Archives
-
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
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
-
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
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)
-
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
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
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)
-
“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: January 2021
CA8: Detention of ptf for videoing outside of police station was reasonable given the officers’ concerns about other crimes and vandalism there
Plaintiff’s detention outside the police station for engaging in confrontational behavior went beyond any constitutionally protected recording activity. Defendants’ actions, when combined with their knowledge of vehicles being vandalized and stolen in the area and their personal knowledge that a … Continue reading
NYLJ: The Myriad Problems with Qualified Immunity
Analysis: The Myriad Problems With Qualified Immunity (“In his Section 1983 Litigation column, Martin Schwartz joins jurists and academics who, over the last several years, have criticized the Supreme Court’s qualified immunity jurisprudence, calling for its elimination or at least … Continue reading
CA, Solano Co.: City govts can’t use cell site simulators without adopting a specific privacy policy under CA law
When a California local government agency buys a cell site simulator, state law requires a privacy policy be adopted for it. A writ of mandate is granted preventing the respondent city from using it until a policy complying with state … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Continuation stop was supported by RS based on routine questions and observations
“The evidence in this case supports the conclusion that the length of the stop was supported by reasonable suspicion, and the encounter was reasonably related in scope to the purpose of the stop. Trooper Vanhoose testified that after he stopped … Continue reading
MI: Separate SW for cell phone contents required when another potential crime discovered during search
Execution of a search warrant on a cell phone for one crime doesn’t permit a search of the cell phone for another crime. A separate warrant has to be obtained. The first warrant does not extinguish the owner’s reasonable expectation … Continue reading
D.V.I.: Not showing target a “particularized list” of things to be seized doesn’t justify exclusion
Failure to tell the target of a search warrant or his lawyer who showed up what’s being seized by showing the warrant itself doesn’t justify applying the exclusionary rule. The attachments incorporated into the affidavit were present at the scene … Continue reading
CA8: Remodeler found video voyeur camera and conducted a private search then turned it over to police
A man remodeling defendant’s house found a USB port in the bathroom, and he gathered that the USB could be used to hook up a camera in the bathroom to record children visiting there. He took the device he found … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Manipulating screen of locked cell phone to see calls was a search
Police manipulating the emergency function of a locked cell phone screen to attempt to see if a particular call came in was an impermissible search, but the government showed inevitable discovery applies. United States v. Jones, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: RS not required to approach a person to talk to him
“Williams first argues that the police officers violated the Fourth Amendment by approaching him without reasonable suspicion. R. 33 at 17. But reasonable suspicion is only required when a suspect has been seized. United States v. Douglass, 467 F.3d 621, … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Trial testimony showed search was by consent, so no IAC
Defendant’s 2255 claim that defense counsel was ineffective for not challenging a search is belied by trial testimony, the only suggestion there is, that the search was by consent. Francis v. United States, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 245228 (N.D. Ohio … Continue reading
NC: GPS tracking warrant affidavit showed PC
The warrant for installing a GPS tracker on defendant’s vehicle showed probable cause, the subject of the tracking to places he’s been and to locate potential conspirators. State v. McNeill, 2020 N.C. App. LEXIS 947 (Dec. 31, 2020).* Not having … Continue reading
NBC News: Insecure wheels: Police turn to car data to destroy suspects’ alibis
NBC News: Insecure wheels: Police turn to car data to destroy suspects’ alibis by Olivia Solon (“Looser privacy standards for vehicle data are a treasure chest of data for law enforcement.”)
CA3 notes inventory policy not in evidence supporting § 1983 judgment and affirms
In a Fourth Amendment § 1983 case tried to a jury, the claim of an unreasonable inventory search prevailed before the jury. Yet, there was no written policy put into evidence by the parties. Affirmed on this ground. Watley v. … Continue reading
NC: Trial court erred in not considering Brown factors in considering reasonableness of a checkpoint
“Defendant concedes and we agree that the trial court correctly determined that the checkpoint had a legitimate primary purpose. The trial court found that the purpose of the checkpoint was to check ‘each driver stopped for a valid driver’s license … Continue reading
OH5: Entry into cell phone tower at night which was being serviced was without exigent circumstances
A police officer came upon a cell phone tower at night where the door was open and a car was parked outside. He could hear music inside. He came in and asked what was going on and saw a bong. … Continue reading
NC: State statute on parole searches didn’t permit search of home, just the person
State statute authorized searches of the person or parolees, not places, and the search here exceeded the authority granted by statute, applying Samson v. California. State v. McCants, 2020 N.C. App. LEXIS 969 (Dec. 31, 2020). The search warrant was … Continue reading
NY3: Visitor at a party had no REP
Defendant was invited to a party at a vacant building loaned to a friend for purposes of the party. He wasn’t staying past the end of the party. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the place searched. People … Continue reading
CA9: Putting key in a car door to locate right car violates Jones and Jardines
Prior case law on inserting a key in a car door is not a search is contrary to Jones and Jardines. As a parole search, however, it can be reasonable if the car is connected to the parolee. United States … Continue reading