October 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Archives
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Recent Posts
- 404 Media: USPS To Put Cameras in Trucks That Scan Roads for ‘Community Safety’
- D.N.M.: Checking VIN number during traffic stop is reasonable
- E.D.Ky.: Possession of firearms is ongoing crime so seldom stale
- CNS: Privacy class action over genetic data moves forward
- WaPo: Florida county discovers mysterious Flock cameras with no obvious owner
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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 -
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
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LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
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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
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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)
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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
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)
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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
CA7: Dog sniff by second officer while first officer wrote ticket didn’t extend stop
The officer with the dog doing the sniff happened while the first officer was writing the ticket, and that made it valid. Even if not, there was reasonable suspicion extending the stop for the dog sniff. United States v. Guidry, … Continue reading
Cal.6th: Probation computer search condition was overbroad and unreasonable
A probation condition allowing computer searches for material prohibited by law was overbroad under the Fourth Amendment because the condition allowed for searches of vast amounts of personal information unrelated to defendant’s criminal conduct or potential for future criminality. Narrower … Continue reading
CA11: FL deferred prosecution “pretrial intervention program” subject to probation searches
Defendant was entered into “a pretrial intervention program as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the State of Florida. Florida offers the program to first-time offenders and some second-time offenders, Fla. Stat. § 948.08(2), who are then supervised by … Continue reading
CA3: Parolee strip search in his own home was reasonable
Parole officers were properly granted summary judgment in a parolee’s claim that they unreasonably searched his property without cause. There was cause, there was no need for reasonable suspicion, and he established no material factual dispute about anything. Moreover, the … Continue reading
CA9: Probation search of cell phone for missing one probation meeting unreasonable; rule unclear “property” includes data
A probation search of defendant’s cell phone based on missing a single probation meeting was unreasonable for various reasons: The heightened privacy in a cell phone v. the ubiquity of cell phones in everyday life and the unclear provision that … Continue reading
IA: Probation pre-consent to search sex offender’s cell phone was valid
Defendant’s probation search conditions included consent to search his property, and his cell phone was properly searched. “An additional consideration supports our conclusion Barth consented to the search of his cellular phone for non-investigatory purposes. Barth was participating in the … Continue reading
D.Ore.: Fair inference shown in affidavit that cell phone used in drug trafficking for its SW
The affidavit for the cell phone search warrant provides at least a fair probability of a connection between defendant’s cell phone and his drug activity. “Many, if not most, people who use cell phones with storage capabilities keep important information … Continue reading
CA6 sustains suspicionless TN probation searches of all sex offenders in community, reserving Knights question of lack of legitimate probation purpose, such as merely to harass
Tennessee permits suspicionless probation and parole searches, and they searched all sex offenders’ homes in one community just because they wanted to. Under defendant’s mattress they found a computer with pornography on it. The court does not reach the issue … Continue reading
CT: First time CI credited because of admission against penal interest and detailed information
It was reasonable for the trial court to find probable cause for the warrant of a first time CI who gave a statement against penal interest and gave detailed information about drugs and cash in defendant’s house. State v. Rodriguez, … Continue reading
AP: Lawsuit: Private probation company forced illegal drug tests
AP: Lawsuit: Private probation company forced illegal drug tests by Kate Brumback: A private probation company illegally required people on probation for traffic offenses to submit to drug tests at their own expense to profit the company, according to a … Continue reading
IA: State SCt hasn’t departed from holding exclusionary rule doesn’t apply to revo proceedings so this court can’t
While the state search and seizure provision is subject to broader interpretation in Iowa, the state supreme court hasn’t deviated from the rule that the exclusionary rule does not apply in probation revocation proceedings, so this court is bound by … Continue reading
KS: Statute on parole searches governs over the parole conditions where statute requires RS
Statute says that parolees are subject to search on reasonable suspicion but the parole conditions have no such restriction. While Samson authorizes parole searches without reasonable suspicion, the legislature made that determination, and the parole condition violates the statute. Reasonable … Continue reading
CA7: WI’s lifetime GPS monitoring of released SVPs is reasonable under 4A
Plaintiff was civilly committed as a sexually violent predator and finally released with GPS monitoring for life. Such monitoring is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment compared to parole searches, and the state has shown that there is a likelihood that … Continue reading
SC: Reading a computer SN was a “search” under Hicks, but it was permitted under a valid probation search
Defendant was on probation and believed to be involved in a murder where a red widescreen Acer laptop was taken. Probation officers went to his house to talk to him with reasonable suspicion, and he was sitting there with a … Continue reading
Cal.1: Electronic search condition of juvenile probation was overbroad; no relation to underlying offense
An electronic search condition of juvenile probation was overbroad. There was no relation between the offense and the condition that officers be allowed to search his phone and social media. In re Mark C., 2016 Cal. App. LEXIS 65 (1st … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Search of house of person on supervised release could forcibly go into a locked safe
Defendant was on federal post-conviction supervised release, and his USPO received notification that defendant had a law enforcement contact for possession of stolen property. Defendant also called to inform him of the contact. A cell phone at the scene of … Continue reading
ND: Suspicionless probation search of an unsupervised probationer is unreasonable
A suspicionless probation search of an unsupervised probationer is unreasonable. SCOTUS’s probation and parolee search rationale does not apply. State v. Ballard, 2016 ND 8, 2016 N.D. LEXIS 15 (Jan. 14, 2016):
CA5: Protective sweep generally can go between a mattress and box springs
It is not unreasonable for an officer to conclude generally that a protective sweep between a mattress and box springs is necessary. Here, there were factual indications that somebody else might be in the room further supporting it. [And plenty … Continue reading
MA: State const. gives probationers more rights than parolees; parolee house search may occur on RS
“We conclude that art. 14 offers greater protection to parolees than does the Fourth Amendment. Article 14 does not, however, offer as much protection to parolees as it affords to probationers. Therefore, where a parole officer has reasonable suspicion to … Continue reading
CA11: Hot pursuit permitted entry onto curtilage
The officer here was in hot pursuit of a car suspected of being the car taken in a carjacking. Finding it in the driveway of a house, the officer could enter the curtilage to ask about it. United States v. … Continue reading