Archives
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Recent Posts
- 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
- CO: DNA could be seized from trash
- CA8: Nebraska statute allowing SWs to cross state lines doesn’t violate 4A
- WA: Sweat patch as condition of release violated state constitution’s privacy provision
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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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Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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General (many free):
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www.fd.org
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
Privacy Foundation
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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)
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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: January 2019
ABAJ: How to redact a PDF and protect your clients
ABAJ: How to redact a PDF and protect your clients by Jason Tashea:
CA1: MNT on newly discovered evidence search might be unreasonable needs to show that it would have changed outcome
Defendant filed a motion for new trial after his appeal based on a Giglio claim that certain information, which he is found to merely speculate about, would show that an illegal search occurred before he was indicted. His argument fails … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Part of CI’s criminal history wasn’t disclosed, but enough was; CI was corroborated, and there was PC
The affiant didn’t withhold enough of the CI’s criminal history to be misleading. Not all of it was disclosed, but enough was to show he was part of the criminal milieu. And even if the withholding was significant, there was … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Camping in a nonapproved area of Yosemite National Park was a reasonable suspicion
Camping in a nonapproved area of Yosemite National Park after a warning not to was reasonable suspicion for a stop. United States v. Ontiveros, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2791 (E.D. Cal. Jan. 8, 2019).* Defendant over time filed five motions … Continue reading
D.V.I.: Court doubts legal authority for border searches from mainland to VI, but GFE applies
The court doubts the legal basis for customs searches of people traveling nonstop from the U.S. mainland to the Virgin Islands because there is no international travel. Reliance on the V.I. Code doesn’t provide any real help to the government. … Continue reading
ACLU blog: William Barr Helped Build America’s Surveillance State
ACLU blog: William Barr Helped Build America’s Surveillance State by Neema Singh Guliani & Brian Tashman:
WaPo: Police seeking DNA of male staff at health-care facility where woman in vegetative state gave birth
WaPo: Police seeking DNA of male staff at health-care facility where woman in vegetative state gave birth by Herman Wong and Cleve R. Wootson Jr.: Police investigators are seeking DNA samples from male staff members at a private care facility … Continue reading
CA11: Questioning during stop exceeded Rodriguez, but it was before that, so GFE applies
The stop was reasonable, and the questioning of the motorist was valid at the time it happened (December 2013). Under Rodriguez, however, the stop was unlawfully extended. Under the good faith exception, the detention was still valid. United States v. … Continue reading
Why they strip search in jail: WGNO: Police find gun concealed in buttocks of Lafourche Parish man
WGNO: Police find gun concealed in buttocks of Lafourche Parish man: GOLDEN MEADOW, LA – Deputies at the Lafourche Parish Jail found a gun concealed in the buttocks of a man arrested after police found a “zip gun” and homemade … Continue reading
CA2: Remand required for determination for reason for delay in getting computer SW
Defendant was found passed out in a car on a rural road with the car in gear and the engine running. A tablet was on the seat. Searching the car for information about him, an image of child pornography was … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Affidavit for SW of home garage also showed nexus to house in car theft operation
This investigation into a stolen car ring operated from a home garage showed nexus to the house, too. “The affidavit by Officer Chappell is clear and thorough and reflects months of information gathering. The affidavit explains the nexus between the … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Leaving CP in a briefcase in attic and selling house and leaving it behind is abandonment
Defendant abandoned child pornography by secreting it with a cell phone in a briefcase in his attic. After he sold the house, he left it behind. He says he instructed a friend to retrieve it, but that didn’t happen. On … Continue reading
CA6: One doesn’t get a Franks hearing without a proper showing; it’s not the way to test the argument
Defendant’s Franks argument in the district court didn’t argue that probable cause would be lacking. The search warrant affidavit as a whole shows probable cause. “On appeal, Fuller does not contend that he made the requisite ‘substantial preliminary showing,’” and … Continue reading
Two on successor habeas petitions with search claims
Alleged withheld information of a Franks nature that undermines the search and defendant’s guilty plea was still barred as a successor petition. United States v. Hayes, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1516 (W.D. Va. Jan. 4, 2019).* Petitioner’s search claim was … Continue reading
OH5: Traffic stop on recalled AW still valid under GFE
A traffic stop based on a recalled warrant was still reasonable under the good faith exception of Evans and Herring. When she was arrested, her purse was subject to search incident: “Accordingly, because [her] purse was voluntarily brought outside the … Continue reading
VT: No sovereign immunity for flagrant search and seizure violations; implied right of action under state constitution
“¶ 84. In sum, we conclude that a direct private right of action for damages based on alleged flagrant violations of Article 11 is available against the State. The common law doctrine of sovereign immunity does not preclude such an … Continue reading
TN: 2012 cell phone search had to be evaluated by law at that time on PCR
Defendant’s post-conviction claim on the 2012 search of his cell phone fails because it wouldn’t have been granted back then. Blunkall v. State, 2019 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 11 (Jan. 4, 2019).* The CI’s information was significantly corroborated by observations … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: Defendant has standing in rental car under Byrd but loses under GFE under binding circuit law
On remand from the Fourth Circuit, the court determines that Byrd applies and defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the car he rented. As for the good faith exception, the court finds that it is bound by circuit … Continue reading
WaPo: Our privacy regime is broken. Congress needs to create new norms for a digital age.
WaPo: Our privacy regime is broken. Congress needs to create new norms for a digital age.