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Recent Posts
- CA8: Police with arrest warrant could enter third-party premises to arrest defendant
- What happens when Flock ALPRs misread an LPN?
- D.Neb.: Just because the state seizes a cell phone doesn’t mean they know the Brady implications of the contents
- Two on qualified immunity
- D.D.C.: Illegal search on stop tainted consent
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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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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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: June 2023
WA: Officer’s opening door for welfare check was minimal when he saw body in plain view
The warrantless entry into the home shared by the victim and defendant was justified because the officer’s concern for the victim was reasonable. She had not reported for work, she was not answering her phone, her car was parked in … Continue reading
EFF: Victory! New Jersey Court Rules Police Must Give Defendant the Facial Recognition Algorithms Used to Identify Him
EFF: Victory! New Jersey Court Rules Police Must Give Defendant the Facial Recognition Algorithms Used to Identify Him by Karen Gullo (“In a victory for transparency in police use of facial recognition, a New Jersey appellate court today ruled that … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: 30-minute seizure of cell phone in school that was never searched was not unreasonable
Seizure of a cell phone in school for 30 minutes that was not searched at all was not unreasonable. McGuire v. Roseville Joint Union High Sch. Dist., 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 98392 (E.D. Cal. June 5, 2023).* The warrantless blood … Continue reading
CA9: Officers must have PC defendant had a parole search condition before the search
Officers must have probable cause to know defendant had a parole search condition before searching, and here they had that. United States v. Estrella, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 13994 (9th Cir. June 6, 2023). (In my state, it comes up … Continue reading
CA8: ER patient became agitated and security and an LEO realized he was armed; search was reasonable
Defendant came to the Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) in downtown Minneapolis having been shot in the leg. He refused to let them remove his pants to treat the wound. A hospital protection officer was holding him down, and he … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Once police executing a warrant on a home discover it’s multi-family, the search must end and a new SW be obtained
After the police entered the building and conducted a security sweep, they discovered only then it was actually a multi-occupant dwelling. There was no outward appearance there were multiple non-family occupants. The first entry finding a gun was valid. The … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: Ptf’s § 1983 4A case over his arrest is stayed
“Although Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment claims survive initial review, the Amended Complaint indicates that Plaintiff is currently involved in state criminal proceedings related to the arrest and seizure that form the basis of those claims. In these circumstances, the Court finds … Continue reading
MA: Driveway used for parking is not curtilage when car visible to all
Defendant’s vehicle was not parked within the curtilage of his home. The officer’s observations of the vehicle did not constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment or the Mass. Const. Decl. Rights art. 14. Defendant’s house was set back from … Continue reading
W.D.Mich.: When the question of PC for a warrant is close, there’s still a substantial basis for finding PC and GFE
The question of probable cause to search these packages was a close call. There clearly was at least reasonable suspicion and some of the same facts support probable cause. On the totality, there was at least a substantial basis for … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Def prevails on a Franks challenge on what he was carrying into his house seen on pole camera
Working from a hearing with a screen shot of a pole camera video, the court concludes that the officer stating defendant was holding a rifle was ultimately with reckless disregard of the truth. Defendant argued he was holding a bouquet … Continue reading
MD reiterates search incident doctrine
Maryland reiterates search incident. “Considering these cases together, a clearer picture of the search incident to arrest exception emerges. Pacheco reminds us that, for the exception to apply, there must first exist probable cause to arrest before conducting the search. … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Subpoena to Microsoft to attempt to show it was a state actor in NCMEC report is quashed as burdensome
Defendant’s Rule 17 subpoena to Microsoft to attempt to show that the cybertip to NCMEC was not a private search is quashed as unreasonable and burdensome. United States v. Burley, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 96642 (N.D. Cal. June 2, 2023)*:
Reason: Connecticut Couple Challenges Warrantless Surveillance of Their Property by Camera-Carrying Bears
Reason: Connecticut Couple Challenges Warrantless Surveillance of Their Property by Camera-Carrying Bears by Jacob Sullum (“The lawsuit looks iffy in light of the Supreme Court’s ‘open fields’ doctrine.”):
CA3: Gov’t gets no relief from waiver of 4A argument under separation of powers
The government waived a potentially valuable suppression argument during the suppression hearing, and the evidence was suppressed. The court of appeals declines to give the government a pass on waiver because it would violate separation of powers. United States v. … Continue reading
TX9: Affidavit for a SW is a public record
The affidavit for a search warrant is a public record. $49,815.00 in United States Currency v. State, 2023 Tex. App. LEXIS 3775 (Tex. App. – Beaumont June 1, 2023). Defendant did not “distance himself” from the bags in the car … Continue reading
NY Kings Co.: Def on video at a subway station near a robbery where he was already a suspect was enough for CSLI for his phone
Defendant is charged with robbery on a subway car in the Bronx. Video from a station was matched to his picture as a likely match. That was reliable enough to seek CSLI from his phone to see if he was … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Rooker-Feldman barred § 1983 claim over search litigated in state court
“Applying these standards, the Court concludes that Rooker-Feldman precludes only Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment illegal seizure claim and damages sought amounting to the Property’s value. All four factors of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine are present here as to the Fourth Amendment cause … Continue reading
LA4: State carries burden on inevitable discovery and it failed here
Here there was a warrantless entry into the house for a gun. Defendant was in custody outside. The state had the burden on inevitable discovery and failed. “In the instant case, the state failed to point to any alternative lawful … Continue reading
LA5: Unenclosed driveways are not part of the curtilage
“Louisiana jurisprudence has indicated that unenclosed driveways, like the driveway in the instant case, are not part of the curtilage with respect to Fourth Amendment cases.” State v. Bourgeois, 2023 La. App. LEXIS 901 ( La. App. 5 Cir May … Continue reading