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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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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.P.R.: Just being a driver of vehicle doesn’t give standing; two traffic tickets in past in vehicle not enough
Defendant at the suppression hearing showed no possessory interest in the vehicle he claimed not to own at the time of the stop and search. Two traffic tickets in the past driving the same vehicle wasn’t enough. United States v. … Continue reading
D.Nev.: There is no co-conspirator standing
Defendant was charged as a co-conspirator in a drug conspiracy involving a warehouse. He makes no effort to show his individual standing, and being a co-conspirator isn’t enough. United States v. Galecki, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 185667 (D. Nev. Sept. … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: The borrower of a car has standing
The borrower of a car has standing. “Standing requires a fact-bound inquiry. In this case, Jones was the sole occupant of the car, obtained possession of the car by consent from his cousin, exercised exclusive control over the vehicle for … Continue reading
D.Del.: Evasiveness during a public intox arrest justified Terry frisk
Defendant was arrested for public intox and he became evasive including a request that his name not be run for warrants. That justified a Terry frisk. United States v. King, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40213 (D. Del. March 21, 2017).* … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Flagrant violation of 4A with warrantless GPS on def’s car doesn’t get suppressed because of def’s lack of standing at time of search
The police flagrantly violated the Fourth Amendment by placing a GPS device on a car without a warrant. Defendant was the target, but he’d sold and relinquished control of the car to another days later by the time of the … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Sporadic user of cell phone had no standing; gathering provider information not a “search”
Defendant moved to suppress the cell phone data from a phone he sporadically used during a conspiracy, but he has no standing. The date was 334 days worth, and his use was occasional. This is no different that a sporadic … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Co. that rented vehicles to another for rental to public had standing to sue over seizure
Plaintiffs stated a Fourth Amendment claim against the City for warrantless seizure of its motorized three-wheeled vehicles. The fact one plaintiff rented them to another in exchange for a share of the profits, and they were seized from the latter, … Continue reading
D.Nev.: To have standing in a package, one must be addressee or sender
In this conspiracy case involving mailed packages, none of the defendants were shown as the sender or addressee of this package. The defendant pursuing the motion didn’t even directly possess the package: He drove a woman to the post office … Continue reading
CA5: Interstate bus passenger had no standing against a dog sniff of the luggage compartment
An interstate bus passenger had no standing against a dog sniff of the luggage compartment of the bus. United States v. Rodriguez-Lara, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 3774 (5th Cir. March 2, 2017):
CA8: Def had no standing in sex trafficking victim’s cell phone
Defendant sought to challenge his previously waived search issue by seeking to withdraw his guilty plea. The phone belonged to his sex trafficking victim, so he apparently doesn’t have standing. United States v. McHenry, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 3358 (8th … Continue reading
D.S.C.: No REP in a rental rented by another and loaned to def where he wasn’t on the rental contract
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a rental car rented by another and loaned to him when the rental company didn’t authorize him as a driver. United States v. Dorsey, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21112 (D.S.C. Feb. 15, … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: The second hand borrower of a car without knowledge of owner has no standing in it
The car defendant was in was owned by a G.B. who lent it to a Tanisha because she needed a car. Unbeknownst to G.B., Tanisha loaned it to the defendant, and G.B. had no knowledge of him. Defendant attempted to … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Mere shareholder in a business had no standing to challenge SW
As a mere shareholder in a business, defendant had no standing to challenge the search warrant of the property. At the time of the search, he had no personal interest in it. United States v. Taylor, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA7: Def had no standing in a car shipped by car hauler being delivered to him that he’d never seen
Defendant had no standing in a car being shipped by a car hauler across the country when it was searched in transit. He was named neither the sender nor the recipient, and he had never been in or seen the … Continue reading
CA8: Passenger in his gf’s rented car driven by yet another had no standing
Defendant was a passenger in a rental vehicle rented by his girlfriend but being driven by a third person. He was not on the rental agreement as a driver or a co-renter. He had no standing. United States v. Russell, … Continue reading
CA3: Disavowal of cell phone in car was a waiver of standing
The search of the call log on the cell phone in the car defendant was driving a year before Riley was valid. He also disavowed the cell phone and lacks standing. United States v. Monestime, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 1501 … Continue reading
KY: SW moots consent argument
Officers entered defendant’s home to secure a firearm and then returned with a search warrant. Defendant’s consent argument is moot. Lundy v. Commonwealth, 2017 Ky. App. LEXIS 22 (Jan. 27, 2017). The court properly overruled defendant’s motion to suppress a … Continue reading
PA: Warrantless blood draw of unconscious def after car wreck was reasonable
A warrantless blood draw was permissible where defendant was unconscious at the scene of an accident and unconscious through the blood draw at the hospital. Commonwealth v. March, 2017 PA Super 18, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS 46 (Jan. 26, 2017). … Continue reading
Bloomberg: Microsoft Asserts Clients’ Rights in FBI E-Mail Searches Fight
Bloomberg: Microsoft Asserts Clients’ Rights in FBI E-Mail Searches Fight by Kartikay Mehrotra: –First hurdle is convincing judge it can sue on their behalf –Tech industry says future of mobile, cloud computing at stake
IT World: Microsoft’s standing to sue over secret US data requests in question
IT World: Microsoft’s standing to sue over secret US data requests in question by John Ribeiro: The company has objected in a lawsuit to unreasonable US government requests for customer data