Archives
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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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"On the Docket"–Medill
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General (many free):
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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)
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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
Privacy Foundation
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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)
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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: October 2020
CA4: Potentially glaring Franks claim proved immaterial
Defendant’s Franks claim was based on the fact that one Blount lived at the place to be searched, and Blount was associated with 7 addresses. Blount, however, had been in prison and couldn’t have lived there for a while. Nevertheless, … Continue reading
S.D.Miss.: Def was seized when his car was blocked by a police car and officer approached; there was no RS
Defendant’s car was practically blocked in a parking lot by a police car, and the officer got out and approached him. A reasonable person would not feel free to leave, and he was seized without reasonable suspicion. United States v. … Continue reading
CA4: Seizure of firearm was inevitable; def would have been arrested for DUI and searched incident to arrest anyway
“[W]e conclude that the district court did not err in crediting the arresting officer’s testimony and finding that the arresting officer had probable cause to arrest Herman for driving under the influence. We further conclude that the district court did … Continue reading
CA5: Dist.Ct. erred in dismissing civil claim ptf never saw 32 pg attachment to SW
One of plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment claims was that the 32 page attachment limiting the scope of the search warrant was not attached, and he still hadn’t seen it. The district court erred in dismissing the claim without the plaintiff seeing … Continue reading
CNET: Google is giving data to police based on search keywords, court docs show
CNET: Google is giving data to police based on search keywords, court docs show by Alfred Ng (“Court records in an arson case show that Google gave away data on people who searched for a specific address.”)
Oregon Fed.Def.: Developments in Federal Search and Seizure Law (Oct. 2020 update)
fd.org: Developments in Federal Search and Seizure Law (Oct. 2020 update) This shows defense wins, so those from the prosecution side need to be aware. (I’ll look for a usable link that doesn’t require regular updating here.)
Vice: Motherboard: The IRS Is Being Investigated for Using Location Data Without a Warrant
Vice: Motherboard: The IRS Is Being Investigated for Using Location Data Without a Warrant (“The IRS used smartphone location data from a contractor to try and track Americans without a warrant.”)
MI: Def’s employer’s ownership of cell phone is only a factor in REP and standing; remanded
The trial court erred in finding defendant had no standing in the cell phone he had that belonged to his employer. Ownership of the phone is only one factor in standing. People v. Paul, 2020 Mich. App. LEXIS 6637 (Oct. … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Even if smell of MJ only justifies search of passenger compartment, finding nothing extends it to trunk
Defendant argues that the smell of marijuana during a traffic stop only permitted a search of the passenger compartment of his vehicle. When the officer didn’t find any marijuana there, it was justified to search the trunk. United States v. … Continue reading
D.Utah: Ex ante motion to suppress before SW executed denied without prejudice; must follow search
Movant has notice of a search warrant not yet executed. Her ex ante motion to quash the search warrant is denied without prejudice. Under Rule 41(h), the motion should be filed after the search occurs. United States v. Richards, 2020 … Continue reading
Specific objection to 4A USMJ’s R&R required or waived
“Mr. Stewart did not object to the Recommended Disposition regarding whether the inevitable discovery doctrine would have led to the discovery of his felon status and unlawful possession of a weapon. When no objections are made this Court is not … Continue reading
N.-M.: Search incident of gym bag valid as incident to arrest when def asked for the bag to be transported with him
Defendant was assigned to Anchorage as a Marine recruiter and ended up being charged with sexual assault. On his arrest by the APD, the search incident of defendant’s gym bag for weapons incident to his arrest was valid. He asked … Continue reading
CA11: Under GA law, court clerk qualified as “neutral and detached magistrate” for arrest warrants
Plaintiff “raised a section 1983 claim under the Fourth Amendment alleging that McCord did not have legal authority to issue the warrant. The district court concluded that Georgia law authorized McCord to issue warrants. Applying the Supreme Court’s two-part test … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: When 911 caller gives name, the police don’t have to verify caller exists
The caller wasn’t anonymous because he gave his name. “The fact that the 911 dispatcher could not confirm that identity does not change that fact. In arguing that the police could not verify [his] credibility, the defendant ignores the facts … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: No RS: officer’s description of the alleged threat was too vague to be meaningful at all
There was no reasonable suspicion for defendant’s frisk, and the officer’s description of the alleged threat was too vague to be meaningful at all. United States v. Buskirk, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183594 (S.D. W.Va. Oct. 2, 2020)*:
GA retains common law that permits resistance to unlawful arrest
A fascinating recitation of the common law of arrest and the ability to resist an unlawful arrest: As the law existed when the common law was adopted by statute in Georgia in 1776, there was such authority. Most states changed … Continue reading