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Recent Posts
- D.Colo.: Large volume of emails can be seized for later narrowing search and still be particular
- UT: State used SW to get defense expert’s computer data; ordered destroyed, but case not dismissed
- E.D.Mo.: Refusal to promptly ID oneself justified handcuffing during brief investigative detention
- OH2: Dog handler’s testimony of dog certification was sufficient to show reliability
- NY Queens: SW issuing court can narrow time to execute to avoid children at home
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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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] -
“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: May 2025
CA6: Two officers with separate PC can use one warrant
When two officers have separate probable cause to search, they don’t need separate search warrants, as long as the description covers their purpose. At least qualified immunity applies here. Fitzpatrick v. Hanney, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 13214 (6th Cir. May … Continue reading
N.D.Fla.: Police going to backyard with a drug dog violated curtilage
Officers went into defendant’s backyard with a drug dog and that unreasonably invaded the curtilage. United States v. Holland, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102751 (N.D. Fla. May 30, 2025):
D.Or.: Search of legal mail in prison is a 1A claim, not 4A
Reading a prisoner’s legal mail may violate the First Amendment, but he can’t show that it violated the Fourth Amendment because there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy in prison and nothing interfered with his cases. Lewis v. Conway, 2025 U.S. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: PC showing was thin, but good enough for the GFE
The probable cause showing was thin, but it was enough, and the good faith exception applies in any event. United States v. Mills, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102174 (E.D. Mich. May 29, 2025)*:
W.D.N.Y.: Protective sweep was unjustified, and SW based on what seen was suppressed
Defendant had managerial control over the business property searched enough that he had standing to challenge its search. The security sweep of the second floor was not reasonable and, to the USMJ, “ma[de] no sense”; there was no articulable reason … Continue reading
WSJ: Why AI May Be Listening In on Your Next Doctor’s Appointment
WSJ: Why AI May Be Listening In on Your Next Doctor’s Appointment by Lauro Landro (“New systems for documenting outpatient visits are adding features and moving into hospitals; ‘we are just scratching the surface’”)
NYT: Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans
NYT: Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans by Sheera Frenkel and Aaron Krolik (“In March, President Trump signed an executive order calling for the federal government to share data across agencies, raising questions over whether he might compile … Continue reading
Reason: Illinois Cops Gave ICE Access to More Than 5,000 Surveillance Cameras Nationwide
Reason: Illinois Cops Gave ICE Access to More Than 5,000 Surveillance Cameras Nationwide by Autumn Billings (“A public records request from the Danville, Illinois, police department obtained by 404 Media revealed that local and state police around the country searched … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Franks motion fails where a warrant exception applies
Defendant’s Franks motion fails because the government can justify a warrantless search of the vehicle under the automobile exception. United States v. Childs, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101370 (D.N.J. May 28, 2025). Plaintiff’s false arrest claim isn’t barred by Heck, … Continue reading
OH1: Drug dog’s instinctive jump into car window wasn’t unreasonable
The drug dog’s instinctive jump into the window of defendant’s car wasn’t initiated by the handler, so it wasn’t unreasonable. State v. Barton, 2025-Ohio-1904 (1st Dist. May 28, 2025) (2-1). “As already discussed, Parr had reason to believe Defendant was … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: FinCEN’s SWB GTO for financial reporting enjoined for APA reasons; 4A not reached yet
FinCEN’s Southwest Border Geographic Targeting Order (SWB GTO) for enhanced reporting requirements in certain zip codes appears to have been adopted without proper authority under the Administrative Procedure Act. The Fourth Amendment claim is deferred until later as unnecessary at … Continue reading
TX5: No standing in a house where def under a no contact order to stay out
Defendant had no standing to contest the search of a house he was under a no contact order to stay away from. Yet, he was found there. Coggins v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 3587 (Tex. App. – Dallas May … Continue reading
MO: Uncorroborated anonymous tip wasn’t PC and GFE doesn’t apply
Uncorroborated anonymous tip: “Because the affidavit relies almost entirely on an uncorroborated anonymous tip and includes no information regarding the tipster’s reliability or the specific details of the anonymous tip, it failed to supply the warrant-issuing judge with a reasonable … Continue reading
MT: No RS for continued stop, but def consented to it
The officer’s observation of “a driver’s nervousness, an unspecified prior history of drug use, and the officer’s assertion that the driver failed to pull over quickly enough do not alone combine to show particularized suspicion of illegal drug activity.” Nevertheless, … Continue reading
The Intercept: U.S. Spy Agencies Are Getting a One-Stop Shop to Buy Your Most Sensitive Personal Data
The Intercept: U.S. Spy Agencies Are Getting a One-Stop Shop to Buy Your Most Sensitive Personal Data by Sam Biddle (“The ever-growing market for personal data has been a boon for American spy agencies. The U.S. intelligence community is now … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: A helpful history of national security searches in Page v. Comey
For a helpful history of national security searches, see Page v. Comey, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 12547 (D.C. Cir. May 23, 2025). Pro se doctor plaintiff failed to object to USMJ’s F.R.C.P. 12(b)(6) recommendation, do it’s waived. Pompy v. First … Continue reading