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Recent Posts
- CA8: Def’s 20 prior arrests helped show voluntariness of consent
- TX1: No standing to challenge seizure of ketamine off co-def, but PC was lacking for his own arrest
- KS: 13 days pole camera surveillance violated no REP
- E.D.Va.: WaPo reporter’s SW was overbroad and 1A protected
- CAAF: GFE applies to cell phone’s geolocation data because of substantial basis for the search authorization
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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)
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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: Seizure
CA6: Shooting dogs during drug raid was a seizure, but here it was reasonable
Officers executing a high risk warrant on plaintiff’s house shot and killed two pit bulls, one of which was standing in a corner of the basement not yet attacking. The warrant was considered high risk because the target of the … Continue reading
NC: Officer waving arms to stop def for benign reason wasn’t conducting a “stop”
Officer waving his arms standing in the street to get defendant to stop did not conduct a “seizure” when defendant stopped. The officer was trying to gather information about others, and had not focused on defendant. “Officer Johnson waved his … Continue reading
LA3: Reasonable suspicion defendant is trafficking methamphetamine means there is likely the presence of firearms
Reasonable suspicion defendant is trafficking methamphetamine means there is likely the presence of firearms. State v. Flournoy, 2016 La. App. LEXIS 2225 (La.App. 3 Cir. Dec. 7, 2016). Defendant juvenile was “in custody” and handcuffed in a patrol car being … Continue reading
ID: The state conceded the DL held too long, but taint was not purged, so suppression should have been granted
The trial court erred in denying defendant’s motion to suppress and in finding that the evidence was purged from the taint of an unlawful detention. The State conceded that an unlawful seizure occurred when the officer held onto defendant’s driver’s … Continue reading
IA: Ordering def off his porch and out to the driveway is a seizure
“[W]e conclude that White was seized within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment when Officer Stricker directed White to step off of the front porch and onto the driveway. We reach this conclusion for several reasons. …” State v. White, … Continue reading
OH3: Showing of PC justified nexus to SW for def’s home
There was probable cause to believe that evidence of defendant’s gambling and money laundering would be found in his home because he could store records at home and run his business from there. State v. Robinson, 2016-Ohio-7823, 2016 Ohio App. … Continue reading
W.D.Ark.: Search for electronic evidence can be intense; digital media can be “mere centimeters long”
A search for digital evidence in a Facebook threat case led to a plain view of firearms and drugs, and the search was valid. The digital evidence could have been on flash drives “mere centimeters long” and that permitted an … Continue reading
D.Ore.: Request for DL and holding on to it is a seizure of the person
“While Defendant was not seized during his initial encounter with Officer Fender, the encounter escalated into a seizure at the moment Defendant provided his identification in response to Officer Fender’s request.” [After all, one’s ID is required for many transactions … Continue reading
CA11: Def wasn’t seized despite the officer’s holding his DL for a while
Defendant was not “seized” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment at any time before giving his consent to search the vehicle. Despite the trooper’s retention of his driver’s license, the officer’s request to have him sit in the front … Continue reading
CA8: Detention of def’s semi for SW on PC was reasonable
Defendant was not in custody in this child pornography investigation when he was interrogated, and he even left the scene. “In light of the background investigation and Zavesky’s statements, law enforcement officers had probable cause to detain Zavesky’s semi-truck after … Continue reading
SC: Destruction of innocent’s building to end hostage situation not inverse condemnation so no recovery
The City of Spartanburg ended a hostage situation in a convenience store by using a bulldozer to breach a wall. After it was over, the owner couldn’t afford to fix it, so the city condemned it and tore it down. … Continue reading
VI: Nervousness is not RS; patdown unjustified and no reason shown
Defendant’s stop was admittedly justified, but the detention was without reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing. Mere nervousness isn’t enough, and the officer didn’t articulate more. A patdown was unreasonable. People v. Hodge, 2016 V.I. LEXIS 123 (Aug. 24, 2016). Defendant showed … Continue reading
CA3: Pretrial restrictions and order to appear are a seizure, adopting Justice Ginsburg’s Albright concurrence
A person under pretrial restrictions and ordered to appear (not merely summoned) is “seized” under the Fourth Amendment. The court adopts Justice Ginsberg’s Albright concurrence. Black v. Montgomery County, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 15997 (3d Cir. Aug. 30, 2016):
cato.org: The Weird World of Data (and Your Privacy)
cato.org: The Weird World of Data (and Your Privacy) by Jim Harper: In 2007, Judge Richard Posner found it “untenable” that attaching a tracking device to a car is a seizure. But the Supreme Court struck down warrantless attachment of … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Momentary compliance with officer’s commands then flight is not a seizure
Momentary compliance with an officer’s commands is still not a seizure under Hodari D. when defendant flees after that. United States v. Brown, 448 F.3d 239, 246 (3d Cir. 2006)). United States v. Ridgeway, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111537 (M.D.Pa. … Continue reading
MD: The length of handcuffing did not turn Terry stop into a de facto arrest
Despite the handcuffs, the detention remained a Terry stop. “Use of handcuffs does not elevate an investigatory detention to an arrest when concern that weapons are present and officer safety provide the bases. Continued use of handcuffs after a frisk … Continue reading
ABAJ: Drivers are pulled over for driving without an ice cream cone; are the stops unconstitutional?
ABAJ: Drivers are pulled over for driving without an ice cream cone; are the stops unconstitutional? by Debra Cassens Weiss No. The fact police think it’s not speaks to their psychology.
CA7: Stop of car looking for ptf was unreasonable from inception; remanded, even if for nominal damages
Defendant was in a car leaving the scene of an earlier domestic disturbance call. The police were looking for him, but they had no idea he was in the car. The stop of the car looking for him was unreasonable, … Continue reading