Archives
-
Recent Posts
- VA: Search incident between def’s shorts and underwear was reasonable
- Reason: Border Cops Seize Nurse’s Phone Filled With Psychiatric Patient Information
- MI: Handcuffing uncooperative def at scene of accident wasn’t unreasonable
- S.D.Ga.: Def’s car in driveway next to sidewalk was not on curtilage
- S.D.Ind.: Post search database search of occupants of a place didn’t show SW affidavit was false at time it issued
-
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: Plain view, feel, smell
M.D.Pa.: Traffic stop may be highly technical, but it still has a factual and legal basis
“Although many reasonable people may agree that the stop at issue here was a highly technical, ‘ticky-tacky’ sort of traffic stop, there is no doubt that Florida law requires a driver to stop at a clearly marked stop line before … Continue reading
IN: Hard ball in pocket during frisk was immediately apparent it was drugs
A casino enforcement agent told defendant he had to be patted down before their sitting in an interview room. A round ball was felt in defendant’s pocket, and it was immediately apparent to the officer from training and experience that … Continue reading
NY4: No REP in a handgun placed under car bumper in driveway at sidewalk visible from off the property
When defendant saw the police car at night, he crouched down behind the rear bumper of his minivan and stood up. The officers could see a gun there, and it was approximately at where the sidewalk and the driveway met. … Continue reading
CA6: Police called to ER for shooting victim can make plain view
When the police are called to the ER for a shooting victim, the bloody clothes can be in plain view. United States v. Clancy, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 35567 (6th Cir. Nov. 12, 2020):
WV: SW not needed to seize cell phone from a person, even when it’s expected to be found
The warrantless seizure of defendant’s cell phone was reasonable. The officers didn’t need to get a search warrant before taking it off his person. State v. Deem, 2020 W. Va. LEXIS 706 (Oct. 20, 2020). The officer’s prior knowledge of … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: A pipe in a car that could have legitimate uses still was incriminating enough for plain view
A pipe logically and usually used for smoking pot was seized in plain view because its incriminating nature was immediately apparent. The fact it could be used for legal substances doesn’t detract from that. United States v. Runner, 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
OH8: Smell of MJ justifies search of interior of car where it could be found
“Upon en banc consideration, we uphold the conclusion reached in Franklin, and reiterate that the heightened standard set forth in Farris does not apply to searches conducted within the passenger compartment of a vehicle. Consistent with the confines of Farris, … Continue reading
FL4: Police use of a flashlight isn’t itself a search
“R.F. appeals the denial of his motion to suppress physical evidence. Because we conclude appellant was not seized for Fourth Amendment purposes where the deputy used a spotlight and a flashlight to illuminate his approach of appellant, we affirm the … Continue reading
OH10: Anonymous 911 call didn’t support def’s stop
A 911 anonymous tipster’s call wasn’t justification for defendant’s stop because it was wrong as to clothing and it essentially described all the black men in the area. State v. Walton, 2020-Ohio-5062, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 3906 (10th Dist. Oct. … Continue reading
Chicago Sun Times: Does Illinois’ pot law pass the smell test? Scent of weed can still prompt cops to search vehicles
Chicago Sun Times: Does Illinois’ pot law pass the smell test? Scent of weed can still prompt cops to search vehicles By Tom Schuba (“For many folks, the fragrance of weed is unmistakable. But the mere smell of pot can … Continue reading
MT: Plain view justifies automobile exception search
Seeing contraband in plain view justifies an entry into a car under the automobile exception. State v. Tenold, 2020 MT 263, 2020 Mont. LEXIS 2461 (Oct. 20, 2020). Three controlled buys were probable cause despite defendant’s argument that the officer … Continue reading
FL4: SW of def’s cell phone authenticated text messages
After a search warrant produced defendant’s text messages, the state was able to authenticate them by the phone. State v. Torres, 2020 Fla. App. LEXIS 14356 (Fla. 4th DCA Oct. 7, 2020). “In addition, ‘[d]uring a valid traffic stop, officers … Continue reading
CA4: Seizure of firearm was inevitable; def would have been arrested for DUI and searched incident to arrest anyway
“[W]e conclude that the district court did not err in crediting the arresting officer’s testimony and finding that the arresting officer had probable cause to arrest Herman for driving under the influence. We further conclude that the district court did … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Def’s version more credible than the police version, and motion to suppress is granted
The court sides with the defense on the credibility of the witnesses that defendant’s gun wasn’t in plain view after all, and it grants the motion to suppress. Even though he has an extensive criminal history, which the government seeks … Continue reading
AL: Manipulating object in pocket of person leaving a drug house exceeded Terry
Defendant’s patdown resulted in an impermissible Terry and Dickerson search of her pocket. The state never showed it was apparent that the object being manipulated was a weapon. It was a search for drugs because she was stopped leaving a … Continue reading
TX9: Officer didn’t smell MJ in car until he unreasonably opened car door; suppression affirmed
“Deferring to the trial court’s findings of fact and viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling, as we must, the trial court could have reasonably concluded from the evidence at the suppression hearing that … Continue reading
OH3: Contents of bookbag shown by baggies of drugs hanging out of it
Based on the officer’s observation of baggies of drugs hanging out of a bookbag, the contents were readily apparent. State v. Burroughs, 2020-Ohio-4417, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 3301 (3d Dist. Sept. 14, 2020). Defendant’s objection to the R&R had a … Continue reading
AK: Aerial surveillance of a residential backyard to photograph it with a telephoto lens violates the state constitution
Aerial surveillance of a residential backyard to photograph it with a telephoto lens violates the Alaska Constitution where the landowner took precautions to protect his privacy at ground-level. McKelvey v. State, 2020 Alas. App. LEXIS 71 (Sept. 4, 2020):
CA10: Where wrong standard of review applied below, undisputed facts allow appellate court to still decide
“Because the evidence presented by the government at the evidentiary hearing in this case was largely undisputed, we conclude that the district court’s factual findings were not clearly erroneous, and that its misapplication of the standard of review does not … Continue reading