Archives
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Recent Posts
- 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
- S.D.Fla.: SW for def’s house included his tent outside
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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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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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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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: Seizure
D.Kan.: Ptf’s § 1983 case stayed where filed while underlying criminal case was ongoing
Plaintiff sued while his criminal trespass case was pending in state municipal court. The action is stayed because plaintiff can raise his constitutional claims there. Younger also counsels that. Spiehs v. Allen, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35038 (D. Kan. Feb. … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Where property was lawfully seized under 4A, delayed return isn’t a 4A violation
Plaintiff finances cars. When Suffolk County seized the cars from the buyers, they were allegedly really slow in returning them to Santander. Plaintiff admits the initial seizure was lawful, so the retention doesn’t ipso facto violate the Fourth Amendment. Santander … Continue reading
OR: Stop became a seizure when questions turned to travel plans
“Applying those principles here, we conclude that, under the totality of the circumstances, defendant was seized, at the latest, at 8:53 a.m., when Smith’s questions changed from general questions about defendant’s or P’s identity, to more probing questions about what … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: It’s not actually required a cell phone be involved in a crime; it’s whether it is likely it was
It’s not constitutionally required to show that a cell phone was actually used in a crime for probable cause to search it. It’s enough that it likely could have. “A law enforcement-affiant’s personal expertise combined with attestation to a defendant’s … Continue reading
CA5: Cardiac arrest during police training wasn’t a 4A seizure
“Appellant Brittney Kennedy appeals the dismissal of constitutional claims she brought on behalf of her deceased husband, Marquis Kennedy, who suffered a cardiac arrest after a self-defense simulation for police-cadet training. She claims the district court erred by concluding that … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Alleged sexual assault during citizen ride along stated 4A claim
Alleged sexual assault during a citizen ride along in a police car stated a Fourth Amendment claim. Hess v. Garcia, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22018 (N.D. Ind. Feb. 3, 2026). “Based on our precedent involving the use of pepper spray, … Continue reading
OR: Being ordered to walk backwards toward officer with hands up is a seizure
The juvenile being ordered to walk backwards to the officer with hands up is a seizure, and here it was with reasonable suspicion. P.L. v. C.P.L. (In re C.), 346 Or. App. 499 (Jan. 22, 2026) (argued 18 months ago). … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Being told you’d be arrested for trespassing if you didn’t leave isn’t a seizure
Being told you’d be arrested for trespassing if you didn’t leave isn’t a seizure. Keith v. Romain, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13105 (N.D.N.Y. Jan. 21, 2026). Police responded to a bar on a ShotSpotter report, but it was for naught. … Continue reading
WA: SW at 6 am, ziptied, questioned, but told he wasn’t under arrest is still custody
Defendant was in custody for Miranda when a warrant was executed at his house at 6 am and he was taken outside, separated from his family, and ziptied but told he was not under arrest. State v. Magana-Arevalo, 2026 Wash. … Continue reading
CA8: Ricocheting bullet not a seizure
Unintended shooting target: “When an officer fires at a dog, is there a seizure of the dog’s owner when the stray bullet hits her instead? We conclude the answer is no.” Hight v. Williams, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 781 (8th … Continue reading
ID: Time on seized video was erroneous and it was within particularity of SW
The search warrant for a GoPro video was valid based on the time of the search shown on the video being erroneous. Practical accuracy is the touchstone, and the correct time could be reconstructed. The warrant was particular. State v. … Continue reading
W.D.Ark.: Not clearly established that searching inside underwear on side of road was unreasonable if no one saw it
No clear line of cases suggests the officer’s searching inside plaintiff’s underwear was unreasonable where it was not seen by anyone else. “Plaintiff’s right to be free from such a search was not clearly established at that time and Defendant … Continue reading
D.S.C.: Issuing magistrate sharing address with LE agency doesn’t make the magistrate not “neutral and detached”
The issuing magistrate is not shown to be an adjunct law enforcement officer just because the judge shares an address with a police department. Martinez v. Wilson, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 268655 (D.S.C. Dec. 10, 2025). The search incident of … Continue reading
CA6: Reference to water emoji 💦with dual meaning not a Franks violation
“Swanagan did not make an adequate preliminary showing that Budde’s interpretation of the water emoji was intentionally or recklessly false, so the district court did not clearly err in finding the affidavit truthful. Swanagan asserts that he ‘provided dictionary support … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Neither RS nor PC required for electronics search at border
Neither reasonable suspicion or probable cause is required for a border search of electronic equipment. Here, it was at Newark airport. United States v. Bill, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 234680 (E.D. Mo. Dec. 2, 2025). Defendant who had 19 prior … Continue reading
CA6: Zoning officer’s attempting to post a stop work order was not a seizure of real property
Defendant had no constitutional right to build a greenhouse in his front yard in violation of a city zoning ordinance, and the zoning official did not seize his property by attempting to post a stop work order on it. “While … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: SW for cell phone at border after warrantless search was reasonable
CBP seized and searched defendant’s cell phones at the border under existing authority. After subsequent case law called that into question, the government sought a search warrant for the phones disclosing all the facts. The subsequent warrant was valid. United … Continue reading
ABA: High Risk, Low Return: The Case Against Non-Public-Safety Traffic Stops
Jared Fishman & John J. Choi, High Risk, Low Return: The Case Against Non-Public-Safety Traffic Stops, 40 Criminal Justice No. 3 at 35 (Fall 2025) (not online yet, print only)
GA: SW to photograph a tattoo was reasonable
A search warrant to photograph a tattoo was reasonable. Here, a sex assault assailant was described as having a particular tattoo, and defendant was the suspect. They found a matching tattoo. Grier v. State, 2025 Ga. App. LEXIS 484 (Oct. … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: Frequency of cell searches not a 4A claim
“Plaintiff complains of cell searches that are unscheduled or more frequent than she believes they should be. Such a claim does not state a constitutional violation. Even assuming that TDCJ policy dictates the frequency of searches, additional searches are not … Continue reading