Archives
-
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
-
-
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: May 2019
AP: San Francisco may ban police, city use of facial recognition
AP: San Francisco may ban police, city use of facial recognition by Mat O’Brien and Janie Har: If San Francisco adopts a ban, other cities, states or even Congress could follow, with lawmakers from both parties looking to curtail government … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Nexus shown by def going home after three controlled buys
Nexus and probable cause are shown to defendant’s house by the fact he went back to his house from three controlled buys. United States v. Stewart, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78376 (D. Conn. May 9, 2019). Having pled guilty to … Continue reading
NY1: Protective arrest of juvenile for health and safety reasons just to get him to court violates 4A
The protective arrest of a juvenile under the Family Court Act violates the Fourth Amendment. This has been a longstanding practice, and no bad motives are attributed to anyone, but this practice can’t continue. Matter of Zavion O. (Donna O.), … Continue reading
NBC News: How facial recognition became a routine policing tool in America
NBC News: How facial recognition became a routine policing tool in America by Jon Schuppe:
N.D.Tex.: Nexus & GFE: Officer’s experience drug dealers keep stuff at home alone is not enough; some fact connecting home required
Officer’s experience alone that drugs and paraphernalia are often kept at the alleged dealer’s home does not satisfy the good faith exception. There must also be some facts connecting the house to the drug offense away from the home. United … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Forced use of fingerprint biometric to unlock a smartphone violates 5A
The district court granted the initial search warrant based on the showing of probable cause, but then it denied a second application to force the owner to open it. The compelled use of biometrics to unlock the phone violates the … Continue reading
LATimes: Weed smuggling arrests at LAX have surged 166% since marijuana legalization
LATimes: Weed smuggling arrests at LAX have surged 166% since marijuana legalization by Joseph Serna: Emboldened by legalization and facing only light punishment if captured, more and more smugglers are taking to the friendly skies in an effort to escape … Continue reading
OR: Under state constitution, REP remains in trash picked up and searched other than at dump
Trash collectors picked up defendants’ trash and took it to a place where the police could search it. Under the state constitution, defendants retained a reasonable expectation of privacy in their trash. “On review, we hold that defendants retained protected … Continue reading
TX: Dallas Morning News article that target of SW was “under investigation” was substantially true for libel purposes
The News published a story that Rxpress was under investigation for health care fraud because a search warrant was issued for its records. Actually, Halsey was under investigation, and the search warrant sought the company’s communications with him. The article … Continue reading
AZ: Smoking MMJ in a parked car on a commercial lot is “public”
Smoking medical marijuana in a car in a commercial parking lot is public enough that it violates the AMMA to do so. While a car has some privacy, anything visible isn’t. Following People v. Carlton, 880 N.W.2d 803 (Mich. Ct. … Continue reading
PA: Smell of burnt marijuana during a traffic stop is not PC to search the trunk of the car
The smell of burnt marijuana during a traffic stop is not probable cause to search the trunk of the car. Commonwealth v. Scott, 2019 PA Super 154, 2019 Pa. Super. LEXIS 459 (May 10, 2019):
KS: DMV can apply exclusionary rule to DL suspensions from bad stop
Petitioner’s stop was without reasonable suspicion, and the DMV can apply the exclusionary rule in the administrative proceeding. Jarvis v. Kansas Dep’t of Revenue, 2019 Kan. App. LEXIS 27 (May 10, 2019). “Regardless of whether defendant made a valid waiver … Continue reading
LA: Failure to show PC for medical records required suppression
“The district court erred in denying defendant’s motion to suppress despite finding that the officers failed to articulate probable cause in their search warrant application to subpoena defendant’s medical records. A search warrant application must contain within its four corners … Continue reading
PA: Cell phone left recording in a college coed bathroom was treated as abandoned property despite intention to return later
Defendant hid a recording smartphone in a coed bathroom at Villanova University that a female student found and turned over to the University Police. The phone was essentially abandoned even though he intended to return to recover it later, and … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Def who left property in sister’s house without plan to ever return lacked standing, and she had apparent authority to consent
Defendant stored property with his sister in her house for extended periods of time. Here, he lacked standing to challenge the search of his stuff in her house, and she had apparent authority to consent to the search. United States … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Govt can’t show PC for search of cell phone, and GFE doesn’t apply either
The search warrant for defendant’s cell phones had inserted “no charge at this time” for the crime under investigation. The phone was seized without a warrant from a traffic stop, then searched under the warrant, but you can’t tell what … Continue reading
NJLJ: Must a Criminal Defendant Turn Over Cellphone Passwords? NJ Supreme Court Will Decide
NJLJ: Must a Criminal Defendant Turn Over Cellphone Passwords? NJ Supreme Court Will Decide by Suzette Parmley:
W.D.Ky.: Complete failure of nexus was no PC and even GFE won’t save it
The affidavit for search warrant here fails to show nexus to defendant’s property. Moreover, it can’t even be inferred from the CI’s statements. “The affidavit presently before this Court offers no such supplemental information. The affidavit does not describe a … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: In CP case, even spreadsheets on a computer can be searched for images
When child pornography is the subject of a search warrant for a cell phone, search of the entire cell phone is permitted. As to a computer, even spreadsheets are subject to search because it’s possible to hide images there. United … Continue reading
TX2: Def not entitled to name of CI to get SW
Defendant wasn’t entitled to the name of the CI because the CI was only used to get the search warrant and wasn’t a witness in the state’s case in chief. Coleman v. State, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 3802 (2d Dist. … Continue reading