Archives
-
Recent Posts
- D.Kan.: DoL’s SDT was reasonable in scope and within the agency’s authority
- CA6: One who manages another’s social media account doesn’t have standing in it
- NYTimes: Trump’s ‘Smart Wall’ of A.I. Cameras Is Watching the Border, and More Than a Million People
- S.D.Ohio: Affidavit alleged only that drug dealers use cell phones, and that’s not PC; but GFE saves it
- Reason: Iowa Voters Don’t Want Police or Flock Tracking Their Cars. Politicians Are Still Catching Up.
-
Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
-
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
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)
-
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
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
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)
-
“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: Informant hearsay
ID: Officer writing ticket providing backup to drug dog abandoned traffic ticket making it a criminal investigation; suppressed
The officer’s delaying of the traffic stop for 2½ minutes while performing a back-up function for a drug dog sweep violated defendant’s rights under the Fourth Amendment, because the seizure, initially valid based on a cracked windshield, became unreasonable after … Continue reading
NY co.ct.: Noting split in case law, slight smell of MJ in the passenger compartment generally doesn’t justify a search of the trunk; here, however, trunk accessible from inside car
Noting a split in authorities, the court finds that the smell of marijuana in the passenger compartment [here, coming off the rental agreement] does not give probable cause to search the trunk. Here, however, the trunk was accessible from the … Continue reading
TN: Off-duty police officer was citizen informant on DUI call
An off-duty police officer saw defendant appeared drunk in her car in a Sonic parking lot and called it in. He was a citizen informant. State v. Irwin, 2016 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 841 (Nov. 8, 2016). The search of … Continue reading
IN: Failure to show CI’s basis of knowledge and reason to believe him was a failure of PC and GFE
Defendant was charged with illegally harvesting ginseng based on a search warrant that lacked a proper showing of informant hearsay with no showing of basis of knowledge or why it would be believable or should be credited. Turning to the … Continue reading
Guam: Anonymous report of man in car with gun didn’t satisfy Navarette
Anonymous report of man with a gun in a car led to defendant’s stop, and the court finds it insufficient under Navarette because there was no allegation of a crime. People v. Mansapit, 2016 Guam 30, 2016 Guam LEXIS 28 … Continue reading
OR: Mail recipient has a possessory interest in mail in transit; removing it from mail stream for dog sniff was unreasonable (under state constitution)
A US mail recipient has a constitutionally protected privacy interest in the package in transit under the Oregon Constitution, looking to Ex parte Jackson (1877). The package was effectively and unlawfully seized at the Portland airport mail facility for separate … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Def’s stop on PC for drugs permitted Gant SI of the car
The officer had probable cause to stop and detain defendant for delivery of drugs based on the CI’s story coming together when defendant arrived. Therefore, the Gant search incident of the car for drugs was reasonable. United States v. Baskin, … Continue reading
WaPo: Want to make a million? Become a DEA informant
WaPo: Want to make a million? Become a DEA informant by Joe Davidson: There’s an unfortunate saying on the street: Snitches get stitches. Turns out some get paid, too, sometimes very, very well. Consider this from a new report on … Continue reading
TX: Anonymous tip was corroborated at the scene by officers for RS
An anonymous tip brought police to where defendant was, and their observations corroborated the tip sufficient to support reasonable suspicion. Furr v. State, 2016 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1094 (Sept. 21, 2016) (dissent):
NM: Driver’s failure to produce proof of registration and insurance doesn’t permit search of console
Defendant’s failure to produce his registration and proof of insurance during a traffic stop didn’t give the officer justification to search the center console for it himself. Thus, defense counsel was ineffective for not raising this issue. State v. Howl, … Continue reading
DE: When state shows PC in forfeiture proceeding, burden shifts to def
This case involves a return of property petition and the state sought forfeiture. The probable cause standard for forfeiture is essentially the same at that applied in Fourth Amendment search and seizure cases. Thus, the State is required to prove … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: CI’s tale about another’s safety is entitled to greater weight
Defendant argued that the officer’s use of “several firearms” cases in the affidavit for the search warrant was misleading under Franks. Since “several” means, essentially, more than one and not too many, and defendant’s priors aren’t yet firmly known, this … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Def’s probation cell phone search was justified
Because of defendant’s arrest, his probation officers had a great interest in searching his cell phone as a probation search. His arrest showed that he likely wasn’t complying with the law. United States v. Harding, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119276 … Continue reading
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
ME: Great detail supported the CI’s statement; inclusion of CI’s criminal history didn’t undermine PC
The great detail about the CI with its corroboration was probable cause. The inclusion of the CI’s criminal history doesn’t ipso facto undermine the probable cause, and the reviewing court is obliged to give deference to the issuing court’s probable … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Child porn SW affidavit doesn’t need pictures attached: a description will do
The description “child pornography” is enough for the affidavit for a CP search warrant–the pictures themselves don’t have to be attached to prove it. United States v. Weatherman, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104878 (S.D. N.Y. Aug. 9, 2016). Based on … Continue reading
NC: Trial court’s sustaining DUI checkpoint on this record was plain error
The trial court plainly erred in finding the DUI checkpoint was valid under the Brown v. Texas factors. State v. Ashworth, 2016 N.C. App. LEXIS 816 (Aug. 2, 2016). Greatly detailed “innocent details” from the CI were corroborated, and that … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: CI’s only nonpublic fact wasn’t corroborated, so no RS
The tipster provided only easily known public information, but for the fact defendant sat in his car and smoked marijuana during his lunch breaks. Police watched him and he didn’t do that. Because the police never corroborated the one observable … Continue reading
TN: CI’s tale def was coming to apartment complex to do a drug deal was corroborated by him showing up and apparently doing a drug deal
The CI’s information defendant would be delivering crack cocaine to a specific apartment complex and an officer’s personal observations of defendant arriving there and engaging in what appeared to be a drug deal were sufficient to create reasonable suspicion to … Continue reading