Archives
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Recent Posts
- CA11: Service of SW without attachments isn’t 4A violation
- KS: Running warrants on a passed out person is reasonable
- M.D.Fla.: Unidentified pills in driver’s lap may have been RS but it wasn’t PC for arrest
- D.C.Cir.: It was reasonable for officers to conclude that evidence or instrumentalities of the crime would be found in the car used in a robbery
- CA7: Officer’s warrantless view of CSAM flagged by hash value was not unreasonable
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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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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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: July 2017
TN: A BOLO may be RS
“‘“[A]n alert or BOLO report may provide the reasonable suspicion necessary to justify an investigatory stop.”’ Davila v. United States, 713 F.3d 248, 258 (5th Cir. 2013) (quoting United States v. Rodriguez, 564 F.3d 735, 742 (5th Cir. 2009)); see … Continue reading
techdirt: DOJ Tells Court There No Need To Establish A Warrant Requirement For Stingray Devices
techdirt: DOJ Tells Court There No Need To Establish A Warrant Requirement For Stingray Devices by Tim Cushing:
D.P.R.: Protective sweep of garage and upstairs was valid; plain view sustained, but search of closed bag suppressed
“[T]he court finds that extending the protective sweep to the garage and the second floor was within the bounds set forth by the Supreme Court in Buie and the First Circuit in United States v. Winston, 444 F.3d 115, 120 … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Video doesn’t support stop; suppressed
The video belies the entire basis for the stop for speeding or swerving, and the court notes that the government previously dismissed three cases from the same officer for credibility issues. The court finds no basis for the stop and … Continue reading
If a hit on an LPN scanner is PC for a stop, so is one on a body camera: Naked Security: Police bodycams get tech that can identify “faces and people”
Naked Security: Police bodycams get tech that can identify “faces and people” by Lisa Vaas: Body cameras aimed at Police and other “public safety users” are getting outfitted with new abilities to identify things like stolen bicycles, missing children and … Continue reading
CA7: Controlled heroin buy led to drug warrant led to CP warrant
A drug raid on a convicted sex offender’s place found him with a half-naked 16 year old under the bed. She lied about her name and age, so the officers used their search warrant authorizing a search of cell phones … Continue reading
The Hill: GOP lawmaker blasts Sessions over asset forfeiture
The Hill: GOP lawmaker blasts Sessions over asset forfeiture by John Bowden: Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) on Tuesday blasted Attorney General Jeff Sessions for announcing that the Justice Department would be increasing asset forfeiture around the country. In a statement … Continue reading
Law360: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo Needn’t Give Email Info To Gov’t
Law360: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo Needn’t Give Email Info To Gov’t by Shayna Posses:
Cal: In administrative review, a 4A claim has to be raised before the agency first
Petitioner is a doctor who was accused of controlled substance prescription violations of the medical practices act. His claim under the California privacy provision fails because of the countervailing interests of the state in protecting against incompetent or negligent doctors. … Continue reading
Daily Beast: Opinion: The Racist Pot Prosecutions That Even Prosecutors Acknowledge Are Ridiculous
Daily Beast: Opinion: The Racist Pot Prosecutions That Even Prosecutors Acknowledge Are Ridiculous by Scott Hechinger: I was disheartened, but not at all surprised, to read the new report by the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and Marijuana Arrest Research Project … Continue reading
Boston Globe: His parents said he just needed to sleep. A SWAT team came instead
Boston Globe: His parents said he just needed to sleep. A SWAT team came instead. by Jenna Russell: Reeling as the sun rose higher in the summer sky, Austin’s parents tried to understand how a simple police check on their … Continue reading
Carbonated.tv: Traveling abroad? Now Your Face Could Be Scanned At Airports
Carbonated.tv: Traveling abroad? Now Your Face Could Be Scanned At Airports by Alice Salles While the government says the plan to keep track of travelers is about security, privacy advocates have reason to believe Americans are the ones facing risks.
ProPublica: Houston Police End Use of Drug Tests That Helped Produce Wrongful Convictions
ProPublica: Houston Police End Use of Drug Tests That Helped Produce Wrongful Convictions by Ryan Gabrielson: The cheap kits were often the sole evidence used to win guilty pleas, against the innocent as well the as guilty.
WaPo: Facebook says it shouldn’t have to stay mum when government seeks user data
WaPo: Facebook says it shouldn’t have to stay mum when government seeks user data by Ann E. Marimow: Major technology companies and civil liberties groups have joined Facebook in a closed courtroom battle over secret government access to social media … Continue reading
Oregonian: Mohamed Mohamud’s lawyers petition U.S. Supreme Court to review conviction
Oregonian: Mohamed Mohamud’s lawyers petition U.S. Supreme Court to review conviction by Maxine Bernstein: In a 40-page petition filed this summer with the nation’s top court, Mohamud’s lawyers argue that the case raises issues of national importance: the government’s warrantless … Continue reading
TN: SW for blood in one county can’t be executed in another
A search warrant for defendant’s blood was issued in Lewis County, but defendant was moved to Perry County for the blood draw. The search warrant had no effect in Perry County. State v. Nunnery, 2017 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 622 … Continue reading
CAAF: “Though a temporal limitation is one possible method of tailoring a search authorization, it is by no means a requirement.”
A temporal limitation on a computer search isn’t practical because it could unreasonably limit investigators’ ability to search for files within the search authorization. “Though a temporal limitation is one possible method of tailoring a search authorization, it is by … Continue reading
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
CA3: Public hospital’s taking child from ambulance at ER was reasonable since parents wouldn’t provide medical history or answer questions about child’s condition
Plaintiffs’ Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment claim against the defendant public hospital for taking their baby from an ambulance and treating it in the emergency room was reasonable under the circumstances. The hospital staff couldn’t get answers from the parents about … Continue reading
CA3: State court loss of suppression motion as private search was collateral estoppel to § 1983 case
Plaintiff was a student in a private university, and the RA in his dorm smelled burning marijuana in the hallway and narrowed it to plaintiff’s room. The next day, university security searched his room, and he was charged in the … Continue reading