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Recent Posts
- CA3: In seeking arrest warrants, officers need not present all exculpatory evidence to issuing magistrate unless it’s “conclusive”
- D.Idaho: Trial references to SW not barred, but govt limited in what it can say
- D.D.C.: PO’s alleged violation of probation regulations doesn’t warrant suppression if a reasonable mistake
- E.D.N.C.: SW not required to look in def’s jail property bag and retrieve car keys
- D.N.M.: Consent attenuated unreasonable search
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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 2024
CA10: Eight-hour seizure of home investigating OD before getting SW was unreasonable
“After Corban Elmore’s teenage son suffered a drug overdose at Elmore’s home, law-enforcement officers secured the scene and prohibited anyone from entering the house. The officers then continued to investigate and allowed almost eight hours to elapse before applying for … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Dropbox conducted a private search finding CP
Dropbox found child porn in defendant’s account, and it reported to NCMEC. Dropbox conducted a private search. United States v. Balog, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90179 (D. Mont. May 20, 2024).* “Defendant argues that the search of his vehicle was … Continue reading
Popular Science: Law enforcement collected over 1.5 million people’s DNA since 2020
Popular Science: Law enforcement collected over 1.5 million people’s DNA since 2020 by Andrew Paul (‘The government’s DNA collection program represents a massive expansion of genetic surveillance.’).
Two on standing in a rental car
“We find that Guice was, like the driver in Byrd, a driver in lawful possession or control of a rental car and the mere fact that she had retained the vehicle beyond the rental return date does not defeat her … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: The fact mj is legal in CA doesn’t make it so in a national park; plain smell was PC
Defendant’s stop was based on a radio report of an older Lexus driving erratically. When the officer saw the car, the LPN was expired. The stop led to the officer smelling marijuana. The smell was enough to invoke the automobile … Continue reading
OH5: Cell phone SW was not particular, GFE doesn’t apply, but harmless after all
The cell phone search warrant here failed particularity: “permitted a sweeping, comprehensive search of Hikec’s cell phone with no meaningful limits”, and the good faith exception doesn’t apply. On this record, however, it was harmless error in light of other … Continue reading
CA5: CBP dog sniffing for people was PC even if it couldn’t differentiate between the driver and alleged hidden passengers
A CBP dog trained to sniff for people provided reasonable suspicion even against the argument of how the dog could differentiate between the truck driver and hidden passengers. United States v. Martinez, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 12043 (5th Cir. May … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Here, RS was thin, and frisking under jacket was unreasonable
The reasonable suspicion here is thin at best, but, even if there was enough for a stop, there wasn’t for a frisk. Going under defendant’s “jacket to feel his waist and groin area” was unreasonable because there wasn’t suspicion he … Continue reading
NE: LEO’s statutory jurisdictional authority is not an unreasonable search and seizure question
A law enforcement officer’s statutory power and authority to enforce laws outside of the officer’s primary jurisdiction does not implicate the Fourth Amendment or article I, § 7, of the Nebraska Constitution. State v. Hoehn, 316 Neb. 634 (May 17, … Continue reading
MA: Cell phone call logs don’t require a search warrant
Cell phone call logs don’t require a search warrant to get them. “Despite the narrowing of the third-party doctrine in other contexts, it remains applicable to call detail records. Notwithstanding recent technological changes, the phone numbers an individual dials are … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Drug dog touching car door handle with nose isn’t unreasonable search
The drug dog touching the vehicle door handle with its nose was not an unreasonable search. United States v. Green, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88401 (D. Kan. May 16, 2024). Defendant’s 2255 wasn’t timely. “Even if Williams’s motion were timely, … Continue reading
WaPo: These cities bar facial recognition tech. Police still found ways to access it.
WaPo: These cities bar facial recognition tech. Police still found ways to access it. by Douglas MacMillan (“Citing concerns about accuracy and racial bias, the cities banned the technology. So some police officers sought help from other law enforcement agencies.”)
C.D.Cal.: SW materials in case with weighty public interest ordered unsealed
The search warrant materials in the LA City Attorney investigation are ordered disclosed because of the weighty public interest in them. In re Consumer Watchdog, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88456 (C.D. Cal. Apr. 11, 2024):
LA5: No standing to challenge search of shooting victim’s cell phone in def’s possession
Defendant lacked standing to challenge the search of his shooting victim’s cell phone. Also, by statute the search of the phone more than 10 days after seizure was reasonable. State v. Lowry, 2024 La. App. LEXIS 804 (La. App. 5 … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: Cell phones possessed by tribal police not subject to return under Rule 41(g)
Motion for return of cell phones is denied. They are in the possession of the Muskogee Creek Nation tribal police, not the federal government. United States v. Smith, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87341 (N.D. Okla. May 15, 2024). Motion for … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Landlord and tenant refused rental property inspection and SW was validly issued and protected privacy interests
The renter of property has a Fourth Amendment right in the property under the city rental inspection code but not if a warrant is issued. Here, the owner and tenant refused inspection and entry, and the city obtained an administrative … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Judge shopping after denial of SW inappropriate; could have appealed to DJ
The government having been turned down for a search warrant in the Central District of California for a cell phone of a prospective January 6th defendant, one alleged to be the third phone since then, for lack of showing likelihood … Continue reading