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- USA Today: Cell phone SW for cause of crash
- Treatise on sale to 11/1
- MD: While protective sweep information made it into SW affidavit, there was PC without it
- N.D.Ga.: A Customs forensic search of a cell phone away from the border was still a border search
- CA6: State officer’s arrest for violation of federal MJ law likely wouldn’t violate 4A
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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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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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
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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)
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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: Standing
PA: Furtive movements then refusing to remove hands from pockets was RS
On a report of a man with a gun, officers went to area and found defendant who didn’t exactly match the description. As they circled the block, defendant would change directions. When they pulled up next to him, which was … Continue reading
HI: Defendant could properly be prosecuted for refusing a breath test, but not a blood test
Defendant could properly be prosecuted for refusing a breath test, but not a blood test. State v. Wilson, 2018 Haw. App. LEXIS 25 (Jan. 26, 2018).* Defendant was a mere passenger in the car searched, and he lacks standing to … Continue reading
NE: Having only key to rented car glovebox and not to car itself didn’t give standing
Having a key to the glovebox of a rented car, but not to the car itself, was not a sufficient reasonable expectation of privacy in the rented car to have standing. Defendant couldn’t get into the car without somebody else … Continue reading
SCOTUSblog: Argument analysis: Rental cars, reasonable expectations of privacy and property rights
SCOTUSblog: Argument analysis: Rental cars, reasonable expectations of privacy and property rights by Amy Howe. Transcripts: Byrd & Collins
W.D.N.C.: Def doesn’t have standing in a rental car, and the court is bound by existing authority
“According to the defendant’s motion, he was using the rental car with permission from its authorized driver. (Doc. No. 16: Motion at 1). However, he has not alleged that he was listed as an authorized driver on the rental agreement … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: There was RS for a dog sniff of a package in the mail, and the alert was PC for a SW; def’s motion to suppress suggested no standing
There was reasonable suspicion to detain a package in the mail for a dog sniff because of the way it was packaged and labeled suggested that it contained drugs. After the dog alert, there was a necessary delay in obtaining … Continue reading
CA6: “A king or a criminal may assert a violation of the Fourth Amendment.” But def loses on the merits
Defendant spent two weeks living in the apartment of another. “A king or a criminal may assert a violation of the Fourth Amendment.” He had a bedroom to himself. “The district court erred in finding that Allen did not have … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: Argument preview: For Fourth Amendment purposes, does it matter who is on the car-rental agreement?
SCOTUSBlog: Argument preview: For Fourth Amendment purposes, does it matter who is on the car-rental agreement? by Amy Howe:
OH6: Warrantless blood draw from believed to be dying motorcyclist valid
A warrantless blood draw from defendant was reasonable where, at the scene of his motorcycle accident on I-75 hitting the rear of a car when it was travelling approximately 102 in a 65 and killing his passenger throwing her 450′ … Continue reading
WA: Shareholder or officer of closely held corp has no personal privacy interest in corporate records under state constitution
“Paul Chase, shareholder and principal officer of Red Leaf Construction Inc., appeals the trial court’s partial denial of his motion to suppress Red Leaf’s bank records. A commissioner of this court granted discretionary review. We consider, as a matter of … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Def’s girlfriend’s standing testimony rejected because it sounded “scripted” and because she didn’t smell the 100 pds of MJ she was standing near regularly for days
Defendant claimed standing in his girlfriend’s house because he regularly spent the night there. Her testimony was rejected because it sounded “scripted” and inherently unreliable because she claimed she didn’t smell 100 pounds of marijuana in her basement even though … Continue reading
IL: After losing suppression motion, state asserted lack of standing in a motion to reconsider, and it’s too late
The state has the burden of alleging defendant didn’t have standing, and here it didn’t do so until a motion to reconsider claiming it was the trial court’s error of law. To succeed on a motion to reconsider, the state … Continue reading
CA1: It was def’s burden to show guest standing and he failed
Defendant put on no proof of how long he was in another’s hotel room to claim standing in the room. The district court inferred, without much support, that he slept there for some brief period of time, and that’s not … Continue reading
TN: Search issue was decided in first appeal, and that’s law of the case and can’t be relitigated
Defendant’s search issue was decided in a prior appeal, and that makes it law of the case. State v. Weilacker, 2017 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 1018 (Dec. 8, 2017). The government doesn’t oppose return of some of the seized evidence, … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Govt pinned its vehicle search on lack of standing and lost, so vehicle search suppressed; house search, however, shown to be by consent
Even though somebody else owned the van, defendant was a regular user and that gave him standing. At the time of the seizure, it had broken down, and he used it then for storage. The government failed to show any … Continue reading
techcrunch: Authorities serve Apple a warrant for Texas shooter’s iPhone
techcrunch: Authorities serve Apple a warrant for Texas shooter’s iPhone by Brian Heater:
TN: Disclaiming any interest in the contents of a car means no standing in the contents
Defendant told the police that nothing in the car was his, so he didn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents. Therefore, his defense counsel couldn’t be ineffective for not filing a motion to suppress the search. Dunn … Continue reading
TN: Def had no standing in wife’s journal
Defendant’s wife’s journal was found by her son and delivered to the police, and it mentioned defendant’s sex crimes against their daughter. He had no standing to challenge the seizure, and it was a private seizure at that. State v. … Continue reading
IA: Dad can’t raise son’s rights when son was arrested and gave dad up as his source of drugs
Defendant’s juvenile son was selling from his dad’s stash. After the son’s arrest, he gave up his source. Defendant can’t raise violations of his son’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment or statutory rights as a juvenile to challenge the probable cause … Continue reading