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- N.D.Tex.: AUSA can summarize what the gov’t knows for SW application
- S.D.N.Y.: No right to quash SCA warrant before execution; remedies are after
- S.D.N.Y.: SW not based on mere speculation
- D.Mont.: Officers had RS for stop; it wasn’t based on the race of the suspects
- M.D.Pa.: SW for phone 19 months after alleged crimes showed PC
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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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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)
--Federal Laws Relating to Cybersecurity: Discussion of Proposed Revisions (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: May 2020
NYT: How Reuters Analyzed Court Data on Qualified Immunity
NYT: How Reuters Analyzed Court Data on Qualified Immunity (“Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor has repeatedly criticized her fellow justices for creating, as she put it in a 2018 dissent, an ‘absolute shield’ for police officers accused of excessive force. … Continue reading
FL5: Trial court’s order suppressing warrantless black box search affirmed for lack of a record
The trial court granted a motion to suppress the search of defendant’s car’s black box (“event data recorder”). The state on appeal seeks to depart from State v. Worsham, 227 So. 3d 602, 603 (Fla. 4th DCA 2017), that there … Continue reading
LA: No PC for warrantless entry and security cameras are not exigency
“Here, the trial court made credibility determinations based on the testimony of multiple officers involved in defendant’s arrest and found that officers lacked probable cause to search defendant’s residence. Furthermore, observation that defendant’s home had security cameras failed to amount … Continue reading
CA11: Possible ruse mentioned by officer came after consent already granted
Any ruse to get consent to search defendant’s bags after TSA was done with them came after consent was given and wasn’t considered. United States v. Benjamin, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 14755 (11th Cir. May 8, 2020). Defendant was lawfully … Continue reading
OH6: Deliberate stall of traffic stop for drug dog was unreasonable
There was no reasonable suspicion to continue the stop in this case. The officer called for backup and a dog, and the first officer there told him to stall for the dog. Nothing was done for eight minutes to pursue … Continue reading
CA3: Byrd who won in SCOTUS on standing loses on remand because there was PC for the search
On remand from Byrd v. United States, 138 S.Ct. 1518 (2018), holding that defendant had standing in his rental car, defendant loses on the merits because there was probable cause for the search of his car because of the admission … Continue reading
OH5: Driver’s pulling MJ from her bra wasn’t RS as to the passenger
The driver producing marijuana from her bra did not create reasonable suspicion as to passenger. State v. Howard, 2020-Ohio-1400, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 1364 (5th Dist. Apr. 7, 2020). Since the three search warrants were all issued with probable cause, … Continue reading
Chattanooga Times Free Press: State health department gives names, addresses of Tennesseans with COVID-19 to law enforcement
Chattanooga Times Free Press: State health department gives names, addresses of Tennesseans with COVID-19 to law enforcement by Anita Wadhwani (“The Tennessee Department of Health is providing the names and addresses of residents who test positive for COVID-19 to sheriffs … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Holding def’s computer for 6 hrs to get SW after he revoked consent was reasonable
Defendant at first consented to the government holding and then searching his cell phone and laptop. The next day he revoked his consent on the computer. The government continued to hold the laptop to preserve evidence and got a search … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Violated no REP to open driver door to read VIN where dashboard number obscured
It was reasonable to open a car door to read the VIN on the doorjamb under New York v. Class because the officer couldn’t see the one on the dashboard because of the glare of the sun. Otherwise, there was … Continue reading
S.D.Miss.: Motion to suppress having been granted, def is a candidate for pretrial release
With the evidence against defendant suppressed, the government’s case is weakened, and defendant is a candidate for pretrial release. United States v. Norbert, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61799 (S.D. Miss. Apr. 8, 2020). The trial court’s order allowing defendant’s motion … Continue reading
NY3: Even if CSLI was wrongly obtained, it was harmless error
Assuming, without deciding, that obtaining defendant’s CSLI in a knife attack case was unreasonable, it was harmless error on this record. Plenty of other evidence connected him. People v. Perez, 2020 NY Slip Op 02684, 2020 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS … Continue reading
CT: Dismissal not appropriate remedy here for violation of A-C privilege in execution of SW
Defendant did not show that all the documents seized were attorney-client privileged for purposes of litigation. Some were. However, dismissal is not the appropriate remedy, despite the fact privileged information made it into the media from the arrest warrant materials. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Defense counsel’s failure to inform def of potential 4A claims isn’t itself an IAC claim
“Williams’ assertion that counsel failed to inform him that state law enforcement officers are not authorized to make federal arrests provides no support for a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel.” Considering the merits of any search claim, defendant’s stop … Continue reading
CA1: Drunk underage partiers puking outside and going back in justified a community caretaking entry to see if anyone was in distress
Drunk underage partiers puking outside and going back in justified a community caretaking entry to see if anyone was in distress. Castagna v. Jean, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 11357 (1st Cir. Apr. 10, 2020). The use of an administrative warrant … Continue reading
IL: Failure to show nexus even by inference of def’s connection to premises in SW was a failure of PC
The state failed to show nexus between defendant and the place to be searched that would show that defendant kept drugs on the premises. “To be sure, a judge issuing a search warrant is entitled to draw reasonable inferences from … Continue reading
Nature Human Behaviour: A large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States
Nature Human Behaviour: A large-scale analysis of racial disparities in police stops across the United States by Emma Pierson et al.:
D.N.M.: Vehicle already searched under the automobile exception can be searched again at police station
A vehicle already searched under the automobile exception can be searched again after it is removed to the police lot. United States v. Mazon, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64813 (D. N.M. Apr. 13, 2020). The Texas trial court didn’t err … Continue reading