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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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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: Standing
VA: While def didn’t have standing as to whole car, he did in the space immediately around him, relying on Jones GPS case
Defendant passenger was removed from a car after a traffic stop, and the officer with the defendant directed another to look for what he thought was a gun, which the other officer found. Defendant was held not to have standing … Continue reading
D.Md.: Govt first raising standing in a supplement brief after hearing was waiver
The government’s first raising standing in a supplemental brief after the hearing is too late. United States v. Larson, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 175547 *3 n.2 (D.Md. Dec. 19, 2016):
CA3: An apparent burglar has no REP or standing to challenge entry
“Martin testified that Lewis did not have a key to her home and did not have permission to be at her residence at the time of arrest. Because she did not leave Lewis in her home when she left, she … Continue reading
CA8: Visitor at apt complex can’t claim standing in parking lot as alleged curtilage
Defendant didn’t have standing to claim that police entry into an apartment building’s parking lot was entry onto the curtilage because he didn’t live there. [It’s not curtilage anyway.] A cousin did, and he was an occasional visitor. Officers shining … Continue reading
CA2: Judgment on liability for bogus stop and frisk was not error; $196k verdict affirmed
Plaintiffs were two teenagers stopped by police for one vaguely matching the description of one of two robbers. One of them refused to put his phone away when the officer ordered him three times not to. At a § 1983 … Continue reading
E.D. Tenn.: “Premises” in the broad consent to search form is interpreted to include vehicles parked outside
The use of “premises” in the broad consent to search form is interpreted to include vehicles parked outside near the house. United States v. Foster, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161550 (E.D. Tenn. Nov. 22, 2016). “The record contains no evidence … Continue reading
OH3: Showing of PC justified nexus to SW for def’s home
There was probable cause to believe that evidence of defendant’s gambling and money laundering would be found in his home because he could store records at home and run his business from there. State v. Robinson, 2016-Ohio-7823, 2016 Ohio App. … Continue reading
VA ABC agent correctly fired for violating pending licensee’s rights during administrative search
Appellant was an ABC officer terminated for violating the Fourth Amendment rights of a pending licensee by searching in excess of their government’s ability to administratively search or the pending licensee’s consent. The termination decision was affirmed. He argued the … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: A vehicle inventory is not invalid because it is discretionary
Defendant had standing in his girlfriend’s car. His stuff was throughout it, and he drove it some. An inventory is not invalid because the decision to inventory or not is discretionary. United States v. Gilmore, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 156240 … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Def’s GF who shared home who called police on him had apparent authority to consent
Defendant disavowed control over a bedroom in the single family home he lived in, and he had standing in the house as a whole and thus standing to challenge seizure of the gun found in that bedroom. The police here … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Passenger who had just been given permission to drive car had standing
Defendant was a passenger and had been given permission to drive this car 10 minutes before the stop, so he had standing (although “it’s a close call”). When he didn’t have a DL, the officer ordered him out of the … Continue reading
AR: Denying ownership of CDs found in def’s backpack denied him standing in the CDs
Defendant denied that CDs in his backpack were his, that somebody else must have put them there. Therefore, he lacked standing to contest a search of the CDs, and defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not raising a losing issue. Rea … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Eviction of the occupants of an apartment lose standing when the landlord takes over
An eviction of the occupants of an apartment lose standing when the landlord takes over. “The Court finds that defendant lacks standing. At the time of the search, the landlord was legally and lawfully in possession of the Arias Apartment. … Continue reading
CA3: Verizon subscriber showed standing to sue NSA for seizure of all emails
Verizon’s turning over all emails to the NSA, reported in 2013, was sufficient for a Verizon subscriber to state standing to sue under Clapper. Schuchardt v. President of the United States, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 18025 (3d Cir. Oct. 5, … Continue reading
CT: Even if search was unreasonable, which isn’t decided, it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt
Defendant was convicted of murdering his girlfriend with a baseball bat. After killing her, he took some of her stuff and sold and gave it away. He spent the third night after the killing at his sister’s house, and he … Continue reading
AL: Forfeiture claimant failed to show standing to contest the search that led to seizure of his cash
Defendant for all appearances was visiting the house searched but not an overnight guest. At any rate, he did nothing to show standing. When asked for consent, defendant refused saying it wasn’t his place, but he took the officers inside … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Statement at arrest car was girlfriend’s didn’t show standing; more required
Defendant’s post-arrest statement to the police that the car was his girlfriend’s wasn’t enough to show standing. He could have testified to standing without being cross-examined about the merits of the car, yet he didn’t. Defendant’s statement before arrest that … Continue reading
W.D.La.: RS of drug trafficking here not “rocket science”
Defendant was a passenger in a car asserting no interest in it or the contents. “Diaz never responded to the Government’s standing argument, even after he was given an opportunity to file a post-hearing supplemental brief.” He’d also lose on … Continue reading