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Recent Posts
- CA10: SW for gun three weeks after road rage incident wasn’t stale
- OH10: Parole search of cell phone can occur even when it’s taken from the property room at jail
- TX14: No REP in location information on bondsman’s GPS monitor
- W.D.N.Y.: No IAC for not challenging search without standing
- CAAF: Victim’s 4A rights were at issue, too
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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)
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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) -
“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: November 2023
CA11: Def claims he was talking with a VA clinician, but it was a CI; no REP in conversation
Defendant was ultimately accused of theft of government funds and false statements about his VA benefits. A phone call with an informant was recorded. He claims he thought it was a clinician with whom he had a reasonable expectation of … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Even though stop showed def wasn’t impaired, DL and LPN could still be run
Even though defendant apparently wasn’t driving impaired, once validly stopped, the officer could run DL and LPN checks. The dog sniff didn’t prolong the stop at all. United States v. Drayton, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206461 (N.D. Iowa Oct. 10, … Continue reading
IA: Shining flashlights or patrol car spotlights on driver in an already parked car is not a seizure
Defendant was seen driving fast in a parking lot near a bar after 2 am. Officers parked near him and approached on foot. They shined their flashlights on the driver from both sides. The use of flashlights was not a … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: No REP in a computer possessed in a halfway house
Plaintiff had no reasonable expectation of privacy in a computer given him by Goodwill for whom he worked while he was living in a halfway house. He was still an inmate of the BOP. “There is no reasonable or legitimate … Continue reading
UT: Being hospitalized having been shot by police isn’t “custody” for Miranda purposes
A person hospitalized after having been shot by the police is not per se “in custody” for Miranda purposes. The reason for the shooting was the safety of the officers and others, not custody. Tennessee v. Garner isn’t even close, … Continue reading
CA7: Hospital medical staff getting def to spit out machine gun part wasn’t search and they weren’t govt actors
Defendant had a Glock fully auto switch in his mouth while in the hospital. While treating him, the medical staff finally got him to spit it out. That was not a search. The medical staff were not government actors for … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: If the SW lacks PC, the remedy is a motion to suppress, not a motion to rescind the SW via 41(g)
Defendant filed a motion for the court to rescind the search warrant for his cell phone under Rule 41(g) because it was allegedly defective. The remedy is a motion to suppress, not to rescind. United States v. Cardenas, 2023 U.S. … Continue reading
NYT: Talks on Surveillance Law Simmer as Its Expiration Date Looms
NYT: Talks on Surveillance Law Simmer as Its Expiration Date Looms by Charlie Savage (“Negotiations in Congress over a warrantless surveillance law are intensifying as it nears its expiration date. The debate has come during what national security officials say … Continue reading
The Intercept: LexisNexis Sold Powerful Spy Tools to U.S. Customs and Border Protection
The Intercept: LexisNexis Sold Powerful Spy Tools to U.S. Customs and Border Protection by Sam Biddle (“The data brokerage giant sold face recognition, phone tracking, and other surveillance technology to the border guards, say government documents.”)
D.Haw.: State officers allegedly violating state law in warrant process or execution irrelevant under 4A
The fact state officers might have violated state law in executing the warrant wasn’t material to the Fourth Amendment reasonableness requirement. United States v. Miske, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 203981 (D. Haw. Nov. 14, 2023).* There was reasonable suspicion or … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Inventory of car totaled in flight from police was reasonable on totality
The inventory of defendant’s car after he totaled it fleeing from the police in a wreck was reasonable on the totality. Defendant argued that inventory was improper just from curiosity. United States v. Twiggs, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 204654 (E.D. … Continue reading
Lexology: Outlier or Trend? A Possible Narrowing of the Border Search Exception for Electronic Devices
Lexology: Outlier or Trend? A Possible Narrowing of the Border Search Exception for Electronic Devices (“As we wrote in a note back in December 2020, the border search exception to the Fourth Amendment is a powerful investigative tool relied on … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: A pending forfeiture action in another district justifies dismissal of Rule 41(g) motion because there is another remedy
This is a Rule 41(g) action for return of property, a superyacht owned by a Russian oligarch seized allegedly in violation of Russian sanctions. The next day, a forfeiture action was filed in the S.D.N.Y., and that provided an adequate … Continue reading
CA5: After a fire at def’s trailer, his false statements as to his whereabouts added to PC for SW for cell phone
Defendant lived at a trailer that burned, and a body was found inside. After it was determined that he gave false information about his whereabouts that day, state officers got a search warrant for his cell phone and location information. … Continue reading
Another AI pleading with made up caselaw
Pranshu Verma and Will Oremus, These lawyers used ChatGPT to save time. They got fired and fined. (Wash. Post Nov. 16, 2023) (“Artificial intelligence is changing how law is practiced, but not always for the better”). That’s the lead but … Continue reading
IN: Patdown of man in medical distress before paramedics arrived was reasonable
Defendant’s patdown search when he was found lying in a parking lot in medical distress was objectively reasonable as an emergency search, if just for what was on him before paramedics arrived. Meth was found. Lack of a separate state … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: When a crime occurs in a car in front of the passengers, it’s reasonable to infer they were involved for PC purposes
When a suspected crime occurs in a car in front of the passengers, it is reasonable to infer, for probable cause purposes, that they are involved, comparing Di Re (1947) and Pringle (2003). United States v. Groves, 2023 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
CA6: SW’s minor error in naming place to be searched did not entitle ptf to relief; qualified immunity applies
A minor error in the address of the place to be searched could be overlooked because only the right place was searched. There is still qualified immunity. Neal El v. Valasek, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 30000 (6th Cir. Nov. 9, … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Even if search preceded arrival of SW, independent source applied
Even if the search preceded the warrant being issued, the decision was already made and the independent source doctrine validates the search. United States v. Ellis, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 202209 (E.D.N.C. Oct. 20, 2023), adopted, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading