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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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General (many free):
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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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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: June 2024
NY3: Typo in SW affidavit could be overlooked when context is apparent
A typographical error in the statement of probable cause could be overlooked when the affidavit is read as a whole, which is what the court is supposed to do. People v. Malloy, 2024 NY Slip Op 03203, 2024 N.Y. App. … Continue reading
CA11: Officers participating in violation of 4A can be sued, too
“Marglli Gallego brought this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against four police officers. She alleged that two of those officers—whom we’ll call the ‘off-duty officers’—unreasonably seized her in violation of the Fourth Amendment. And she alleged that the other two … Continue reading
D.Mont.: FBI 302s not discoverable to aid in PC and particularity challenge
Defendant cannot get discovery of FBI 302s just to see if the search warrant was based on whatever information that would disclose. United States v. Purkey, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104824 (D. Mont. June 11, 2024). After all, the four … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: No PC for SW to test keys in a lock; only RS at most
Keys were found on the passenger seat of a pickup searched parked where a warrant was executed. A separate search warrant was obtained for the keys to determine whether they worked in the house lock. Plain view was argued. But, … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: Cross-gender strip search with transgender guard not “clearly established” for QI purposes
Plaintiff’s claim of a cross-gender jail strip search with a transgender guard was not clearly established at the time it happened, so the claim is barred by qualified immunity. West v. Eckstein, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104294 (E.D. Wis. June … Continue reading
MN: Jail call to delete Facebook pages because of incriminating information was PC for SW
Defendant told a person he called from jail to delete his Facebook accounts because of potentially incriminating evidence on it. The state showed probable cause and particularity for the Facebook warrant. State v. Sardina-Padilla, 2024 Minn. LEXIS 307 (June 12, … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Mere school employee conduct search of coworker’s purse not “state actors” for § 1983
A couple of school employees who suspected another of being under the influence of prescription medications searched her purse. They were not “state actors” for § 1983. As school employees, they had a heightened duty to protect the children. Lawson … Continue reading
CA4: Alleged dirty cop involved in SW but not at trial wasn’t enough for new trial
An alleged dirty cop who didn’t testify at trial and was part of obtaining the search warrant was not enough to get a new trial. United States v. Banks, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 14273 (4th Cir. June 12, 2024). The … Continue reading
NJ: Smell of MJ permits search of locked glovebox under automobile exception
The smell of marijuana permitted a search of a locked glove compartment in a car under the automobile exception without officers having to determine exactly where the smell was coming from. A locked glove compartment is not analogous to the … Continue reading
TN: Redacted SW affidavit came in at trial by agreement; not plain error
The affidavit for a search warrant was redacted and admitted as evidence at trial by agreement. The issue was waived and is subject to plain error review, and it’s not plain error. Even if it was, it was harmless error … Continue reading
ID: Still reasonable to rerun LPN information during stop, having done it earlier in day
Earlier in the day before the traffic stop, the officer had already run defendant’s LPN. It was reasonable to do it again during the stop, and this did not unconstitutionally lengthen the stop. State v. Tranmer, 2024 Ida. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: iCloud SW was particular to time and offenses
“The Court finds both the iCloud and Midwood Lumber Warrants were sufficiently particularized and tethered to the Affidavits’ probable cause showings, thereby meeting the Fourth Amendment’s requirements.” … “[I]he iCloud Warrant identifies the property to be searched as “information associated … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Affidavit accompanying cell phone SW provided particularity
If the affidavit accompanies the warrant it can cure particularity problems. Here it did. United States v. King, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103299 (D. Nev. June 11, 2024).* Plaintiff stated a claim for arrest without probable cause by the defendant … Continue reading
OH10: Alleged violation of prosecutor’s subpoena power not subject to exclusionary rule; also, subject matter was third party record
A violation of the state prosecuting attorney’s subpoena power in felony cases was not subject to the exclusionary rule. In addition, obtaining third party information from an IP address is not a search. State v. Diaw, 2024-Ohio-2237, 2024 Ohio App. … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: State law alleged defects in warrant process not applicable in federal court without showing why suppression is an appropriate remedy
A state search warrant was used to prosecute in federal court. Defendant raised numerous state law defects to the warrant that did not constitute Fourth Amendment violations. “Even if these warrants were procedurally deficient under state law, Gray has supplied … Continue reading
CA5: Psychological injuries can support a 4A claim; unintended shooting victim has claim
If the facts were resolved against the police here, they violated clearly-established Fourth Amendment law by unjustifiably shooting into an occupied house and hitting an intended victim. Also, psychological injuries may sustain a Fourth Amendment claim. No qualified immunity. Singleton … Continue reading
CA7: Manual border search of cell phone revealing CP was reasonable
Manual border search of defendant’s cell phone was reasonable and revealed child pornography, and that justification for a more intensive search. United States v. Mendez, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 14058 (7th Cir. June 10, 2024). Defendant rented his hotel room, … Continue reading
MN: Warrantless DNA swabbing of apt door violated curtilage
The warrantless DNA swabbing of defendant’s apartment door was within the curtilage because it required physical contact, which is different than a dog sniff. “Although members of the public and law-enforcement officers generally have an implied license to approach a … Continue reading
CA10: Kansas Pet Animal Act did not satisfy the closely regulated industries exception
The Kansas Pet Animal Act did not satisfy the closely-regulated-industries standards of Burger and Patel. Johnson v. Smith, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 14019 (10th Cir. June 10, 2024):