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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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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
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
Privacy Foundation
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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
D.Neb.: A mere passenger in a car used in a robbery has no standing to challenge the search
Riding in a car to a robbery is not a “sufficiently close connection to the car” to give standing. There was at least reasonable suspicion for the stop based on the robbery call, and then probable cause for their arrest. … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Seizure of a computer under a warrant authorizes its search, even after the 14 day window
Seizure of a computer under a warrant authorizes its search, even after the 14 day window in the warrant. Phone conversations between defendant and his lawyer over the jail phone system were not subject to attorney-client privilege because there was … Continue reading
CA3: A corporate shareholder and executive doesn’t have standing in the corporation’s computer server; no personal connection
“To show he can challenge the search of SPI’s and CDS’s offices and the seizure of the employees’ computers and network server as a shareholder and executive, Nagle must show a personal connection to the place searched or to the … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Plain view supported seizure of records outside scope of search warrant
In a Medicaid fraud document search warrant, some documents found were outside of the scope of the warrant, but they satisfied the plain view doctrine that their potential incriminating nature was immediately apparent and they were found in the course … Continue reading
AR: Community caretaking function justified opening car door of driver asleep in a parking lot at 4:30 am with engine running
Defendant was found in a parking lot at 4:30 am with his lights on and engine running, but asleep. Opening the door was within the community caretaking function. Szabo v. State, 2015 Ark. App. 512, 2015 Ark. App. LEXIS 591 … Continue reading
D.Mass.: A paying passenger in a cab has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the passenger compartment
“While the question is close,” the court concludes that a paying passenger in a livery car has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the passenger area of the cab from the police, relying on United States v. Woodrum, 202 F.3d … Continue reading
D.Mont.: An unauthorized driver of a rental car still has standing to challenge its search as long as permission was given by the renter
An unauthorized driver of a rental car still has standing to challenge its search as long as permission was given by the renter. United States v. Pinex, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118558 (D.Mont. September 4, 2015). Packages in the mail … Continue reading
OH1: A car listed on the search warrant could be searched away from the premises
“[*P7] Following the issuance of the warrant, RENU agents conducted surveillance on the residence at 3021 Cavanaugh Avenue. According to Deputy Kane, RENU agents would generally wait to execute a search warrant until an occupant left the targeted residence, especially … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: There’s no standing in a dilapidated building def occupies knowing it was de facto condemned
Defendant put a mattress in a dilapidated building that he knew the city wanted unoccupied because it was unsafe. Therefore, the court concludes he has no standing. United States v. Rounds, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117174 (W.D.N.Y. September 2, 2015):
W.D.Pa.: No standing in an overdue rental car in somebody else’s name
Defendant had no standing in a rental car that was overdue and rented by somebody else who let him drive it. A representative of the rental car company came to the scene to retrieve it, and he consented to a … Continue reading
OH3: Home burglar alarm company call and partially open door is exigency
Home burglar alarm brought the police via the alarm company. They found the door cracked open, and that was exigent circumstances for an entry. State v. Foster, 2015-Ohio-3401, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 3316 (3d Dist. August 24, 2015). The certified … Continue reading
D.Colo.: Motion for return of property denied until post-conviction process over
Defendants moved for return of their property after conviction and the appeal was affirmed. The government gets to keep it pending conclusion of any collateral review which might be filed. United States v. Banks, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107994 (D.Colo. … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Driver of a borrowed vehicle may have standing
The driver of a borrowed vehicle may have standing. United States v. Reina, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106687 (M.D.Fla. August 13, 2015). Here, however, defendants’ possession of a borrowed pickup truck and then fleeing from it shows a lack of … Continue reading
D.Me.: Just having your stuff in a motel room rented by another doesn’t prove you’re an overnight guest
One defendant failed to even attempt to show standing in a motel room rented by a third man. The second defendant failed, too, but he was a little closer to the mark. Just having stuff in the room alone isn’t … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Where def stole wife’s car, his marital interest in it alone was not standing
Where defendant stole the car he was driving from his wife, his mere ownership interest in the vehicle by marital property is not enough to establish standing. United States v. Williams, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 95190 (W.D.Ky. July 22, 2015), … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Standing here was established by other witnesses without def even testifying; USMJ erred in denying full hearing
The USMJ found no standing, but defendant did not need to testify to establish standing. Here, there was evidence in the record that others said the duffle bag was defendant’s and his papers were found inside it. That should be … Continue reading
CA9: Not questioning search likely sound strategy where defense at trial was disassociation from the drugs and the place they were found
Defendant’s IAC claim on his search isn’t proper for direct appeal, and it should proceed in a 2255. “However, counsel may have had strategic reasons not to file a suppression motion to avoid having Birrueta testify. For example, testifying at … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: IAC overbroad search claim requires SW be attached or otherwise in the record
In a 2255 IAC, defendant’s claim that defense counsel was ineffective for not challenging the search warrant of his hotel room as overbroad fails without attaching the warrant so the court can see. It’s not otherwise in the record. United … Continue reading
OH9: Def’s innocent explanations don’t per se undermine reasonable suspicion
Defendant’s innocent explanations for being in the parking lot in a high crime area don’t undermine the officer’s reasonable suspicion developed at the time. State v. Starr, 2015-Ohio-2193, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 2113 (9th Dist. June 8, 2015).* The probation … Continue reading