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- 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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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General (many free):
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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
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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: August 2019
Wired: Hackers Could Decrypt Your GSM Phone Calls
Wired: Hackers Could Decrypt Your GSM Phone Calls by Lily Hay Newman: Most mobile calls around the world are made over the Global System for Mobile Communications standard; in the US, GSM underpins any call made over AT&T or T-Mobile’s … Continue reading
Quartz: A California police robot is flagging “blacklisted” people and cars
Quartz: A California police robot is flagging “blacklisted” people and cars by Justin Rohrlich: An autonomous police robot patrolling the streets of Huntington Park, California is scanning license plates, logging IP addresses, and using facial recognition technology that alerts cops … Continue reading
Reason: No Probable Cause Required for Cops To Access User Data From Popular Apps
Reason: No Probable Cause Required for Cops To Access User Data From Popular Apps by Ben McDonald: Only three states require police to obtain a warrant before requesting private user data from companies.
OH2: No RS for stop of driver parked in car in Wendy’s parking lot at 1pm that others came up to
There was no reasonable suspicion of drug activity with defendant’s car in a Wendy’s parking lot at 1 pm. An anonymous caller concerned about “drug activity” called the police and reported that people walked up to the car, talked to … Continue reading
CA2: Govt doesn’t get GFE in forfeiture search and seizure for overbreadth and particularity problem it created
In a forfeiture case initiated with a search warrant, defects in the warrant process denied the government resort to the good faith exception for failure to apprise all the officers what they were looking for and not attaching exhibits to … Continue reading
D.Kan. Throwing a pouch onto a roof when climbing a fence in flight from the police is abandonment
Throwing a black pouch onto the roof of a building in flight from the police as he climbed over a fence was abandonment. United States v. Gaines, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 134303 (D. Kan. Aug. 9, 2019).* The search warrant … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Recusal motion can’t be used as subterfuge just to get rehearing of denied motion to suppress
This second recusal motion looks like defendant is just trying to get rehearing of the denial of his motion to suppress in front of a different judge, and it’s denied. United States v. Williamson, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 133111 (D. … Continue reading
CA11: Officer has discretion to let another take vehicle or impound it with inventory, and he can change his mind
Allowing defendant’s vehicle to be taken by another instead of impounding it was within the officer’s discretion. At first he said he would do that, then changed his mind. That doesn’t make the inventory unreasonable. United States v. Sibert, 2019 … Continue reading
CA9: Info of illegal search was put into second SW affidavit and independent PC was shown
In a felon in possession case, there was a prior illegal search by state troopers. ATF picked up the case immediately and applied for a search warrant that included the information from the illegal search, and there was independent evidence … Continue reading
Vice: These Legit-Looking iPhone Lightning Cables Will Hijack Your Computer
Vice: These Legit-Looking iPhone Lightning Cables Will Hijack Your Computer by Joseph Cox: It looks like an Apple lightning cable. It works like an Apple lightning cable. But it will give an attacker a way to remotely tap into your … Continue reading
LA4: Def has no REP in his shooting victim’s Instagram account
Defendant was accused of a murder. The state got a search warrant for the victim’s Instagram account, and he moved to suppress. [Remember, Louisiana gives broad standing, but, still] He has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the place searched. … Continue reading
WSJ: When battlefield surveillance comes to your town
WSJ: When battlefield surveillance comes to your town by Christopher Mims: All-seeing 24/7 video surveillance technology, first developed for use in war, is now affordable enough to be used domestically to fight crime and terrorism. Some lawmakers are wary.
S.D.Fla.: Search incident and community caretaking exceptions can’t support govt’s search of def’s messenger bag days later
The government’s search incident theory to sustain a search of defendant’s messenger bag days after his arrest is rejected. “The fundamental purpose of the search incident to arrest exception is to ensure safety and safeguard evidence. Neither of these concerns … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Information from a Sept. ’17 SW made it into Oct. ’18 SW affidavit and it wasn’t stale becuase of ongoing nature
Defendant’s property had been searched in September 2017. Information from that made it to a search warrant issued in October 2018, and it wasn’t stale because of the ongoing nature of the facts. United States v. Harmon, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Including 3 yo info in computer hacking SW application didn’t make it stale; it was ongoing
Defendant was suspected for years of distributing malware on his computer. The government included in the search warrant application information that was three years old. Because it was an ongoing international enterprise, the information in the search warrant wasn’t stale. … Continue reading
CA11: 4A IAC claim fails on merits of search issue
Petitioner’s IAC claim against defense counsel for not pursuing a Fourth Amendment claim was properly denied for lack of standing on the merits. Virgil v. Sec’y, Dept. of Corrections, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 23777 (11th Cir. Aug. 8, 2019).* Defendant’s … Continue reading
MD: Def’s alleged furtive movement while sitting in car wasn’t significant enough to show he was concealing a gun
Defendant’s “furtive movement” in the car while talking to the police officer outside the car wasn’t significant enough in the testimony to show that he was secreting something or moving around a weapon. There thus was no objective basis for … Continue reading
CA9: Standing shown to sue Facebook under Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act
Plaintiffs stated Art. III standing to bring a class action against Facebook for violation of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. Patel v. Facebook, Inc., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 23673 (9th Cir. Aug. 8, 2019).* Summary by the court:
CA11: No REP in last four digits of SSN voluntarily disclosed to agency
“The district court did not err in dismissing Hollis’s right to privacy claims. Because Hollis voluntarily provided Defendants with the last four digits of his SSN, he abandoned a reasonable expectation of privacy in those digits. Miller, 425 U.S. at … Continue reading