of Leslie Preer in Chevy Chase, Md.”) His DNA was captured at Dulles Airport … Continue reading
Reason: DEA ends airport gate searches after years of documented abuses of civil asset forfeiture
Reason: DEA ends airport gate searches after years of documented abuses of civil asset forfeiture by C.J. Ciaramella (“The Justice Department temporarily suspended the program in November because of ‘significant risks’ of constitutional violations.”):
HI: TSA check of powdery substance in luggage seen on x-ray was reasonable
TSA’s x-raying baggage at the Honolulu airport produced an unknown substance in a Ziploc bag that TSA could check to be sure it wasn’t explosives for an IED or other harmful thing. Here, it produced drugs, and the search was … Continue reading
WaPo: TSA PreCheck vs. Clear: What’s better for price and privacy?
WaPo: TSA PreCheck vs. Clear: What’s better for price and privacy? by Tatum Hunter (“Clear saves you time at the airport. Just make sure to read the fine print.” “Airport security is, by nature, at odds with individual privacy. The … Continue reading
Reason: Justice Department Orders DEA to Halt Airport Searches Because of ‘Significant Issues’ With Cash Seizures
Reason: Justice Department Orders DEA to Halt Airport Searches Because of ‘Significant Issues’ With Cash Seizures by C.J. Ciaramella (“The DEA paid one airline employee tens of thousands of dollars to snoop on travel itineraries and flag passengers for searches.” … Continue reading
CA9: Apparent drugs found in TSA screening were reasonably seized
The contents of defendant’s suitcase alerted TSA screeners that something was awry. When his suitcase was opened, there were two vacuum sealed bags inside that were obviously drugs – “a layperson would readily ascertain that the packages in Green’s suitcase … Continue reading
Bitcoin.com: Report Exposes Warrantless Cash Searches at Atlanta Airport
Bitcoin.com: Report Exposes Warrantless Cash Searches at Atlanta Airport by Jamie Redman (“In a startling investigation report, Atlanta News First uncovered the concerning practices of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) task force officers. At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, DEA … Continue reading
TX2: Merely stating there is a REP in a cell phone doesn’t make it a 4A argument
“In one sentence in this section of his brief, Nash also argues that courts have found that a cell phone user has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the user’s phone’s contents. Nash does not challenge the evidence that the … Continue reading
CA11: Change in strategy doesn’t excuse untimely motion to suppress
With second counsel, defendant filed a second motion to suppress apparently based on new strategy about how to approach one. The different strategy is not “good cause” based on newly discovered facts. United States v. Vazquez, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
WaPo: We asked: What happens if TSA finds weed in my bag?
WaPo: We asked: What happens if TSA finds weed in my bag? by Natalie B. Compton (“By The Way Concierge tackles flying with marijuana as it becomes legal in more states”)
WaPo: 6 questions about flying with marijuana, answered
WaPo: 6 questions about flying with marijuana, answered | What to know about federal laws, TSA and flying with CBD by Natalie B. Compton:
CA8: Even if airport search was unreasonable, affidavit for SW had independent PC
Defendant passed through the Little Rock airport TSA checkpoint, and an “organic mass” was seen in the x-ray and that resulted in opening his luggage finding $112,000. That led to the police being called over, too. Further investigation resulted in … Continue reading
CA3: FTCA doesn’t apply to TSA screeners
TSA screeners are not “investigative or law enforcement officers” for purposes of the Federal Tort Claims Act. Therefore, they are covered by the discretionary function exemption. Pellegrino v. United States Transp. Sec. Admin., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 18821 (3d Cir. … Continue reading
Daily Mail (UK): TSA to start going through books and magazines under new security measures – but critics claim procedure could be used to target people with foreign or religious reading material
Daily Mail (UK): TSA to start going through books and magazines under new security measures – but critics claim procedure could be used to target people with foreign or religious reading material by Hannah Parry:
The Hill: TSA sued over full-body X-ray scanners
The Hill: TSA sued over full-body X-ray scanners by Keith Laing: The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is being sued over the controversial full-body X-ray scanners it uses at airport security checkpoints across the country. The lawsuit, from the Competitive Enterprise … Continue reading
WaPo: Judge: No-fly list procedures were — and still might be — unconstitutional
WaPo: Judge: No-fly list procedures were — and still might be — unconstitutional by Matt Zapotosky: A federal judge on Thursday ruled that the way the United States implemented its no-fly list was unconstitutional years ago when it was used … Continue reading