Archives
-
Recent Posts
- Privacy Daily: Chatrie’s Clarification to Fourth Amendment a Win for Privacy, Experts Say
- D.Alaska: Def’s half hour detention was without RS
- CA9: When the PC for SW dissipates, the search must stop; no GFE
- C.D.Cal.: SW for all software in gambling case was overbroad and no GFE
- E.D.Mich.: State environmental inspector who entered property to look at unlicensed seawall gets QI
-
-
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: Reasonableness
OH2: Stop outside the officer’s jurisdiction doesn’t violate 4A
A traffic stop outside the officer’s jurisdiction doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. State v. Sexton, 2026-Ohio-2636, 2026 Ohio App. LEXIS 2551 (2d Dist. July 10, 2026). A habeas petitioner has no right to discovery of search warrant affidavits. Moreover, he … Continue reading
Fed.Cir.: VA’s determination here for mandatory in-home reassessment visits did not violate 4A under Wyman v. James
The VA’s determination here for mandatory in-home reassessment visits did not violate the Fourth Amendment under Wyman v. James. The statute gives the VA that discretion. Latham v. Sec’y of Veterans Affairs, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 17328 (Fed. Cir. June … Continue reading
IL: A backpack is not as personal a repository of stuff as a purse or wallet; officers ordered it left in vehicle for safety reasons and it was inventoried
Defendant’s backpack is not as much a personal repository as a wallet or purse. When officers ordered the occupants out of the car, the backpack was at defendant’s feet, and he was ordered to leave it behind. The inventory was … Continue reading
CA5: Accidentally shooting the man who disarmed the shooter from a residence was not a constitutional violation
“This is a tragic case of mistaken identity. A police officer believed he was targeting a gunman who had been firing on police from a residence. Instead, he shot and badly wounded a man who had disarmed the actual shooter … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Extending stop to run ALPR information on car was with RS
Here, the officer in a traffic stop wanted to run defendant’s LPN through ALPRs to determine whether the travel was as stated. There was reasonable suspicion to continue the stop 15 minutes for that. United States v. Moore, 2026 U.S. … Continue reading
CA10: Officer’s peering through 1″ gap in curtains from outside was plain view
Denial of rehearing en banc: United States v. Watkins, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 13495 (10th Cir. May 11, 2026),* denial of rehearing en banc from United States v. Watkins, 156 F.4th 1049 (10th Cir. 2025):
E.D.N.Y.: Def’s attempt to escape from a warrantless arrest at the door was exigency
Officers came without a warrant to arrest defendant where he was spending the night, and he tried to escape. That was exigency. United States v. Richard, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99358 (E.D.N.Y. May 5, 2026). Defendant’s presence in someone else’s … Continue reading
D.D.C.: PO’s alleged violation of probation regulations doesn’t warrant suppression if a reasonable mistake
Even if GPS monitoring by a Community Supervision Officer under D.C. law violated regulations, a reasonable mistake of law (Heien) overcomes the violation, and it is not suppressed. United States v. White, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 92214 (D.D.C. Apr. 27, … Continue reading
CAAF: Victim’s 4A rights were at issue, too
The military court had to also consider the Fourth Amendment rights of the victim to sensitive information the accused sought access to for trial. All things considered, even if the court martial judge was wrong denying it, it was harmless … Continue reading
CA9: First cell phone warrant was issued day after seizure; second a year later wasn’t unreasonable
The day after defendant’s cell phone was seized, the government obtained a search warrant for it, and the warrant had a 90-day execution provision. Defendant concedes probable cause. The fact it took a year before a second warrant for the … Continue reading
DC: Officer’s unreasonable mistake of law did not make the stop reasonable under Heien
The officer’s unreasonable mistake of law on windshield tint (“can’t have tint at all” v. it can have some) did not make the stop reasonable under Heien. Griffin v. United States, 2026 D.C. App. LEXIS 95 (Mar. 19, 2026). Defendant’s … Continue reading
CA7: Officer did all he could to determine whether place to be searched was single unit or multi-unit
In an anticipatory warrant case, the officer did all he could to determine whether the premises was a single unit or not, and everything suggested it was single. “[T]he agents’ investigation of the facts contained in the warrant, and their … Continue reading
Cal.2: Officers didn’t need to periodically reassess exigency
Exigency here did not need to be periodically reassessed. “Once inside, police were not required to interrupt their efforts to seek a warrant. Officers on the scene must be able to devote their full attention to the threat they face. … Continue reading
ID: AW for suspected passenger allowed police to enter curtilage to look in parked car at night
Officers could enter defendant’s curtilage to look in his just parked car at night. They had an arrest warrant for a suspected passenger and they couldn’t tell whether she was in the car before it was parked under Payton. State … Continue reading
NY3: Housing law that requires landlords to submit to premises and records searches is unconstitutional
Section 8 housing law that requires landlords to submit to premises and records searches is unconstitutional. Matter of People of the State of N.Y. v. Commons W., LLC, 2026 NY Slip Op 01253 (3d Dept. Mar. 5, 2026). Leave to … Continue reading
AR overrules state constitution’s pretextual arrest case from 2002; reasonableness is the key
Arkansas overrules State v. Sullivan, 348 Ark. 647, 74 S.W.3d 215 (2002), which held that a pretextual arrest violated the state constitution, holding this time that Fourth Amendment reasonableness should control. Gamble v. State, 2026 Ark. 44 (Mar. 5, 2026) … Continue reading
OH12: Officer’s reasonable mistake on traffic violation didn’t void stop
Did defendant violate the turn signal ordinance by not signaling his turn until already stopped? It doesn’t matter. “Ultimately, though, we need not decide whether Bryant actually violated the turn-signal ordinance. Even if the answer is unclear, Officer Singleton’s stop … Continue reading
AR: Asking for SW before opening the door is not obstructing governmental operations
Asking for a search warrant before opening the door is not obstructing governmental operations. The motion for directed verdict should have been granted. This is not active resistance. Keeton v. State, 2026 Ark. App. 53 (Jan. 28, 2026). The Heck … Continue reading
4A reasonableness
If a law enforcement officer is never trained on the Fourth Amendment, does he or she get the benefit of the good faith exception or reasonableness? Don’t both require some “understanding” by definition? See Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. … Continue reading
SCOTUS: Case v. Montana: community caretaking function doesn’t rely on PC
Brigham City’s “objectively reasonable basis for believing” someone inside needs emergency assistance doesn’t mean probable cause. That’s best left to criminal investigations. Case v. Montana, 2026 U.S. LEXIS 432 (Jan. 14, 2026). Syllabus by the Court: