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Recent Posts
- 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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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
KY: Detaining bystanders to facilitate the arrest of one was reasonable
State case law already permits officers to detain bystanders for a reasonable period for officer safety in execution of search warrants. The court adopts the Sixth Circuit rule and extends it to arrest warrants, too. “We hold that detaining Constant … Continue reading
D.Utah: Dog handler’s subjective belief dog alerted unreasonable
The dog handler’s subjective belief that his drug dog alerted is inadequate for a search of a person’s car. United States v. Jordan, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71048 (D. Utah Apr. 21, 2020):
TX2: SW for seizure of blood includes the ability to analyze it
It is well settled in Texas that a search warrant for blood in a DUI case includes the ability to analyze it. Jacobson v. State, 2020 Tex. App. LEXIS 3447 (Tex. App. – Ft. Worth Apr. 23, 2020). Defendant’s CSLI … Continue reading
IN: Arrival of drug dog while ticket being written didn’t extend stop
The dog arrived at defendant’s traffic stop while the information was being entered into the traffic ticket program in the police car’s computer, so the dog sniff did not prolong the stop under the Fourth Amendment. Separately considering the state … Continue reading
CA6: One day detention without finding of PC valid under Gerstein and Riverside
Plaintiffs’ one day detention without a finding of probable cause failed to state a claim under Gerstein and County of Riverside. That is still presumptively reasonable. Cox v. City of Jackson, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 13124 (6th Cir. Apr. 22, … Continue reading
WaPo: Cellphone monitoring is spreading with the coronavirus. So is an uneasy tolerance of surveillance
WaPo: Cellphone monitoring is spreading with the coronavirus. So is an uneasy tolerance of surveillance by Kareem Fahim, Min Joo Kim and Steve Hendrix (“To the feelings of fear, restlessness, insecurity and sorrow taking hold around the globe, the pandemic … Continue reading
CA8: Tasing ptf eight times even while handcuffed was reasonable where he was always violently resisting
Tasing plaintiff repeatedly was not excessive force where he continued to violently resist even when handcuffed. Franklin v. Franklin Cty., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 13193 (8th Cir. Apr. 24, 2020). The officer shot plaintiff after he fled after a patdown … Continue reading
CA3: Police in pursuit of a shooting suspect crossed into def’s backyard; plain view of drugs sustained
Police were in pursuit of a shooting suspect and went into defendant’s back yard. Drugs in plain view could be seized. Levys v. Shamlin, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 13267 (3d Cir. Apr. 24, 2020). An open container stop permits a … Continue reading
HI: No prior showing of PC is required for a penal summons
No prior showing of probable cause is required for a penal summons because there is no arrest or custody under Gerstein v. Pugh. State v. Thompson, 2020 Haw. App. LEXIS 151 (Apr. 24, 2020). The district court properly denied qualified … Continue reading
OH12: Bloody clothes on ER floor were subject to plain view
Seizure of defendant’s bloody clothing from the floor of the emergency room was valid as a plain view despite his possessory interest. He was perceived at the time as the victim, but it later developed he wasn’t. State v. Jackson, … Continue reading
OH2: Excessive force in stop-and-frisk was unreasonable
Use of excessive bodily force for a stop-and-frisk by lifting defendant into a wall was unreasonable where defendant did nothing to justify it. That required suppressing the stop. State v. Johnson, 2020-Ohio-2742, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 1707 (2d Dist. May … Continue reading
NC: Flipping off officer not disorderly conduct; stop suppressed
Flipping off the officer wasn’t disorderly conduct justifying the stop. The community caretaking function also does not apply. State v. Ellis, 2020 N.C. LEXIS 363 (May 1, 2020). The state could not show that defendant’s statements were inevitably discovered from … Continue reading
CA9: County of Riverside v. McLaughlin’s 48 hour rule does not apply to parole holds
County of Riverside v. McLaughlin’s 48 hour rule does not apply to parole holds. Benson v. Chappell, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 14035 (9th Cir. May 1, 2020). There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop, but the officer’s opening the car … Continue reading
CA6: It is settled that tenants have a REP in an interior hallway open only to them
The district court erred in granting qualified immunity to the officers who entered a hallway that was associated with only one apartment that decedent clearly had a reasonable expectation of privacy in. The law is settled in this circuit. Decedent … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Overseizure of emails by SW didn’t require suppression of all; GFE also applies
This search warrant was issued in a SSA fraud case alleging a decade of false claims. The search warrant was sufficiently particular and not overbroad. The fact the period of the alleged offense was through January 2014 did not prohibit … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Strip search at DTF office was reasonable on PC def hid drugs in underwear and anal cavity
Officers had probable cause defendant had drugs hidden in his underwear or anal cavity. When he was taken to the DTF office, a strip search there was reasonable when there were no drugs otherwise in his possession. United States v. … Continue reading
AZ: Successfully controverting PC for SW requires return of copies of digital evidence
Defendant in a criminal case was suspected of Arizona wildlife offenses, and the state procured a search warrant. He successful controverted the warrant for lack of probable cause under state statute. Digital copies of evidence were kept by the state. … Continue reading
bizjournals.com: Aerial surveillance planes to begin flying over Baltimore Friday
bizjournals.com: Aerial surveillance planes to begin flying over Baltimore Friday by Ethan McLeod (“Camera-equipped surveillance planes will take to the Baltimore skies Friday, kicking off a six-month pilot program testing the technology’s ability to help fight crime. … Ohio-based Persistent … Continue reading
VA: Patdown for firearm was unreasonable where no crime was afoot even though it was apparent def was carrying
Armed officers calling out to defendant “Yo, turn around, you live here?” was a seizure, he attempted to ignore until they caught up with him. He was patted down because of a telltale L-shaped bulge, and a gun removed. The … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: Pill bottle in bedroom is not subject to plain view because incriminating nature not immediately apparent
A pill bottle on top of a dresser wasn’t subject to plain view because its incriminating nature wasn’t immediately apparent. United States v. Crawford, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74440 (E.D. Tenn. Apr. 6, 2020), adopted, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73477 … Continue reading