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Recent Posts
- 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
- CAAF: Information on computer stored in evidence room wasn’t stale
- CAAF: SW’s incorporated affidavit satisfied particularity, reliance on CA10 case not CAAF case was error
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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. 
Monthly Archives: March 2016
CNN: FBI may have found a way into terrorist’s iPhone
CNN: FBI may have found a way into terrorist’s iPhone by Jackie Wattles: On the eve of a court showdown with Apple, the Department of Justice wants to cancel the hearing, saying it may have found a way into the … Continue reading
TN: Curtilage doesn’t extend to neighborhood’s gate
Defendant lived in a partially gated community, but that didn’t mean that officers couldn’t enter through a gate that was usually open during the day. In the parking lot was defendant’s car and in plain view was property that obviously … Continue reading
NC reverses two for no findings contrary to Grady v. NC on GPS monitoring sex offenders
The trial court failed to follow the dictates of Grady v. North Carolina that satellite based monitoring of sex offenders is a search subject to the reasonableness clause. The summary conclusion it was reasonable is rejected; remanded. State v. Blue, … Continue reading
Why we’ve been down: too much traffic for space we rented
We’ve been down a few times in the last ten days, usually for a few hours at a time. Then, nearly all day Saturday. Frustrating to be down at all. Apparent reason: heavier traffic than we allowed for and paid … Continue reading
CA3: Entry for arrest was virtual hot pursuit; door opened on knock
An off-duty officer witnessed a robbery at a 7-Eleven at 4:30 am and followed the masked man out on the street where the mask was removed, and he got a look at the robber’s face. He followed to a duplex … Continue reading
M.D.La.: “Provoked” flight different than “unprovoked” flight; def could ignore officer and run away where no RS
Officers had no reasonable suspicion to stop defendant in a high crime area, even after he fled from them when they told him to stop. This was “provoked” flight, contrary to Wardlow’s “unprovoked” flight. “When a vehicle approaches someone in … Continue reading
D.Nev.: On Franks challenge, officer credited that the time stamp on digital pictures was just erroneous
The Franks issues did not rise to materiality. The officer was credible that the time stamp on the digital photograph showed the picture taken before the search rather than after was an error on the camera because he didn’t check … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Amtrak officers are “railroad police” under New York law and subject to § 1983
Amtrak police are “railroad police” under New York law, and they are subject to § 1983. (Fourth Amendment claim dismissed; other claims survive.) Chunn v. Amtrak, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 176987 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 6, 2015), adopted 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
TX1: Def carries burden of proof on standing; a mere footnote in a motion to suppress wasn’t enough
As a passenger, defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in computers found in the car because he did not attempt to prove they were his. The motion to suppress said they were his but he put on no proof. … Continue reading
Cal.6th: Probation computer search condition was overbroad and unreasonable
A probation condition allowing computer searches for material prohibited by law was overbroad under the Fourth Amendment because the condition allowed for searches of vast amounts of personal information unrelated to defendant’s criminal conduct or potential for future criminality. Narrower … Continue reading
CA2: Female inmate’s forced prison strip search for male guard to inspect genitalia stated a claim
Forced prison strip search of female inmate to have her genitalia inspected by a male guard stated a claim for relief on her Fourth Amendment claim. The inmate retained a limited right to bodily privacy, there were disputes of fact … Continue reading
IN: Private university’s police dept serves police function; records thus public
Notre Dame’s police department serves a police function, therefore a public function, and it is subject to public records disclosure, even though the university as a whole isn’t. [So, no private search doctrine?] ESPN, Inc. v. Univ. of Notre Dame … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Franks challenge fails: negligent at worst and not material
Defendant’s Franks challenge fails because the misstatements in the affidavit were not material to the finding of probable cause. There were inaccuracies, but they were negligent at best and don’t rise to the level of culpability required for a Franks … Continue reading
D.Mont.: No standing in car as passenger; difference between an illegal stop and illegal detention
Defendant was a passenger in a stolen car, and there was no showing he knew anything about it so there was no probable cause for his arrest. But, he had no standing in the car in the first place, and … Continue reading
ABA Journal: EFF’s Cindy Cohn calls for lawyer support in fight over mass surveillance
ABA Journal: EFF’s Cindy Cohn calls for lawyer support in fight over mass surveillance by Victor Li:
CA9: 911 domestic abuse call from woman didn’t justify entry when she answered door and questions
The police entry into the house on a 911 call from a woman about a domestic abuse call wasn’t justified when she answered the door and their questions and wasn’t hurt and didn’t seem scared. United States v. Harris, 2016 … Continue reading