Archives
-
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
-
-
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: November 2018
M.D.Fla.: Whether a state court judge could issue a ping order that crossed state lines is governed by GFE
A state court judge issued a ping order and the phone crossed state lines. Was it a tracking order or an SCA order? “The Court sees no need to venture further into the quagmire of tracking devices, the SCA, and … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Raising a search issue 5 months after conviction is a little too late
Defendant’s suppression argument five months after conviction is too late. Besides, it doesn’t allege anything of substance anyway. United States v. Alahmedalabdaloklah, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 189719 (D. Ariz. Nov. 6, 2018).* Defendant’s search claim is denied without even telling … Continue reading
CA8: Means and opportunity to commit bank robbery and carjacking in flight was PC
Defendant’s means and opportunity to commit this bank robbery and carjacking in flight was probable cause. Video showing him at a motel was nexus to his room. United States v. Evans, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 31326 (8th Cir. Nov. 6, … Continue reading
CA6: Marital privilege doesn’t apply to a recorded jail call
Marital privilege doesn’t apply to jail telephone calls defendant knew would be recorded because of the lack of a confidential communication. United States v. Ayala, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 31345 (6th Cir. Nov. 6, 2018). The Pennsylvania Wiretap Act is … Continue reading
CA7: Using several garage door openers in def’s vehicle to locate his stash house was a reasonable search
Defendant’s vehicle was stopped and several garage door openers were found. Using them to try to find defendant’s stash house was a search and it was reasonable, although close to the edge. United States v. Correa, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
WaPo: Lawsuit targets Greyhound over warrantless stopping of buses by border agents
WaPo: Lawsuit targets Greyhound over warrantless stopping of buses by border agents by Spencer S. Hsu Lawyers for a California woman asked a state judge Thursday to order Greyhound Lines to stop allowing federal immigration agents to board its buses … Continue reading
We’re back, catching up
Perhaps you’ve noticed that the postings have been a bit behind. That’s because I’ve spent the last two weeks reading 2600 pages of page proofs for Trial Handbook for Arkansas Lawyers 4th. Today I have to drive two hours to … Continue reading
IL: Marital communications obtained by SW remained privileged
Confidential spousal communications obtained by a search warrant do not lose their privileged character. People v. Gliniewicz, 2018 IL App (2d) 170490, 2018 Ill. App. LEXIS 818 (Nov. 2, 2018). The state seized text messages but didn’t disclose them in … Continue reading
CA4: Def’s cross of officer at trial on SW affidavit “opened the door” to def’s priors
Defendant’s cross examination of the officer who authored the affidavit for the search warrant to attack his credibility by the affidavit “opened the door” to defendant’s other crimes which were admitted under 404(b) on the government’s request on redirect. United … Continue reading
CA7: Message on cell phone screen when phone was seized could be testified to by officer
Defendant claimed he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the screen of his cell phone because it was in his pocket up until he was arrested. When the phone was removed from his pocket, a message appeared on the … Continue reading
WaPo: Motel 6 agrees to pay up to $7.6 million to settle claim it helped ICE target Latino guests
WaPo: Motel 6 agrees to pay up to $7.6 million to settle claim it helped ICE target Latino guests by Lindsey Bever: After a nationwide class-action lawsuit against Motel 6, the chain agreed to pay as much as $7.6 million … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Car not abandoned by fleeing def because a co-def stayed with it
A car is not abandoned by the defendant merely because, when he fled, a confederate stayed behind. United States v. Gibbs, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 187572 (N.D. Ga. Nov. 2, 2018). The audio recording of the police-citizen interaction has enough, … Continue reading
OR: A bulge in def’s pocket was not RS for a patdown without more
The officer articulated no reason for the officer safety exception for searching defendant’s pockets. A bulge in defendant’s clothing was not enough. State v. Leach, 294 Ore. App. 639 (Nov. 2, 2018). “[W]e have held that the lawfulness of the … Continue reading
VA: Statute on filing warrant papers in court is procedural and suppression not the remedy
The statute requiring search warrant papers be filed with the circuit clerk is merely procedural, and it confers no substantive rights for its violation. Heroin in the car was visible from outside and thus in plain view, and that was … Continue reading
The Crime Report: Does the Fourth Amendment Block Cops from Using Artificial Intelligence?
The Crime Report: Does the Fourth Amendment Block Cops from Using Artificial Intelligence? by J. Gabriel Ware: The constitutional prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures could prevent law enforcement from using the sophisticated surveillance technology made possible by artificial intelligence, … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: FISA application may be reviewed ex parte and in camera and still comply with due process; probable cause shown
A FISA application that led to a prosecution may be reviewed ex parte and in camera and remain under seal, and this complies with due process. “Here, having reviewed the FISC’s probable cause determinations while affording these findings the requisite … Continue reading
KS: Def was removed from a van and her purse left behind; it wasn’t subject to search incident
Defendant was sitting in a van when she was gotten out and then arrested. Her purse was left behind. Her purse was not subject to a search incident when she’d been handcuffed and led away. The state’s argument that inevitable … Continue reading
NH: Def who borrowed car not prejudiced by five day delay in getting SW for it
Because defendant didn’t own the car he borrowed, he wasn’t prejudiced by the five day delay in getting a search warrant for it. State v. Stacey, 2018 N.H. LEXIS 208 (Nov. 2, 2018). State law requires automobile exception apply to … Continue reading
D.R.I.: IP addresses def used weren’t like detailed tracking information from CSLI requiring a SW
Defendant’s use of IP addresses his computer signed in through isn’t enough like CSLI in Carpenter to require a search warrant. United States v. Monroe, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186998 (D. R.I. Nov. 1, 2018):