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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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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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)
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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: November 2019
N.D.Okla.: Particularity in computer searches depends on how SW was executed
Particularity in a computer search has to be flexible and reasonable because of the vast amount of information that is of necessity swept up. “Instead of applying rigid rules requiring particularity when seeking a warrant, the focus should be on … Continue reading
D.Ore.: No REP in a govt computer and email where there were banner warnings at every sign in
Defendant’s government work emails were searched without a warrant, and it’s clear, based on warnings on the computer at every sign in and regular training, that he was well aware everything on the computer has no reasonable expectation of privacy. … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Govt didn’t exceed NCMEC’s private search
NCMEC was a private entity and not a government actor. The government didn’t exceed the private search. United States v. Kendall, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 192442 (E.D. Ky. Nov. 6, 2019). Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in an … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: SW for files on cell phone also permitted data extraction
The search warrant for files and things on defendant’s phone permitted full extraction. United States v. Sepulveda, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 192363 (S.D. N.Y. Nov. 5, 2019). Defendant’s online comments that amounted to a terroristic threat against law enforcement officers … Continue reading
IL: The scope of consent to search a car was exceeded, but it was because PC had developed
Officers exceeded the scope of defendant’s consent, but, by the time they did, they had probable cause under the automobile exception to search further. People v. Davis, 2019 IL App (1st) 160408, 2019 Ill. App. LEXIS 875 (Sept. 23, 2019),* … Continue reading
D.Utah: Double hearsay can support a SW
In a trade secrets theft case, reliance on double hearsay in the affidavit for search warrant was not unreasonable. The source was the company defendant worked for. Defendant relies on the elements of the trade secrets theft law and argues … Continue reading
MT: Welfare check of driver gave no indication of DUI, so no RS
The officer approached defendant’s vehicle pursuant to a 911 call to request a welfare check on the driver, but he did not have particularized suspicion to conduct a DUI investigation at the time he was assured defendant was not in … Continue reading
CA4: Ptf shot and paralyzed during no-knock raid states a claim and survives QI
During a no-knock entry with a battering ram by plain-clothes officers for marijuana, plaintiff heard a commotion from the back of his house, reached for a gun, and was shot at 29 times, hit 9 times, and paralyzed. The officer … Continue reading
BuzzFeed: Amazon-Owned Ring Shared Data About Tracking Kids On Halloween
BuzzFeed: Amazon-Owned Ring Shared Data About Tracking Kids On Halloween by Caroline Haskins (“The home surveillance company owned by Amazon bragged on Instagram about taping millions of kids going door to door.”)
CA1 affirms suppression order; reforming affidavit after Franks hearing shows no nexus to def’s house
The affidavit for the search warrant, reformed after a Franks hearing, did not establish probable cause to search defendant’s home. The affidavit did not set forth facts showing defendant had a history of drug dealing to permit an inference that … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: LA ordinance on providing hotel rental info valid under Patel
An LA ordinance requires certain information from hotel and motel renters which survives analysis under Patel. The information is not private information, and it’s not even a search. If it was, it would be a valid administrative search. City of … Continue reading
The Crime Report: Pre-Arrest Diversion: Where You Live Can Determine Whether You Go to Jail
The Crime Report: Pre-Arrest Diversion: Where You Live Can Determine Whether You Go to Jail (“Alternatives to detention are now widely available across the U.S. to justice-involved individuals who pose no risk to public safety. But a new survey shows … Continue reading
Wired: Hackers Can Use Lasers to ‘Speak’ to Your Amazon Echo or Google Home
Wired: Hackers Can Use Lasers to ‘Speak’ to Your Amazon Echo or Google Home by Andy Greenberg (“By pointing lasers tuned to a precise frequency at a smart assistant, researchers could force it to unlock cars, open garage doors, and … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Officer’s verifying def’s identity reasonably extended the stop
The extension of the stop wasn’t based on reasonable suspicion; it was the officer trying to determine why defendant’s license was revoked and whether defendant was who he said he was. “Under these circumstances, it is clear that the mission … Continue reading
Reason: Volokh Conspiracy: Impressions from the oral argument in Kansas v. Glover
Reason: Volokh Conspiracy: Impressions from the oral argument in Kansas v. Glover by Orin S. Kerr On reasonable suspicion and how to calculate it.
CA9: Use of another’s wireless router was not protected by any REP; police tracked def with Moocherhunter
After child pornography was found exchanged on a peer-to-peer connection from a specific IP address, government agents got a search warrant for that home address in apartment 242. Once there, they determined that no devices there were involved. They found, … Continue reading