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- IN: Overdose call led to EMS telling police what they saw and that led to SW
- NY1: A mental health defense waives REP in the medical records about it
- MA: When a likely Franks violation comes out at trial, def gets to reopen the suppression issue
- RI: Challenge to one sentence of 8-page cell phone records SW fails; totality has to be considered
- WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics
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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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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)
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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: Particularity
DE: Cut-and-paste SW led to overbreadth problem in witness tampering SW where child porn found and suppressed
This is a child pornography case. The search warrant was a cut-and-paste from a child porn warrant but the warrant was for evidence of witness tampering on a computer. Child porn was found. The result was a warrant that failed … Continue reading
OH3: Particularity challenge waived by not presenting it to suppression court
The officer’s smelling marijuana outside defendant’s residence was probable cause to corroborate the story that defendant had a grow going on. A particularity challenge was waived by not presenting it to the trial court at the suppression hearing. State v. … Continue reading
CA3: “Computer hardware” and “any equipment” in a child porn SW includes cell phones
“The warrant, as written, defines ‘computer hardware’ broadly. Horton does not and cannot argue that his cell phone is not ‘computer hardware’ as it is defined in the warrant, which includes ‘any equipment’ (emphasis added) capable of transmitting computer data. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: “other media” showing “address, vehicle, and location of narcotics proceeds” permitted seizure of cell phone
The search warrant authorized seizure of “other media that show standing for an address, vehicle, the location of narcotics proceeds, or a connection between people, addresses and vehicles or that a crime has been committed” and that permitted seizure of … Continue reading
CA6: SW for person by alias and description was valid when he was under surveillance from issuance to execution
Warrants are usually directed at places and things not people, but here was a search warrant directed at defendant by his known alias and description. From the time it was issued until it was executed, defendant was under surveillance. It … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Heroin and other drug warrant was not overbroad despite boilerplate language
A search warrant for heroin that was otherwise boilerplate as to other controlled substances and all the things that officers always want to look for in drug cases was not overbroad. And good faith still applies. United States v. McCarrall, … Continue reading
CA10: Officers get qualified immunity for SW that was not completely without particularity
In this § 1983 case over the particularity of a search warrant over stolen cars on his property, the officers had qualified immunity. The warrant was not so lacking in particularity that a reasonable officer couldn’t rely on it. Rathbun … Continue reading
CA6: “In this respect, we must be mindful of the particular exigencies presented to the officers, who must make decisions to safeguard their own and the public’s safety under the fog of rapidly developing situations and without the luxury of complete information.”
Individually, none of the factors of reasonable suspicion was enough, but collectively they were. “In this respect, we must be mindful of the particular exigencies presented to the officers, who must make decisions to safeguard their own and the public’s … Continue reading
UT: RS not required before a knock-and-talk
Officers do not need reasonable suspicion to conduct a knock-and-talk. Defendant’s consent to enter wasn’t involuntary because he thought he couldn’t refuse because he was on probation. State v. Fretheim, 2015 UT App 197, 2015 Utah App. LEXIS 206 (August … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Govt’s email search protocol satisfied particularity despite large initial seizure
The government’s protocol for searching defendant’s emails satisfied the particularity requirement. All the emails were produced, but the government searched within them only for emails relating to copyright infringement, the crime under investigation. Other cases are in accord. United States … Continue reading
New law review article: The Post-Riley Search Warrant: Search Protocols and Particularity in Cell Phone Searches
Adam M. Gershowitz, The Post-Riley Search Warrant: Search Protocols and Particularity in Cell Phone Searches, William & Mary Law School Research Paper No. 09-313. Abstract: Last year, in Riley v. California, the Supreme Court required police to procure a warrant … Continue reading
GA: Mistake in address not prejudicial where right place was searched; police used address listed with Assessor
The search warrant had a mistaken address. It authorized the search of the plaintiff’s building but listed it as 11195 when it was actually 11193. The wrong building was not searched. Plaintiff did not state a claim for trespass by … Continue reading
WaPo: New article: “Executing Warrants for Digital Evidence: The Case for Use Restrictions on Nonresponsive Data”
WaPo: New article: “Executing Warrants for Digital Evidence: The Case for Use Restrictions on Nonresponsive Data” by Orin Kerr: I recently posted a new draft article, “Executing Warrants for Digital Evidence: The Case for Use Restrictions on Nonresponsive Data.” The … Continue reading
LA: Probationer in the house of another probationer during a PO home visit was searched with RS
Defendant was a probationer in the house of another probationer when the other probationer was subjected to a home visit. After finding marijuana in the bedroom, the officers conducted a protective search of defendant and found drugs. The search was … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Overseizure of emails did not void the search warrant; some overseizure necessary for a proper investigation
A judge in the E.D.N.Y. may issue a search warrant for emails on Yahoo!’s email server in California under Rule 41 and the Stored Communications Act. The warrant was broad in its particularity, but still constitutional. The warrant lawfully included … Continue reading
TN: An RV parked off the property but connected by an electrical cord to the house was subject to search under a warrant for the house
To search vehicles under a search warrant for real property, the vehicles must belong to a person named in the warrant to identify the place or things to be searched. Vehicles belonging to visitors are not subject to search under … Continue reading
PA: Things “in regards to alleged sexual misconduct with a fourteen year old female” particular enough for a cell phone SW
“Contrary to Dougalewicz’s assertion, the Search Warrants sufficiently identified and limited the items to be searched and seized as text messages, phone calls and picture mail from and to the Verizon and Sprint phones, ‘in regards to alleged sexual misconduct … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Use of a SWAT team to execute a document search warrant was not so unreasonable that it made the entire search unreasonable
Use of a SWAT team to execute a document search warrant was not so unreasonable that it made the entire search unreasonable. Also, the alleged overseizure of records was not clearly unreasonable. Mountain Pure LLC v. Roberts, 2015 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading