Archives
-
Recent Posts
- WaPo: Americans have turned against police cameras that track license plates, new survey shows
- W.D.Tex.: What is the duty of the neutral and detached magistrate?
- D.Me.: Yes, more investigation could have been done, but there’s still PC on what there was
- CA3: Brady doesn’t apply to SW materials
- E.D.Mich.: Person a cell phone was given to as gift could consent to search
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
-
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
-
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
Privacy Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
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)
-
“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. 
Monthly Archives: February 2015
Daily Finance: To Combat Fraud, Visa Wants to Track Your Smartphone
Daily Finance: To Combat Fraud, Visa Wants to Track Your Smartphone by Ken Sweet: NEW YORK — Those days of calling your bank to let them know that, yes, you really are in Thailand, and yes, you really did use … Continue reading
The Hill: Feds to announce commercial drone rules
The Hill: Feds to announce commercial drone rules by Keith Laing The Federal Aviation Administration is planning to announce its rules for non-military drone use in the U.S. on Sunday. The announcement, which has been highly anticipated, will be made … Continue reading
OH: Single trash pull that corroborated CI’s story was PC
“Using the totality-of-the-circumstances test in this case, we hold that the evidence seized from a single trash pull that corroborates tips and background information involving drug activity is sufficient to establish probable cause for a warrant.” State v. Jones, 2015-Ohio-483, … Continue reading
LA5 & DE: Search issue resolved in prior appeal was law of the case
Without using the words “law of the case” or “res judicata,” the court declines to overturn a motion to suppress that had been litigated in a prior appeal in the same case. State v. Stipe, 2015 La. App. LEXIS 251 … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Dilated pupils without impaired driving seen by a DRE officer still not PC
Officer’s testimony that he was a drug recognition expert didn’t support probable cause here that defendant was under the influence when driving because there was also no evidence of impairment. United States v. McAuley, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 181937 (W.D.N.Y. … Continue reading
IA: Citizen’s report of a traffic offense occurring two days earlier can’t support a stop
A citizen’s report of a traffic offense occurring two days earlier did not support defendant’s stop. It’s not even reasonable suspicion. State v. Medrano, 2015 Iowa App. LEXIS 94 (February 11, 2015): If given the opportunity to address the issue, … Continue reading
CA3: Federal court can’t enjoin state court to re-seal a SW affidavit accidentally released in a federal case and published by press
John Dougherty was the target of a sealed search warrant and affidavit that led to no indictment. Later, Donald Dougherty (no relation) was indicted and, in his case, the John Dougherty search warrant and affidavit were accidentally filed of record. … Continue reading
NPR: Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Facing More Legal Troubles
NPR: Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Facing More Legal Troubles by Jude Joffe-Block: A federal judge in Arizona is planning a series of hearings to find out if Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio should be held in contempt of court for … Continue reading
Reason: Congress Trudges Ahead on Perhaps Honoring the Fourth Amendment
Reason: Congress Trudges Ahead on Perhaps Honoring the Fourth Amendment by Brian Doherty: The continuing fight for e-mail privacy and against terrible aspects of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Ronald Bailey wrote on Reason earlier this month on one piece … Continue reading
AutoBlog: Florida drivers are refusing to talk to police at DUI checkpoints… and taping it
AutoBlog: Florida drivers are refusing to talk to police at DUI checkpoints… and taping it: No one would ever say that it’s fun to go through a DUI checkpoint, at least in part because they slow people down from getting … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: The government’s typical seize first, search second normal search protocol doesn’t work with email
The government’s typical seize first, search second normal search protocol doesn’t work with email. This search warrant for a Gmail account is denied. Try again. In re [Redacted]@gmail, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 181984 (N.D.Cal. May 8, 2014) (apparently under seal … Continue reading
CA1: Nexus is whether evidence will be found in the place searched, not whether a crime occurred there
“First, Joubert argues that a nexus is lacking because the affidavit contains no allegations that he committed any offenses at the location being searched. But Joubert misidentifies the relevant inquiry. The question is whether evidence of the crime is likely … Continue reading
TX4: Leaving flash drive with CP on it in a computer lab was a waiver of REP
Defendant left an unmarked flash drive in a university classroom. A teacher opened the drive to attempt to identify the owner and found papers with two names on it. She looked at the photos folder and found child pornography which … Continue reading
TN: Stop on computer check that LPN was wrong was valid, even if def had paperwork that said it was right
Defendant was stopped in Nashville because his LPN didn’t match his old pickup truck, which the officer checked on a hunch because it was relatively common in that area of town with older vehicles. When the defendant produced paperwork showing … Continue reading
MA: Fire scene search was moot point since issue was lack of smoke detectors found in inspections up to day before fire; changing argument on appeal is waiver
Defendants were convicted of manslaughter in the deaths of three tenants in a fire in their house converted to apartments. There were numerous code violations, including lack of smoke detectors and enough exits, discovered as a result of a tenant … Continue reading
ABC News 10 Sacramento: Sacramento Co. Sheriff’s Dept. updates its cell phone spying tools
ABC News 10 Sacramento: Sacramento Co. Sheriff’s Dept. updates its cell phone spying tools The department filed a two-page grant application in August 2013 with the California Office of Emergency Services requesting $300,000 for a new Stingray device. The sheriff’s … Continue reading
The Hill: Republican senator pushes bill to require warrants for emails
The Hill: Republican senator pushes bill to require warrants for emails by Mario Trujillo: The senator’s bill limits access to data stored in clouds and overseas.
WaPo: House panelists say changes are needed to end civil forfeiture abuses
WaPo: House panelists say changes are needed to end civil forfeiture abuses by Robert O’Harrow Jr.: Members of a House Judiciary subcommittee agreed Wednesday that legislative changes are needed to prevent local and state police from making cash and property … Continue reading
NYTimes Magazine: What Our Paranoia About Drones Says About Us
NYTimes Magazine: What Our Paranoia About Drones Says About Us by Jelani Cobb: The military and the police, the institutions tasked with protecting us from outsiders and from ourselves, still rank as the first- and third-most-trusted groups in this society … Continue reading