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- 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
- CA9: When a digital computer search reveals a CP hash value, officer doesn’t have to see image to have PC
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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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General (many free):
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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
D.C.Cir.: Telling def to “chill out” not a seizure
“Officer Jones never made such a show of authority; he simply told Hagan, while in uniform and in a ‘conversational tone,’ to ‘chill out.’ … Jones neither told Hagan to stop nor asked him any questions. An approach by a … Continue reading
Iowa does not recognize state constitutional torts; here excessive force
Iowa does not recognize state constitutional torts; here excessive force. “Krystal Wagner, individually and as the administrator of the estate of her son, Shane Jensen, appeals the district court decision granting summary judgment to the State and Officer William Spece … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Defense of denial of possession in drug case meant no assertion of standing to challenge the search, so no IAC
Since the defense was not my dope, not filing a motion to suppress where standing would have to be pled and shown was not ineffective assistance of counsel. United States v. Robinson, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 52526 (S.D. Ohio Mar. … Continue reading
VA: Asleep in one’s car isn’t RS
Defendant asleep in his car wasn’t reasonable suspicion. Marijuana found. Harvell v. Commonwealth, 2024 Va. App. LEXIS 142 (Mar. 19, 2024) (unpublished).* Plaintiff’s excessive force claim under Bivens is barred by Egbert. Butler v. Trett, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 6469 … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Police missing target and shooting innocent bystander is a 4A seizure, but with QI
Shooting at a suspect and hitting an innocent bystander is a Fourth Amendment seizure under Brower and Torres, but it gets qualified immunity. Larocca v. City of L.A., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45650 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 14, 2024):
E.D.Mo.: Strip search of civilly committed patient refusing pat search was reasonable and with QI
Plaintiff was strip searched when civilly committed when she refused to permit a pat search. “Considering all the circumstances described in Plaintiff’s Complaint, the search Plaintiff underwent, though surely unpleasant, was not unreasonable. “But even if the Court concluded the … Continue reading
AR: Computer crash losing drug dog’s performance record doesn’t doom search
The loss of the drug dog’s performance record from a computer crash didn’t make the dog’s alert on the highway unreasonable because those records are of marginal importance. The circuit court resolved credibility questions. No inference of spoliation will be … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Assuming without deciding standing to challenge a college email account, there was PC for the email warrant
Defendant sent threatening emails through his Georgia Tech account. He also sent private emails with tax and property information. He raised a Franks challenge, too. Assuming without deciding he has standing to challenge the email search, there was probable cause … Continue reading
TX5: lack of a prompt determination of PC to detain def is moot by the time the trial starts
The lack of a prompt determination of probable cause to detain defendant is moot by the time the trial starts. Moses v. State, 2024 Tex. App. LEXIS 950 (Tex. App. – Dallas Feb. 6, 2024). “Taking as true that Agent … Continue reading
D.Minn.: DNA on firearm was a reasonable inference justifying SW for def’s DNA
It was reasonable to infer that defendant’s DNA would be found on a firearm in a car, so the warrant to take his was reasonable. United States v. Tyus, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 234639 (D. Minn. Dec. 8, 2023), adopted, … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Writ of seizure under the Copyright Act has to comply with the 4A
A writ of seizure under the Copyright Act has to comply with the particularity requirement of the Fourth Amendment. CNC Software, Ltd. Liab. Co. v. Glob. Eng’g Ltd. Liab. Co., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18919 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 2, 2024):
WA: Merely holding on to DL doesn’t make stop a detention; “context matters”
“Officer Ayers’s language would have assured a reasonable person that the officer was not making a show of authority: the officer assured Mr. Taylor he was not a suspect, but wanted to ‘get [his] name just so we have that … Continue reading
VA: Automobile exception doesn’t require “ready mobility” and this car was totaled in a wreck
Defendant’s car was totaled in a wreck, and it couldn’t be driven. Nevertheless, the automobile exception applied to it. After Carney, “ready mobility” is no longer required because of the lesser expectation of privacy in a car compared to a … Continue reading
NY: No RS where two men talked car-to-car and then moved, and one leaned in other car; nothing seen passed
There was no reasonable suspicion to stop and detain defendant for what the officer thought could have been a hand-to-hand drug transaction where he saw nothing exchanged. Defendant stopped along side another car facing in different directions, and they talked … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Police car pulling up with activated blue and red lights wasn’t necessarily a seizure; here, it is not
“I conclude that a law enforcement officer’s activation of red and blue emergency does not, by itself, establish a seizure for Fourth Amendment purposes. However, it is a factor that weighs in favor of finding a seizure. Certain other facts … Continue reading
OH2: Municipal Court can’t issue SW for out-of-state records
An Ohio municipal court does not have authority to issue a search warrant for collection of records from out of state. State v. Worthan, 2024-Ohio-21, 2024 Ohio App. LEXIS 33 (2d Dist. Jan. 5, 2024). Defendant approached the officers and … Continue reading
GA: Probationer’s housemate didn’t object to probation search, so it was valid as to him, too
When you live with a probationer with a Fourth Amendment waiver, your stuff in the premises is likely subject to search, too. Here, it’s decided on defendant’s failure to object to his alleged implied consent [like he knew he could] … Continue reading