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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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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
CA11: On habeas, because law was “murky” about transportation on RS for an eyewitness ID, counsel can’t be ineffective for not challenging it
The law was murky at the time, and still is, that a Terry stop includes moving a suspect for a possible victim ID without requiring probable cause. Focusing somewhat on the merits, but mostly on whether the Florida appellate court … Continue reading
CA5: Handcuffing for refusal to show ID on school parking lot, without RS, didn’t violate “clearly established law”
Plaintiff drove to his wife’s school, with his daughter in the back seat, to pick his wife up from work. Some busybody citizen decided that the vehicle on school grounds was suspicious and called the police. The officer asked plaintiff … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Parking violation justified a seizure
“The police seized defendant Devon Bean for an alleged parking violation, locating drugs and a firearm while searching his person and car. Charged with possession of a firearm as a felon, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), and possession of marijuana with … Continue reading
OR: State veterinarian taking blood from def’s sick dog was a seizure requiring a warrant
A warrantless search of a dog’s blood by a state hired veterinarian after seizure of the sick animal was a seizure by the state requiring a warrant. State v. Newcomb, 359 Ore. 756, 2016 Ore. LEXIS 366 (June 16, 2016):
WA: FST is a seizure, but it is not a search under Fourth Amendment
Field sobriety test is a seizure, but it is not a search under Fourth Amendment or the more inclusive state constitution. State v. Mecham, 2016 Wash. LEXIS 695 (June 16, 2016):
AK: Seizure of luggage and shipping back to Anchorage for dog sniff violated U.S. v. Place
When defendant arrived by plane to Dillingham, Alaska, officers, tipped off by a CI, asked for consent to search defendant’s suitcases for marijuana. He refused. They seized the suitcases and applied to a magistrate for a warrant. The magistrate said … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Flight from a stop isn’t a seizure
Defendant’s former girlfriend reported to police that he’d threatened her with a gun. Police found him exactly matching the description, and they got out of the car and told him to stop. He threw down his backpack and fled. The … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Civil seizures of counterfeit goods under 15 U.S.C. § 1116 are governed by the Fourth Amendment
Civil seizures of counterfeit goods under 15 U.S.C. § 1116 are governed by the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Shayota, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64388 (N.D.Cal. May 13, 2016):
CA1 seems to shift burden of proof to defendant to show that his detention was unreasonable because of a show of authority
The First Circuit seems to shift burden of proof to defendant to show that his detention was unreasonable because of a show of authority, rather than it being on the government that it was reasonable. United States v. Fields, 2016 … Continue reading
FL5: Passenger can be detained with car; certifying conflict with FL4
“We affirm, and write to consider whether a police officer may, as a matter of course, detain a passenger who attempts to leave the scene of a lawful traffic stop without violating the passenger’s Fourth Amendment rights. … We hold … Continue reading
ID: “There is no constitutional right not to be mistaken for a criminal. ‘The Constitution does not guarantee that only the guilty will be arrested.'”
Plaintiff was a sublessee of a dental office laboratory but was seen breaking in through a window by a neighbor who called 911. Police arrived and the reporter said the woman appeared drunk or on drugs. The first officer to … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: State exceptions to GFE don’t apply in federal court even where state judge issued SW
A Georgia state judge issued this search warrant, and it was supported by probable cause. In any event, the good faith exception saves it. Any exception to the good faith exception under Georgia law is irrelevant in a federal prosecution. … Continue reading
TN: Passing the FST didn’t negate PC; bloodshot and watery eyes, smelled of alcohol, admitted to 3 beers
Passing the FST didn’t negate probable cause. The officer observed defendant speeding, and, when the officer approached defendant he smelled alcohol, defendant had bloodshot and watery eyes, and defendant told the officer he had consumed three beers. State v. Silva, … Continue reading
Bluefield (WV) Daily Telegraph: High court ruling threatens to end ‘Santa Stops’
Bluefield (WV) Daily Telegraph: High court ruling threatens to end ‘Santa Stops’ by Samantha Perry: PRINCETON — A recent high court ruling threatened to put the brakes on the popular law enforcement “Santa Stops,” however local troopers have found a … Continue reading
IL: GJ subpoena for palm prints in cold case didn’t violate Fourth Amendment
A grand jury subpoena was used to get defendant’s palm prints while he was in prison in 2004 to see whether he was connected to a 1997 murder. The grand jury subpoena did not violate the Fourth Amendment or the … Continue reading
Texas Tribune: Some Communities Arming Officers With Credit Card Machines
Texas Tribune: Some Communities Arming Officers With Credit Card Machines by Johnathan Silver: If a California-based company has its way, the following scenario could become common across Texas: A police officer pulls over a driver, not for speeding or some … Continue reading
IA: State SCt hasn’t departed from holding exclusionary rule doesn’t apply to revo proceedings so this court can’t
While the state search and seizure provision is subject to broader interpretation in Iowa, the state supreme court hasn’t deviated from the rule that the exclusionary rule does not apply in probation revocation proceedings, so this court is bound by … Continue reading