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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
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- 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
MA: That CI’s tip in another case wasn’t good enough doesn’t say much about this one where it was more detailed and better corroborated
The CI’s tip here was detailed and substantially corroborated. As to the CI’s track record, a search was suppressed on his information after this one occurred, but that doesn’t ipso facto impugn his credibility. In the other case, the CI’s … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Lessee of car had standing: “Her actions evinced a possessory interest in the vehicle and its contents”
“The Court finds Defendant had an expectation of privacy because she was the lessee of the rental car. … Although there is some dispute as to whether Defendant renounced control over the car, the Court finds that Defendant’s possessory interest … Continue reading
MA automatic standing only applies to possessory offenses, and it doesn’t apply to defendant’s murder charge
Massachusetts automatic standing only applies to possessory offenses, and it doesn’t apply to defendant’s murder charge. Commonwealth v. Miller, 475 Mass. 212, 2016 Mass. LEXIS 605 (Aug. 17, 2016). The government showed probable cause for the defendant but the connection … Continue reading
TX14: Two theories of standing: reasonable-expectation-of-privacy and intrusion-upon-property from Jones
Defendant was found to be a trespasser, a squatter who changed the locks, in the home of another who was in jail. Defendant attempted to show standing in the trial court, but the state did not raise lack of standing … Continue reading
OH1: Probation search of room apparently common to all tenants was permissible
Defendant was a probationer subject to a search condition. It was reasonable for the officer to consider the living room area common to all the residents in the property. It was also permissible for him to stick his head into … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: Govt waived standing by not presenting issue to Dist.Ct.
The government waived defendant’s lack of standing by not arguing it in the district court. The faint smell of marijuana and multiple air fresheners was probable cause to search. United States v. Sheffield, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 14826 (D.C.Cir. Aug. … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Defense counsel was ineffective for not seeing def’s guest standing in girlfriend’s apartment
Defendant established a failure of performance of defense counsel in his 2255 for not filing a motion to suppress on guest standing. He didn’t file a motion to suppress solely because defendant said he didn’t “live at” his girlfriend’s place, … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: CSLI information captured by Stingray would be unreasonable under 4A except defs had no standing in burner phones they disassociated themselves from
Use of a Stingray to capture defendants’ cell phone location information in real time was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment [without much discussion], but the defendants lack standing to complain. The mere fact the government referred to the phones as … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Reliance on a state court tracking order years ago was entitled to good faith
Under the Stored Communications Act, one must still prove standing as an “aggrieved person.” A state court cell phone tracking order is entitled to good faith exception deference, particularly since it was issued prior to any cases on the subject. … Continue reading
D.Ore.: Driver doesn’t have standing to challenge search of passenger’s person
Although the stop of defendant’s car was unreasonable, defendant still doesn’t have standing to question the search of his passenger. United States v. Kuespert, 773 F.2d 1066 (9th Cir. 1985). United States v. Abarza, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103035 (D.Ore. … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Bank robbers in borrowed car had no standing to challenge search where owner gave no specific permission
Officers had reasonable suspicion to stop a gray Ford Taurus that was suspected of being involved in a bank robbery. Four men in a pick up truck saw the suspected robbers in gray hooded sweatshirts run from the bank and … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Def didn’t show standing but gov’t didn’t raise it, so it’s waived
The court finds on the face of the pleadings that one defendant had no standing to contest the search but goes to the merits because the government failed to assert standing. United States v. Pierce, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93614 … Continue reading
TN: Not filing motion to suppress was best strategy to disassociate from house searched by not having to show standing
Defense counsel’s refusal to file a motion to suppress the search of the place defendant was found in was reasonable strategy to separate defendant from the drugs found in the house. To seek to suppress the search, defendant would have … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Shipping a package under an alias means no REP in it to challenge search
Defendant shipped a package from a UPS store in San Bernardino CA to Houma LA. His name wasn’t on the package as the sender or the recipient, so he didn’t have standing to challenge the search of the package. United … Continue reading
GA: No standing in the cell phone of one’s murder victim taken at the time of the crime
In a form of “wrongful presence,” defendant took the cell phones of his murder victims. He has no standing to challenge the obtaining of the call records of those phones that helped link defendant to the crimes. Marchman v. State, … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Def got a suppression hearing and was directed to address standing; he didn’t show it
Defendant was stopped for erratic driving in Brooklyn and his car was driven by another officer to the precinct station where it was inventoried. In the order setting the hearing, the court directed defendant to better address his standing, and … Continue reading
AZ: Driver of a rental vehicle but not on the rental agreement but driving with permission of renter can still have standing
“First, the state argues that Douglas Christian Wasbotten had no standing to challenge a search of a rented vehicle when he was not an authorized driver under the rental agreement. Second, the state argues that the rental truck was properly … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Motion to suppress of “any Hotmail accounts under his direction, control, use or access” doesn’t show standing
Defendant failed to show standing in his motion to suppress by merely challenging the search of “any Hotmail accounts under his direction, control, use or access” without showing his connection. United States v. Archie, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 70620 (N.D.Ga. … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Def had no standing in a search of a UK CP bulletin board service that revealed his info
Defendant had no standing in a U.K. bulletin board where he was alleged to have obtained child pornography. U.S. officers got into the system and obtained defendant’s information. Even the fact it was password protected adds nothing to the standing … Continue reading