Archives
-
Recent Posts
- CA6: State officer’s arrest for violation of federal MJ law likely wouldn’t violate 4A
- D.N.M.: Shared driveway outside of fence and gate was not curtilage
- CA6: Knowing passcode to cell phone shows common authority over it to consent
- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
- Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
-
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: Arrest or entry on arrest
CA2: PC and innocence of the crime charged are different things; a search incident to arrest can still be valid
Officers had probable cause to arrest for possession of marijuana despite the fact it later turned out he was innocent of possession. The inventory of his backpack was still valid. United States v. Bignon, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 15972 (2d … Continue reading
CA6: Ptf stated claim for unreasonable continued detention after state’s case collapsed when forensic search of computer came up negative
Plaintiff was arrested for child pornography when officers executed a search warrant at his house based on a video uploaded via the IP address and router in the house. There was probable cause for the arrest, but not for the … Continue reading
CA11: Shooting passenger in a car used as a weapon unreasonable
Shooting a passenger in a car that was allegedly used as a weapon was unreasonable because the passenger had no control over the car and his shooting wouldn’t stop the car. Robinson v. Rankin, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 15297 (11th … Continue reading
CA7: Even though the 4A was complied with, if the question is relevance or prejudice, a motion in limine is proper, not a motion to suppress
Just because the Fourth Amendment was complied with doesn’t mean that the evidence seized is relevant (Rule 401) or the evidence could be more prejudicial than relevant (Rule 403). Then, suppression isn’t the remedy – a motion in limine is. … Continue reading
MA: DNA swab taken by consent during arrest without PC is suppressed, but state can do it over on remand
Defendant was arrested for murder, handcuffed and taken in for interrogation, all without probable cause. His statement was suppressed, and the state fails to show that obtaining his buccal swab during this time would clear even the low bar for … Continue reading
HI: Repeated announcement outside tent before entry with SW satisfied knock-and-announce requirement; def was hearing impaired and slept through it
Defendant lived in a park in a “tent,” under a tarp with gaps that officers could somewhat see inside. Officers had a search warrant and they announced loudly several times their office and purpose. There was no door to knock … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Innocent explanations for pole camera evidence to get SW didn’t make a Franks challenge because there still was PC
Defendant’s innocent explanations for what pole camera videos showed that were not in the affidavit for search warrant do not amount to a Franks challenge. There still was probable cause. United States v. Joye, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66463 (E.D. … Continue reading
KY: Detaining bystanders to facilitate the arrest of one was reasonable
State case law already permits officers to detain bystanders for a reasonable period for officer safety in execution of search warrants. The court adopts the Sixth Circuit rule and extends it to arrest warrants, too. “We hold that detaining Constant … Continue reading
TX2: SW for seizure of blood includes the ability to analyze it
It is well settled in Texas that a search warrant for blood in a DUI case includes the ability to analyze it. Jacobson v. State, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 3447 (Tex. App. – Ft. Worth Apr. 23, 2020). Defendant’s CSLI … Continue reading
CA6: One day detention without finding of PC valid under Gerstein and Riverside
Plaintiffs’ one day detention without a finding of probable cause failed to state a claim under Gerstein and County of Riverside. That is still presumptively reasonable. Cox v. City of Jackson, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 13124 (6th Cir. Apr. 22, … Continue reading
HI: No prior showing of PC is required for a penal summons
No prior showing of probable cause is required for a penal summons because there is no arrest or custody under Gerstein v. Pugh. State v. Thompson, 2020 Haw. App. LEXIS 151 (Apr. 24, 2020). The district court properly denied qualified … Continue reading
NC: Flipping off officer not disorderly conduct; stop suppressed
Flipping off the officer wasn’t disorderly conduct justifying the stop. The community caretaking function also does not apply. State v. Ellis, 2020 N.C. LEXIS 363 (May 1, 2020). The state could not show that defendant’s statements were inevitably discovered from … Continue reading
CA9: County of Riverside v. McLaughlin’s 48 hour rule does not apply to parole holds
County of Riverside v. McLaughlin’s 48 hour rule does not apply to parole holds. Benson v. Chappell, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 14035 (9th Cir. May 1, 2020). There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop, but the officer’s opening the car … Continue reading
FL2: Search incident of backpack for being in park after hours invalid
Defendant was stopped for sitting in a park with his bicycle after hours, a violation of a county ordinance. The search incident of his backpack for this offense violated the Florida Constitution. Booker v. State, 2020 Fla. App. LEXIS 5718 … Continue reading
AR: Drug dog at scene while warning ticket being written didn’t extend stop
This dog sniff did not extend the stop where the dog arrived while the warning ticket was being written. Mickens v. State, 2020 Ark. App. 280, 2020 Ark. App. LEXIS 307 (Apr. 29, 2020). The blood draw of the unconscious … Continue reading
OH5: Trial judge signing SW wasn’t ground to recuse
The trial judge having signed a search warrant wasn’t grounds to recuse at trial. Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not raising it. The validity of the search wasn’t even an issue. State v. Ray, 2020-Ohio-1265, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 1197 … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: IAC shown for failure to move to suppress arrest in own home
Defendant satisfied his burden of showing ineffective assistance of counsel for defense counsel’s failure to file a motion to suppress that the entry into the house violated the Fourth Amendment and this tainted defendant’s consent. There is no strategic reason … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Renter of car who loaned it out still had standing in the car
Defendant rented a car in his name two weeks before the search. He had standing in the car when somebody borrowed it and was stopped. The court declines to find that the dog handler cued the dog. Audio of a … Continue reading
FL3: No PC for arrest of person closest to the drugs without knowing his relation to the property
There was no probable cause to arrest defendant just because he was the one nearest to the drugs when the police came in. There was no consideration of his relationship to the premises in the face of the law of … Continue reading