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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)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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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"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: Scope of search
PA: SW for house permitted search of guest’s pants that were on floor when the police arrived
Police came with a drug search warrant into the house of another where defendant was sleeping with a woman, and told him to get up. He reached for his nearby pants, and they took them and searched them finding his … Continue reading
OH8: Smell of raw MJ from car didn’t support search of envelopes in car
Defendant was stopped by Cleveland State University officers for a traffic offense, and there was a strong smell of marijuana coming from the car. That gave probable cause to search generally for the source of the marijuana, but the court … Continue reading
CO: SW for things that could transmit pictures to a computer fairly included a digital camera
The search warrant was for digital images and was for computers, storage media, and things that could transmit pictures to the computer. That fairly included defendant’s digital camera. People v. Raehal, 2017 COA 18, 2017 Colo. App. LEXIS 199 (Feb. … Continue reading
OH7: The SW included def’s car, and her driving off before police could search it didn’t prevent stopping and searching it away from the house
The search warrant for defendant’s house included her car. When he arrived there, the police attempted to stop her to search the car, but she got away and was stopped about a mile away. Because the warrant provided for the … Continue reading
CA4: Drugs on an occupant of a vehicle supports a search of the trunk and other compartments
Drugs on an occupant of a vehicle supports a search of the trunk and other compartments. United States v. Brown, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 1720 (4th Cir. Jan. 31, 2017). Defendant appeals a supervised release search term that does not … Continue reading
CA5: The length of computer search didn’t make it unreasonable where def was a lawyer and taint team had to do first review
Defendant was a lawyer who took his computer in to have the data on the hard drive switched to a new computer. The service guy doing the job noticed file names suggestive of child pornography and he saw at least … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Documents seized beyond SW terms in computer search suppressed
The government seized documents in a computer search that are outside the warrant because it didn’t comply with a Comprehensive Drug Testing computer search protocol, but it declines to remove them from its computer image file because it would taint … Continue reading
D.Mass.: The things to be searched for in SW could be kept in a safe, so the safe could be opened
“Here, it was reasonable to believe that items named in the search warrant—drugs, money, and records—could be stored in safes located in Owens’s bedroom. Thus, the police searching Owens’s bedroom had the authority to pry open the safes they found … Continue reading
D.Me.: Third party consenter’s apparent authority included the attic
“Contrary to Defendant’s argument, Ms. Barry had common authority over the property. She lived in the home with Defendant and their minor child, and shared a bedroom with Defendant. Consistent with the fact she resided in the home and had … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: SW description was defective but reference to affidavit and GFE saves it
The warrant was defective on its face, only authorizing a search of the person of the accused. The affidavit for the warrant, however, was more detailed and described places and things: a hotel room and a Mercedes. The officer sought … Continue reading
NC: Search warrant for house included rental car on curtilage, reversing CoA
A search warrant for the home includes the curtilage, and that includes vehicles parked on the curtilage; here, a rental car. State v. Lowe, 2016 N.C. LEXIS 1116 (Dec. 21, 2016), rev’g State v. Lowe, 774 S.E.2d 893 (N.C. App. … Continue reading
MI: Consent to remove shoe didn’t include consent to take apart a lighter that fell out
Defendant’s consent was to remove his shoe. It did not include taking apart the lighter that fell out. Remanded to suppress. May v. State, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 810 (Dec. 13, 2016). Officers received a BOLO on a particular car … Continue reading
TX6: Two TX DFPS workers’ convictions for “official oppression” for knowingly conducting illegal searches affirmed
This defendant was employed by the Greenville office of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. A.K., a 15 year runaway, was captured and taken to juvenile detention. “On A.K.’s arrival, the center’s personnel took A.K.’s personal effects, including … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Officers knew or should have known target location was multifamily; SW for gun in one unit didn’t permit search of all five
“The issue in defendant Josue Olman Martinez’s motion to suppress is whether it was reasonable for officers to continue to search a property that they may have initially assumed was a single family residence once they knew or should have … Continue reading
E.D. Tenn.: “Premises” in the broad consent to search form is interpreted to include vehicles parked outside
The use of “premises” in the broad consent to search form is interpreted to include vehicles parked outside near the house. United States v. Foster, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161550 (E.D. Tenn. Nov. 22, 2016). “The record contains no evidence … Continue reading
EFF: Why the Warrant to Hack in the Playpen Case Was an Unconstitutional General Warrant
EFF: Why the Warrant to Hack in the Playpen Case Was an Unconstitutional General Warrant by Andrew Crocker: Should the government be able to get a warrant to search a potentially unlimited number of computers belonging to unknown people located … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Nothing of exterior of building suggested separate living units inside; officers found def’s door open and unlocked inside
Nothing of the outward appearance of the dwelling that was subject to the search warrant suggested that there were multiple units inside. Thus, officers could not have known until after entry seeing some of the doors with keyed locks, and … Continue reading