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- D.Kan.: DoL’s SDT was reasonable in scope and within the agency’s authority
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- 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.
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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)
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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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"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: Informant hearsay
CA6: Exigency supported seizure of animals from pet store, but not its records
Animal control officers seized animals and records from a pet store in Chattanooga for lack of water, food, and proper care. The animal seizure was valid and did not violate any clearly established right. The business record seizure, however, could … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Failure to promptly answer PO’s knock at door was RS for an entry, given drug history
Defendant’s failure to answer his door promptly was reasonable cause for a warrantless parole search entry because, given defendant’s drug history, it was reasonable to believe he was destroying drugs. United States v. Sandlain, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129135 (E.D. … Continue reading
KY: 2 am knock-and-talk based on tip was suppressed where tip quickly proved wrong
2 a.m. knock and talk based on midnight anonymous call about noxious odors from the property was invalid where the officers approaching smelled nothing. “Upon receipt of the anonymous tip, the police had a duty to respond and investigate to … Continue reading
Cal.2: Pre-Riley cell phone search incident expressly authorized by case law so Davis GFE applies
The pre-Riley search of defendant’s cell phone was expressly permitted by California case law at the time of the search, so the good faith exception applies. People v. Macabeo, 2014 Cal. App. LEXIS 793 (2d Dist. September 3, 2014). Based … Continue reading
NJ: Emergency entry valid despite two hour delay attempting to locate victim
The entry into defendant’s home was justified under the emergency aid doctrine on a finding of blood despite a two hour delay where the police were calling hospitals trying to locate the defendant to avoid the entry unless it was … Continue reading
WA: 911 call wasn’t reliable enough for a stop; there was reason to question its veracity
Conviction for unlawful possession of a firearm was subject to reversal because police officers had good reasons to question the reliability of the 911 call, any suspicion of an exigent circumstance had dissipated by the time police officers inquired whether … Continue reading
WA: Defendant was separated from his backpack, so it couldn’t be searched incident to arrest
During a Terry stop, the officer separated defendant from his backpack, and the backpack was searched about 10 minutes later when defendant was placed under arrest. The backpack was thus not on defendant’s person nor within his area of control … Continue reading
National Journal: Privacy Groups Sound the Alarm Over FBI’s Facial-Recognition Technology
National Journal: Privacy Groups Sound the Alarm Over FBI’s Facial-Recognition Technology by Dustin Volz: Advocates are pushing Attorney General Eric Holder to assess the privacy impact of the FBI’s controversial database that is expected to become fully operational later this … Continue reading
TX4: No reasonable expectation of privacy in public official’s emails
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public office holder’s official email accounts under the state public records act. Quon is distinguished, and the email policies show no expectation of privacy. Adkisson v. Abbott, 2014 Tex. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Corroboration of publicly known facts provided by CI here was enough
“The only facts that were independently corroborated by Detective Duquette were: (1) that Dixon lived at the Home, and (2) that he had previously been incarcerated in federal prison for selling illegal drugs and had been released in 2010.” “Here, … Continue reading
KS: Failure to corroborate anonymous informants was a complete lack of PC for GFE
A police car was stolen and left in a ditch apparently with blood and hair left on it. Three anonymous calls linked defendant to the theft. He first agreed to come in and give samples and then didn’t show. A … Continue reading
D.C.Cir. finds good faith exception applies to warrant, and probable cause was not even considered
The reliability of the informant’s tale does not need to be decided here because the good faith exception applies [without a word of why]. United States v. Matthews, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 10522 (D.C. Cir. June 6, 2014). Defendant in … Continue reading
W.D.Mich.: No standing in an envelope where only connection to it was asking about it
Defendant lacked standing to challenge the search of an envelope in transit. He didn’t mail it, it wasn’t mailed to him, and he merely asked about it when it was in transit. That wasn’t standing. United States v. Johnson, 2014 … Continue reading
IL: Information from an attorney for SW affidavit neither more nor less credible
Information from an attorney acting for an affidavit for a search warrant is treated the same as other information; it’s neither more nor less reliable. People v. Brown, 2014 IL App (2d) 121167, 2014 Ill. App. LEXIS 366 (May 30, … Continue reading
KY: Search incident to arrest could precede the arrest
The CI here was getting calls from the defendant about defendant selling him drugs, so he called the police to set him up. He was wired and took marked money. The seizure of the pill bottle off defendant was with … Continue reading