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- CA6: Knowing passcode to cell phone shows common authority over it to consent
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- E.D.Mich.: Second SW for cell phone data retained by govt was valid
- S.D.W.Va.: “Shocking” nature of immigration raid on a Mexican restaurant at lunchtime didn’t warrant suppression
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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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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: Standards of review
TX: If electronic search was illegal, it was harmless
The court of appeals applied the wrong standard for harm analysis from an alleged Fourth Amendment violation. The alleged illegal search of his electronics didn’t have that much to do with the fact defendant was convicted of smothering his child. … Continue reading
NM: Trial court’s finding of consent is reversed because the court engaged in its own internet investigation beyond what the parties provided
The suppression order for defendant on coerced consent is reversed. The trial court engaged in its own research into facts to make the decision on acquiring the affidavit for a later warrant, the distance between things, and the temperature at … Continue reading
TX14: Affidavit for SW gets deferential standard of review by both the trial court and appellate court
The affidavit for search warrant gets a deferential standard of review by both the trial court and appellate court. Gaither v. State, 2026 Tex. App. LEXIS 4588 (Tex. App. – Houston (14th Dist.) May 19, 2026). “The federal district court … Continue reading
CA6: Entrapment is not a defense to a search warrant
Entrapment is not a defense to a search warrant, so CoA denied. Neeley v. United States, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 29144 (6th Cir. Nov. 5, 2025). The motion to suppress for lack of jurisdiction to serve warrants is denied. It’s … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: Search of room adjoining arrest wasn’t valid as SI or protective sweep
Defendant had standing as an occasional overnight guest in his ex-girlfriend’s apartment when he was there when the police arrived to arrest him. The search of another room was neither valid as a search incident or protective sweep. Motion to … Continue reading
CA5: Officer’s resting hand on truck while talking to def wasn’t a seizure
The officer resting his hand on defendant’s truck while talking to him during a stop was not a separate seizure of him. United States v. Larremore, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 20757 (5th Cir. Aug. 14, 2025). The closest case plaintiff … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: No REP in a prison inmate’s cell phone
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in the use of a cell phone in prison. United States v. Brandt, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129412 (N.D. Ga. June 13, 2025). This line in defendant’s PSR leads to denial of his … Continue reading
W.D.Okla.: Prison cell search not following policy not a 4A violation
Guard not following prison policy by conducting a cell search alone doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Freeman, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112882 (W.D. Okla. June 13, 2025). Plaintiff EMT’s drug test for an accident in his ambulance … Continue reading
D.Nev.: There’s no 4A claim from officers running the serial number of a gun found in plain view
There is no Fourth Amendment claim for officers running the serial number of a gun after it was lawfully encountered, so no ineffective assistance of counsel. United States v. Hylton, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71338 (D. Nev. Apr. 14, 2025). … Continue reading
CA11: When there are multiple grounds supporting a search, appellant has to respond to all
An appellate court can affirm denial of suppression on any ground supported by the record. And, when the district court finds multiple independent grounds to deny suppression, the appellant has to rebut all of them. Here, the district court found … Continue reading
D.Alaska: Recklessly omitted text messages were material to PC finding; suppression granted
Omitted text messages were material to the probable cause finding, and the officer was at least reckless in not including them. Franks satisfied: “Therefore, the Court agrees with Judge Scoble’s reasoning, adopts his analysis, and finds that, had Detective Ruble … Continue reading
CA3: Apartment visitor to conduct drug deal has no standing
An apartment visitor to conduct a drug deal has no standing to contest a search that happened while he was there. United States v. Loyal, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 5853 (3d Cir. Mar. 13, 2025). By collective knowledge, there was … Continue reading
CA6: Facebook picture of stolen lamp gave nexus for SW
An attempt to sell an antique lamp on Facebook provided sufficient nexus to defendant’s house for a search warrant. United States v. Truett, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 4764 (6th Cir. Feb. 27, 2025).* The district court saw the video of … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: CA2’s deciding search issue in direct appeal with GFE, too, did not violate “party presentation” rule
The Second Circuit upheld the search in this case and threw in an alternative ground, the good faith exception. On habeas, that did not violate the “party presentation” rule where the parties decide the issues to litigate, not the court. … Continue reading
D.Md.: Review of PC isn’t as skeptical as def requests
“Here, the affidavit easily meets the standard of probable cause. Defendants would require a level of skepticism that is not appropriate to the oversight at this juncture. The scheme to defraud was amply established by the affiant and so was … Continue reading
OH1: Inadvertence for plain view is a fact question
The inadvertence requirement of plain view here was a fact question. Police showed up on a wellness check about an allegedly suicidal person. Here it was a syringe cap that led to finding the syringe. State v. Hyatt, 2024-Ohio-2422 (1st … Continue reading
IA: Court ordered privilege review of search was at its expense
When the court orders privilege review for the results of a search, it’s a court expense. State v. Iowa District Court for Emmet County, 2024 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 52 (May 10, 2024). “Lenhart does not assert fraud on the court, … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Preservation request under SCA isn’t a search or seizure
A preservation request under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(f) for defendant’s Snapchat account isn’t an unreasonable search or seizure. Even if, “suppression would not be warranted because the FBI acted in good faith reliance on the Stored Communications Act. As a … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: SW for cell phones allowed seizure of others found on premises
In this cell phone search warrant case, the government could seize multiple cell phones found at defendant’s house, old phones and others not named when they were found. Old phones and other phones could also have evidence on them. United … Continue reading