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Recent Posts
- 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
- D.Utah: Minor time detours to writing up a traffic ticket didn’t unreasonable extend this stop; the dog was quickly on its way
- KY: Despite lack of nexus, SW sustained under GFE
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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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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)
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"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: April 2018
S.D.Fla.: The fact FL law provides a reasonable expectation of privacy in bank records has nothing to do with an IRS summons
The fact Florida law provides a reasonable expectation of privacy in bank records has nothing to do with an IRS summons for bank records. Presley & Presley P.A. v. United States, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65421 (S.D. Fla. Apr. 16, … Continue reading
Wired: Why Police Should Monitor Social Media to Prevent Crime
Wired: Why Police Should Monitor Social Media to Prevent Crime by Christopher Raleigh Bousquet (opinion):
CA11: Financial fraud SW permits search of def’s wallet on his person
In a search warrant for financial fraud of defendant’s house, finding defendant there allowed a search of his wallet under the warrant. United States v. Shabazz, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 9774 (11th Cir. Apr. 18, 2018):
CA11: While time wasn’t clearly stated, it was inferred on the totality; therefore, not stale
While the affidavit for the search warrant didn’t clearly specify a time frame, it was inferred, and it was clearly reasonable to conclude on the totality that the defendant would still have the sought after images on his computer. United … Continue reading
CA4: Even if Posse Comitatus Act was violated in investigation, there is no judicial remedy
Defendant argued “the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) violated the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA), 18 U.S.C. § 1385 (2012), by participating in the criminal investigation.” The motion wasn’t timely, and, on the merits, there is no remedy for violation. United … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: “The vast majority of current Fourth Amendment doctrine unfounded, incoherent, and dangerous.”
Gray David, The Fourth Amendment Categorical Imperative, 116 Mich. L. Rev. Online 14 (2017): The vast majority of current Fourth Amendment doctrine unfounded, incoherent, and dangerous.
D.Nev.: Court order for cell phone detail information under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d) requires only RS
A court order for cell phone detail information under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d) requires only reasonable suspicion, following In re Applications of the United States of Am. for an Order Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d), 206 F. Supp. 3d … Continue reading
MA: Affidavit established MJ grow was for sale, not personal use
The affidavit for the search warrant established probable cause that defendant’s marijuana grow was for distribution and not for personal medical use. Commonwealth v. Richardson, 2018 Mass. LEXIS 236 (Apr. 17, 2018). The Franks challenge here was over an internet … Continue reading
MO: Warrantless seizure of black box data from semi violated 4A; automobile exception didn’t apply
After an accident, the information off the data recorder on defendant’s semi was seized and then searched by the police without a search warrant. The trial court suppressed, and the state filed an interlocutory appeal. Only three of its six … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Def’s alternative argument as to what SW affidavit showed doesn’t undermine PC
The defendant’s alternative argument about how the child pornography ended up on defendant’s computer didn’t undermine the probable cause for the search warrant. “The Court has already addressed Defendant’s argument that a single connection between a home computer and a … Continue reading
TN: Argument “the rule” of witness exclusion of Rule 615 at suppression hearing has to be made in trial court
Defendant didn’t preserve for appeal his argument that the suppression hearing court allowed witnesses to sit in the rehearing of the suppression hearing because he didn’t make it to the trial court. At any rate, the transcripts of the hearing … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: In CA5, a person’s identity and nationality is not subject to the exclusionary rule
In the Fifth Circuit, a person’s identity and nationality is not subject to the exclusionary rule. United States v. Meza-Gonzalez, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63254 (W.D. Tex. Apr. 16, 2018). Defendant fails on the second prong of Franks: excising the … Continue reading
W.D.Okla.: DOJ subpoena issued under the Right to Financial Privacy Act was “relevant to [a] law enforcement inquiry”
A DOJ subpoena issued under the Right to Financial Privacy Act of 1978, 12 U.S.C. §§ 3401-3422 (“RFPA”). “Having carefully reviewed the United States’ detailed response, the Court finds that there is a reasonable belief that the records sought are … Continue reading
Cohen pleadings online for today’s hearing in S.D.N.Y.
Two pleadings are online in Cohen v. United States, 1:18-mj-03161-KMW (S.D. N.Y.). A reply by Cohen may be filed today. Read them. The Government has the better argument. I don’t see Cohen’s argument against a “filter team” even in the … Continue reading
OH2: Description of “things to be seized” couldn’t be more particular
The search warrant for child pornography was particular and not overbroad. No more particular description was reasonably expected. “Under the circumstances, the search warrant could not reasonably have described the items more precisely.” Defendant’s search residence was in Wisconsin, and … Continue reading
IN: Def’s backpack would have been searched anyway, so inevitable discovery applied
Inevitable discovery applied to the search of defendant’s backpack. He was arrested, and the search would have occurred as a result of that. The merits of defendant’s search claim is thus moot. Winborn v. State, 2018 Ind. App. LEXIS 133 … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: RS came from “extreme nervousness, conflicting stories, and the fact that he was traveling along a drug trafficking corridor”
“The government proved by a preponderance of the evidence that Trooper Styles developed reasonable suspicion of additional criminal activity during the initial stop and before Roberts consented to Trooper Styles’s request to search the Jeep. The facts of this case … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Unwarned questioning about control of a bedroom wasn’t custodial
UnMirandized questioning about defendant’s control of a bedroom was a close call, but not found not custodial. “This case presents a close call. On balance, the Court concludes that under Muniz and Fleck and the circumstances of this case, Sergeant … Continue reading
CA9: On the scene determination of PC justified arreat and detention for 47 hours, despite later dismissal
There was probable cause for plaintiff’s arrest based on the officer’s on the scene determination. He was held 47 hours and released. The jury in the civil case found for the defendants, and the district court did not abuse its … Continue reading