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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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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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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: Standing
D.Haw.: Using three people to mask defendant’s alleged ownership of a package was a lack of standing in the package
“Here, Defendant Notyce was neither the sender nor the addressee of the package. The parcel was not addressed to him or a physical location associated with him. Defendant Notyce did not retrieve the parcel from the post office box or … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Suspicionless probation search condition not shown to be on defendant; motion to suppress granted
Defendant did not have a suspicionless search condition on him. “This Court now joins the other courts in this district that have held that an officer must have reasonable suspicion to conduct a search of a probationer, unless the probationer … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Def had standing in a car he was loaned
Defendant had standing to challenge GPS tracking of a car he was loaned by the owner. The search wasn’t a pretext from inventory: there was probable cause for the automobile exception. “A warrantless search can occur even after the automobile … Continue reading
DE: Probation absconder didn’t have standing in another person’s property; alternatively, probation absconding is exigency
Defendant was a probation absconder, and he did not have standing to contest a search of another probationer’s camper. Even if defendant did have standing, the probation officers substantially complied with departmental guidelines. Defendant’s presence as an absconder from probation … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Def’s having keys and free access to girlfriend’s apt gives him standing, but the protective sweep was clearly justified
Defendant has standing to challenge the search of his girlfriend’s apartment because he has keys and stays there when he wants to without limitation. “Therefore, the Defendant argues that the Defendant has at least as much of a privacy interest … Continue reading
CA11: Parolee has no REP where he stays
Officers had cause for a protective sweep as well as consent from defendant’s girlfriend to search her apartment where he often stayed. A shotgun was in plain view. Defendant also had no standing because he was a parolee. United States … Continue reading
OH12: SW for text messages on a cell phone was not overbroad where it was limited to messages from one person
Defendant was a police officer who was suspected of sexual battery of a student ride along. There were text messages, and a search warrant was obtained for his cell phone. The lack of a time frame for the text messages … Continue reading
TX14: Def had no standing in cell phone he gave to his girlfriend
Defendant had no standing in a cell phone that he gave to his girlfriend and referred to as her cell phone. It was stolen from her and searched to locate the possible owner, and the phone had video of defendant … Continue reading
D.Minn.: No standing where car rental company did not authorize def to drive
“Defendant’s argument as to standing to challenge the search of the van is foreclosed by the recent decision of the Eighth Circuit in United States v. Long, ___ F.3d ___, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 16740, 2017 WL 3741873 at *3 … Continue reading
SD: Being a close friend and regular social guest of the homeowner still doesn’t give standing
Being a close friend and regular social guest of the homeowner still doesn’t give standing; it just isn’t a strong enough connection to the premises. He cared for the homeowner’s cat on occasion, but that wasn’t explained. State v. Gaters, … Continue reading
CA3: Def lacked standing to challenge search of co-def cell phone
Defendant lacked standing to challenge the search of a cell phone taken off a co-defendant that didn’t belong him. Besides, the search of that cell phone was valid. United States v. Brewer, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 18003 (3d Cir. Sept. … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Def claims an illegal search led to his arrest; his admissions on jail phone calls are attenuated from that
Defendant’s calls from jail to his girlfriend about destroying evidence were attenuated from any prior illegality. “The Court finds that the nexus between the original unlawful search and the challenged evidence was attenuated by the intervening phone calls, an independent … Continue reading
OH: Def has no standing in place of another that he was arrested in, so Steagald provides him no relief
Defendant could not show he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the premises of a third person, although he was the person being looked for. The court discusses Steagald and the Ninth Circuit’s en banc Underwood (1983, Treatise §§ … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Def stayed often enough with his mother that he had standing in her place
Defendant was given standing in his mother’s home, even though he did not live there full time. His uncle also lived there, and he had apparent authority and “free agency” to consent to a search of the premises. United States … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: GFE generally doesn’t apply to warrantless searches
Defendant’s wife did not voluntarily consent to the police entry into the basement of her bar. First, they detained defendant behind the bar. Then police came to the bar in great numbers (6-15, depending on the witness) while the bar … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Basis for traffic stop doesn’t need to be decided where there was independent RS
There’s no point in quibbling here over the basis of the traffic stop because the officer had reasonable suspicion of drug trafficking, too. United States v. Mejia-Palacio, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128922 (E.D. Ky. July 25, 2017), adopted, 2017 U.S. … Continue reading
M.D.La.: No standing in a stolen car
The stop was justified by a seatbelt violation, but defendant didn’t have standing because the car was stolen. United States v. Joseph, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 123893 (M.D. La. Aug. 7, 2017). The landing in front of an apartment is … Continue reading
MI: Leaving backpack in car def was ordered out of was a lack of standing when the car got searched
Defendant lacked standing in his own backpack in a vehicle that was subject to search for impoundment for having no valid LPN under People v. LaBelle, 478 Mich. 891, 732 N.W.2d 114 (2007). The motion to suppress was properly denied. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: The gov’t cites a three-way circuit split on standing in a rental car; the circuit authority controls
Defendant was driving a rental car with permission of the renter, and that gives him standing in this circuit. There is a three way circuit split, and this court can’t resolve that. United States v. Bettis, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading