Archives
-
Recent Posts
- 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
- CO: DNA could be seized from trash
- CA8: Nebraska statute allowing SWs to cross state lines doesn’t violate 4A
-
-
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
E.D.Pa.: Def’s argument that cast PC for SW more as BRD “misapprehends the import and purpose of search warrants in two fundamental ways”
Defendant’s argument on lack of probable cause misses the mark because it’s cast in terms more like beyond a reasonable doubt of criminal activity and not merely probable cause. There was probable cause. United States v. Milliner, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
MT: An improperly certified police officer was still competent as a witness at a suppression hearing under Rule of Evid. 601, 602
An improperly certified police officer was still competent as a witness at a suppression hearing because all witnesses are generally competent to testify to what they saw. Rule of Evid. 601, 602. Under the totality of circumstances, there was probable … Continue reading
CA9: Recording pretrial detention inmates’ conversations for witness safety was reasonable
While defendants were in pretrial detention on a RICO indictment, the government apparently surreptitiously recorded conversations between them because there were legitimate witness safety concerns. The court finds no reasonable expectation of privacy in that situation. United States v. Ross, … Continue reading
TN: One reference to address as “Drive” not “Street” hardly makes the SW without PC or otherwise invalidate it
“The address is shown as ‘106 Melwood Street’ nine times in the affidavit and one time as ‘106 Melwood Drive.’ Based on the totality of the information contained in the affidavit, we determine that the use of the word ‘drive’ … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: The potentially overbroad SW was narrowed by listing the crime under investigation
The search warrant was challenged as a general warrant, but the court finds that it specified the crime under investigation, and that limited it. “Although the specific electronics recovered were not part of [one] burglary, those devices were nevertheless well … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Tribal officers can stop non-Indians for apparent offenses on tribal lands
While tribes generally do not have criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians, tribal officers can stop people for apparent offenses on tribal lands. Defendant’s pretextual stop argument is rejected because there was an objective basis for it. United States v. Santistevan, 2019 … Continue reading
Outside the Beltway: Virginia Judge Rules Automated Collection Of License Plate Data Illegal
Outside the Beltway: Virginia Judge Rules Automated Collection Of License Plate Data Illegal by Doug Mataconis: A Virginia Judge has ruled that automated license plate collection systems violate state law.
E.D.Mich.: State’s MMJ law doesn’t create immunity from car search on PC
The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act does not create immunity from a search when an officer has probable cause to believe that a vehicle has marijuana in it. United States v. Hinds, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72379 (E.D. Mich. Apr. 30, … Continue reading
TechCrunch: NSA says warrantless searches of Americans’ data rose in 2018
TechCrunch: NSA says warrantless searches of Americans’ data rose in 2018 by Zack Whittaker: The data, published Tuesday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), revealed a 28% rise in the number of targeted search terms used … Continue reading
Mac Rumors: FCC Questions U.S. Carriers on Phone Location Data Sales Practices
Mac Rumors: FCC Questions U.S. Carriers on Phone Location Data Sales Practices by Juli Clover:
VA: ABC officer validly terminated for not following agency S&S protocol more protective than 4A
Appellant was an ABC officer terminated for not following agency search and seizure protocols which are more protective of constitutional rights than the Fourth Amendment. The court considers the exceptions argued, including the highly regulated business exception, plain view, exigency, … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Lack of Miranda warning had no effect on search
Defendant’s Miranda rights were violated, but it had no effect on the search. United States v. McAdams, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71772 (S.D. Fla. Apr. 14, 2019).* Defendant wasn’t in custody at the time of his statement. Thomason v. State, … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: SW for entire cell phone in auto burglary is suppressed as both without nexus and overbroad
An arrest warrant doesn’t give authority to search a cell phone with the arrest. After a search warrant was issued for the phone for the crime of auto burglary, there is no nexus to the crime, and the search warrant … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Way overbroad protective sweep violated Buie
The protective sweep went far beyond the requirements of Buie, searching the entire house, and it is ordered suppressed. As to “the inevitable discovery analysis, the Court finds that the Government has failed to demonstrate, by a preponderance of the … Continue reading
Wired: Hacker Says He Can Remotely Kill Car Engines Via Compromised GPS Apps
Wired: Hacker Says He Can Remotely Kill Car Engines Via Compromised GPS Apps:
M.D.Tenn.: Def doesn’t show standing as a guess under Olson
Assuming the search of defendant’s stuff in the house of another was not valid as a parole search, defendant doesn’t even really attempt to show guest standing under Olson. United States v. Shelton, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71028 (M.D. Tenn. … Continue reading