Archives
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Recent Posts
- CA2: No 4A requirement for SWs being issued with notice to target
- CA6: Denying ptf access to his own bathroom during a search of his house stated 4A claim
- W.D.Mo.: Not exactly following the inventory policy doesn’t make it unreasonable under 4A
- GA: No IAC for not challenging complete cell phone download before search
- DNYUZ: CBP Workers Allegedly Used Government Databases to Spy on Exes, Crushes, and Colleagues
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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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F.R.Crim.P. 41
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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
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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: Probation / Parole search
CA3: State law required RS for a parole search
Defendant was a parolee, and the parties argued over whether no suspicion was required for a parole search or reasonable suspicion. The government argued no suspicion required. The parole conditions didn’t specify, but state statute did, and reasonable suspicion is … Continue reading
CA4: Probation search not unreasonable because a law enforcement task force was involved
Defendant argues the state probation search agreement (“his probation officer”) rather than the statute’s provision that he was generally subject to search was not controlling. The court disagrees: The statute controls and it’s clear. The fact a law enforcement task … Continue reading
LA4: Nervousness and furtiveness of person clutching bag on Bourbon St during Halloween crowd justified stop to check for weapons
It was Halloween on Bourbon Street, which is the largest crowd in New Orleans other than Mardi Gras. Defendant was stopped for his suspicious behavior on seeing EMS personnel, and he quickened his pace and tucked his bag under his … Continue reading
DE: SW for drugs allows search anywhere drugs may be hidden
A search warrant for drugs authorizes a search any place where drugs may be hidden. The fact other things are found that are evidence allows their seizure, too. Jackson v. State, 2019 Del. LEXIS 456 (Oct. 8, 2019). U.S. Probation … Continue reading
D.Neb.: POs came to def’s house, smelled meth, and had RS for a search
Defendant was on a parole and drew her PO’s suspicion when she said she was putting money on a card at CVS since she was unemployed. They made a home visit and smelled methamphetamine cooking. They had reasonable suspicion for … Continue reading
D.Idaho: US Probation may enlist LEOs in conducting supervision search of cell phone
U.S. Probation was supervising defendant and they suspected child pornography on his cell phone. They enlisted HSI to search the phone. This did not violate federal law; USPO can get assistance to conduct a search. United States v. Johnson, 2019 … Continue reading
IN: In a probation search of one under home confinement, only common areas or def’s specific area can be searched; MJ and gun found in common area
Defendant was placed on home confinement as a result of his conviction, and there was a search waiver provision. He was living in someone else’s house. Assuming only the common areas and those under defendant’s specific control are subject to … Continue reading
Cal.1: An electronic device probation search condition is reasonable to aid rehabilitation; but here it needs to be narrower
An electronic search condition for this juvenile involved in car burglaries was reasonable in its inception, but it had to be narrowed. The court finds an electronic search condition reasonable because of the inordinate amount of time he spends on … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Parolee has no REP in own home as to parole search
The court holds that defendant’s status as a parolee literally gave him no reasonable expectation of privacy in his own trailer from a parole search. He seeks narrowing the search under Griffin to avoid Samson and Knights. The court rejects … Continue reading
NC: Failure to prove nexus to real property in SW requires suppression
The affidavit for search warrant failed to connect defendant to the premises sufficient for there to be probable cause, and the court of appeals decision to suppress is affirmed. As to a vehicle, the officer had more information but didn’t … Continue reading
NC: On remand from Grady, lifetime monitoring of sex offense “recidivists” off parole or any community control violates 4A
On remand from Grady v. North Carolina, 135 S. Ct. 1368 (2015), North Carolina’s lifetime satellite based monitoring system is unconstitutional as applied to those “recidivists” who have completed parole and all post-release supervision. The court does not go into … Continue reading
DC: Probationer on GPS monitoring could be checked against crime data to connect him to crime without violating 4A
Defendant was on supervised release and was required to wear a GPS monitor. After a crime, probation officers checked to see if perchance any of their probationers were at the scene at the time, and defendant was. The examination of … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Def was on supervised release with a reasonable searches condition, and his CP search was reasonable with that and a SW
Defendant had previously been convicted of child pornography, and he had lifetime supervision with a “reasonable” search condition. Despite that, officers got a search warrant for his house and computers for another such offense. First, there was justification for a … Continue reading
Cal.: Probation search condition of electronic devices not related to underlying offense and quashed
The juvenile here was adjudicated guilty of burglary. A probation search condition of his electronic devices wasn’t reasonably related to the offense and it is ordered removed. In re Ricardo P., 2019 Cal. LEXIS 5949 (Aug. 16, 2019). The seizure … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: Merely showing that a foregone motion to suppress was “arguable” isn’t IAC
Merely showing that a foregone motion to suppress was “arguable” isn’t IAC. Petitioner has to show it would have prevailed. Accordingly, he cannot show that counsel’s decision not to file a motion to suppress was objectively unreasonable.” Silva v. United … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Suspicionless probation search condition doesn’t need to be part of the sentencing order to be valid
Defendant was properly subject to a suspicionless state probation condition. He had no right to have it announced in court as a part of the sentence. It occurs by operation of law. United States v. Linder, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA5: Home visitation and search condition not unreasonable (plain error review)
Defendant challenged his home visitation condition under the Fourth Amendment on appeal without having objected below. It is reviewed for plain error, and it’s certainly not. United States v. Dominguez-Villalobos, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 23184 (5th Cir. Aug. 2, 2019).* … Continue reading
CA8: Parole search of cell phone was reasonable
Defendant was on supervised release in Minnesota as a result of a state conviction. His cell phone was subject to search on reasonable suspicion, and Riley does not bar a parole or probation search of a cell phone. Moreover, his … Continue reading
NY1: Parole officer’s search of def on arrest revealed gun; trial court erred in suppressing
Defendant’s parole officer had a warrant for defendant, and a patdown with the arrest resulted in plain feel of a gun. The trial court erred in suppressing the gun because it was validly found. People v. Jennings, 2019 NY Slip … Continue reading