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- 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)
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)
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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
D.Mont.: A helpful summary of how to look at a potential Franks challenge
United States v. Howard, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101989 (D. Mont. June 7, 2024):
wired: The Age of the Drone Police Is Here
wired: The Age of the Drone Police Is Here (“In Chula Vista, drone flight paths trace a map of the city’s inequality, with poorer residents experiencing far more exposure to the drones’ cameras and rotors than their wealthier counterparts, a … Continue reading
CA3: Failure to provide a complete list of all that was seized under a warrant wasn’t justification for suppression
Failure to provide a complete list of all that was seized under a warrant wasn’t justification for suppression. United States v. Jackson, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 13913 (3d Cir. June 7, 2024). The dashcam video supported the claim defendant was … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Calling in wrong LPN made stop unreasonable
Defendant’s stop based on a mistaken belief the vehicle was stolen was not objectively reasonable when it was based on calling in the wrong number. United States v. Fields, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99668 (D. Minn. June 5, 2024), rejecting … Continue reading
CA9: Fact question shooting ptf’s decedent without warning who wasn’t posing threat was potentially unreasonable
The district court’s grant of qualified immunity is reversed. There are factual disputes for trial that the shooting death of plaintiff’s decedent was unreasonable because he presented no threat and was shot without warning. Calonge v. City of San Jose, … Continue reading
CA10: No REP in fire scene premises totally destroyed
Taking of photographs of a fire scene of a mobile home that burned to the ground was not a Fourth Amendment violation. There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in the remains. United States v. Hernandez, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: There was RS for def’s border cell phone search for drug importation
While the law isn’t completely clear on the justification for a cell phone search at the border, the justification for either standard is satisfied. There was clearly reasonable suspicion of drug importing at JFK for search of his cell phone. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Parole cell phone search under MN law was reasonable under 4A
Defendant’s parole cell phone search under Minnesota law was reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Guevara, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 100403 (D. Minn. June 6, 2024). Driving one’s car to controlled buys gives probable cause for the vehicle. … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Prison shakedown search that included strip searches was reasonable
Prison shakedown search that included strip searches was reasonable. “The foregoing sufficiently demonstrates the fittingness of these strip searches under the Fourth Amendment. These routine strip searches, which occur only twice per year, require the upheaval of all prisoners and … Continue reading
CA11: Shooting ptf’s dog gets no QI here
Alleged unnecessary shooting of plaintiff’s dog stated claim with no qualified immunity. Plowright v. Miami Dade Cty., 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 13613 (11th Cir. June 5, 2024):
Va. Lawyers Weekly: Automatic license plate reader data suppressed
Trial court order: Va. Lawyers Weekly: Automatic license plate reader data suppressed by Nick Hurston (“A trial court found that Norfolk’s newly installed automatic license plate reader, or ALPR, camera system constituted a Fourth Amendment search and granted a defendant’s … Continue reading
NYT: Is Your Driving Being Secretly Scored?
NY Times: Is Your Driving Being Secretly Scored? by Kashmir Hill (“The insurance industry, hungry for insights into how people drive, has turned to automakers and smartphone apps like Life360.”) Almost a cloud based black box for your car.
CA9: “[T]he Fourth Amendment does not require a warrant to arrest a parole violator.”
“[T]he Fourth Amendment does not require a warrant to arrest a parole violator.” United States v. Carpenter, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 13596 (9th Cir. June 5, 2024). The CI for the warrant is not disclosable under Roviaro. United States v. … Continue reading
CA11: Excessive force claim against HSI barred by Bivens/Egbert
Federal regulations permit FTCA actions for excessive force claims, so Bivens/Egbert bar this claim. Wimberly v. Selent, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 13557 (11th Cir. June 5, 2024). Defendant provided nothing to show he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in … Continue reading
N.D.Ala.: Def insisted on counsel raising arguments that were “wholly and unequivocally lack[ing] merit”
Just because the client insists on defense counsel making a frivolous Fourth Amendment argument doesn’t mean counsel should raise it. “Counsel for Temple suggested during the suppression hearing that the first four arguments are ‘north of frivolous’ but acknowledged the … Continue reading
W.D.Ark.: 4A § 1983 case stayed under Younger for ptf to litigate in state court
“Here, Plaintiff seeks compensatory and punitive damages for his improper search, seizure, and entrapment claims. Plaintiff has not alleged he is prevented from bringing his ‘entrapment,” search and seizure claims in state court. Accordingly, it is appropriate, pursuant to the … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: “Furtive movements can support reasonable suspicion that an individual is armed, justifying a frisk.”
“Furtive movements can support reasonable suspicion that an individual is armed, justifying a frisk. Moorefield, 111 F.3d at 14. An officer ‘need not be absolutely certain’ that movements are an attempt to ‘hide narcotics or a firearm’ for ‘the issue … Continue reading
CA11: Excessive force claim against USMS Fugitive Task Force barred by Egbert and Bivens
USMS Fugitive Task Force shot and killed a person they were arresting. Under Egbert, there’s no Bivens claim here. Robinson v. Sauls, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 13432 (11th Cir. June 4, 2024) (another death knell for Bivens). Defendant abandoned his … Continue reading