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- D.Mont.: Delay of USPS Express Mail for dog sniff didn’t violate 4A
- S.D.W.Va.: Warrantless arrest at door for CSAM didn’t support plain view seizure of cell phone
- OH2: Parking on the grass justified stop
- CA11: NCMEC’s cybertips are reliable enough to support PC and the GFE
- MS: Execution style murder in public in broad daylight was exigency to get suspect’s CSLI
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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: Administrative search
PA: Commercial truck inspections coming into a landfill were valid under Burger
Pennsylvania State Police and environmental inspectors set up a roadblock into a landfill to inspect commercial trucks. In defendant’s truck they found some beer, and he was charged with DWI and “unlawful activities.” The stop and inspect of defendant’s truck … Continue reading
CA10: Defs did not violate clearly established 4A law by accessing the Utah Controlled Substance Database on plaintiffs’ prescriptions
Defendants did not violate clearly established Fourth Amendment law by accessing the Utah Controlled Substance Database on plaintiffs’ prescriptions (and the Fourth Amendment claim goes undecided). Pyle v. Woods, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 21713 (10th Cir. Nov. 1, 2017):
OH11: Admin SW for hoarding was issued with PC and wasn’t stale
Defendant here was referred to as “having a hoarding issue” because of a growing collection of junk in his yard and up against his house that was flammable and attractive to rodents. He was prosecuted for the exterior junk and … Continue reading
CA11: Ordinance for rental property inspections not unconstitutional on face; has an admin warrant requirement
The City of Lauderhill’s rental property inspection ordinance is not unconstitutional on its face under the Fourth Amendment. It does provide for an administrative warrant if one is required. 2051 Lush Apts., LLC v. City of Lauderhill, 2017 U.S. App. … Continue reading
MA: Admin search warrant of def’s side yard couldn’t be used for criminal search
Defendant’s house had been damaged by a fire, and local inspectors obtained an administrative inspection warrant to enter the property. An administrative warrant can’t be used, however, for a criminal investigation, and that’s what they did. They went to the … Continue reading
Maine Wire: Unlawful rental registries: Coming soon to a city near you
Maine Wire: Unlawful rental registries: Coming soon to a city near you by Jacob Posik:
CA8: Code inspectors’ entry into common areas of rental property wasn’t 4A violation
City code inspectors’ entries into the common areas of plaintiff’s “historically unmanageable rental properties” did not violate the Fourth Amendment for lack of a reasonable expectation of privacy in those places. His claims as to allegedly protected areas was waived. … Continue reading
MN: Admin. SW may issue for rental property inspection under Camara if the rights of tenants are respected, so they get a right to be heard
The city made the requisite showing for issuance of an administrative warrant for a housing inspection. The court declines to interpret the state constitution more broadly than the Fourth Amendment on this issue. The privacy interests of the tenants must … Continue reading
CA6: Limited personnel records request in mine safety investigation was reasonable
The Mine Safety division of the Department of Labor acted reasonably under the Fourth Amendment in requesting personnel records in an investigation into a discrimination claim. The mine was part of a pervasively regulated industry, the company had time to … Continue reading
Lexology: Administrative Law Judge Winnows OFCCP’s Data Request [to Google]
Lexology: Administrative Law Judge Winnows OFCCP’s Data Request by William Hays Weissman:
ND: Firefighter reasonably removed rifle during early part of fire entry
Firefighters in the house removed a rifle for safekeeping and safety of the fireman early into the fire scene entry, and that was reasonable under Clifford. State v. Friesz, 2017 ND 177, 2017 N.D. LEXIS 164 (July 12, 2017). “Here, … Continue reading
CA7: No qualified immunity for seizure of pft’s vehicles from his yard by code enforcement officers
The seizure of plaintiff’s vehicles off his property without an opportunity to defend against it was an unreasonable seizure. Defendants don’t get qualified immunity. There was no action in court for plaintiff to resort to, so Rooker-Feldman doesn’t apply. Hamilton … Continue reading
WaPo: Colorado housing officials invite cops to perform warrantless searches on poor people
WaPo: Colorado housing officials invite cops to perform warrantless searches on poor people by Radley Balko
CA9: Administrative stop of tractor-trailer was pretext for criminal investigation lacking RS; suppressed
Commercial vehicles are subject to administrative stops for compliance inspections without reasonable suspicion. When, however, the use of the stop is predicated on pretext for criminal investigation, the stop and its continuation require reasonable suspicion. Here, that was lacking, and … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Bringing federal officers along on a cigarette tax search was not unreasonable; no duty to clean up after an otherwise reasonable search
(1) Under New York state law, cigarette retailers are pervasively regulated. Here, NY tax officials were checking on tax stamps. (2) While officers seemed to think they had authority to search defendant’s purse under the administrative search doctrine, they didn’t. … Continue reading
VT: Entry into respondent’s land to investigate open fire was reasonable
Respondent was burning something on his open land without a burn permit. Firefighters were called, and they observed from the road that the color of the smoke indicated something other than natural wood was being burned. From their view, however, … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: OSHA admin warrant request too expansive and quashed
The OSHA administrative inspection warrant was improvidently granted. It was based on a complaint arising from an employee injury, and probable cause in the administrative sense is different than criminal probable cause. Here, it wasn’t reasonable to expand the administrative … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Rental unit inspection ordinance not violation of 4A where 21 day notice given
In a rental unit inspection ordinance case, the court declines to grant a preliminary injunction. The tenants have rights, of course, but state law permits the landlord to conduct inspections on his or her own and, most importantly, there is … Continue reading