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Recent Posts
- N.D.Tex.: AUSA can summarize what the gov’t knows for SW application
- S.D.N.Y.: No right to quash SCA warrant before execution; remedies are after
- S.D.N.Y.: SW not based on mere speculation
- D.Mont.: Officers had RS for stop; it wasn’t based on the race of the suspects
- M.D.Pa.: SW for phone 19 months after alleged crimes showed PC
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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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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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"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 2026
404 Media: Cops Keep Getting Arrested for Using Flock to Stalk People
404 Media: Cops Keep Getting Arrested for Using Flock to Stalk People by Jason KoEbler (“There have been more than a dozen cases around the country where police use Flock to obsessively and illegally stalk people.”)
Cal.1: Entry by robot, drone, tear gas, and flash bang was with PC after def refused to come out on a SW and AW
To arrest the defendant on a warrant and with a search warrant, the SWAT team surrounded his house. They used a robot, drone, tear gas, and a flash bang sent into the apartment. He finally came out and surrendered. Despite … Continue reading
CA8: Def’s connection to property searched was so tenuous he had no standing; no one claimed to know him
“Where the only witness testifying that defendant was an overnight guest (1) initially denied knowing defendant on the day of arrest, (2) had a prior conviction for filing a false police report, (3) could not provide basic information about defendant … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Inventory valid despite there being no impoundment policy
Despite the local police having no formal impoundment policy, defendant’s vehicle was impounded with their permission and inventoried by the FBI. The impoundment was still reasonable. United States v. Richards, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126028 (D. Mass. June 8, 2026). … Continue reading
CA2: Failure to read a SW isn’t a 4A violation without overseizure
Failure to read a warrant before execution isn’t a Fourth Amendment violation without an overseizure. The cell phone warrant here had search of the cell phone crossed out, permitting only seizure at first. The executing officers didn’t know it had … Continue reading
NY3: Cannabis stores are closely regulated businesses
Regulatory inspections of cannabis stores is reasonable and not a violation of the Fourth Amendment. They are closely regulated under Burger, and the extent of inspections is limited. Matter of Super Smoke N Save LLC v. N.Y. State Cannabis Control … Continue reading
D.Haw.: It wasn’t objectively reasonable that def’s bag had been abandoned
It was not objectively reasonable for officers to believe that defendant’s blue bag was abandoned property when it was searched. They didn’t even have a good faith belief it was abandoned, so the motion to suppress is granted. United States … Continue reading
D.R.I.: Defense attorney’s affidavit for Franks motion was insufficient for lack of personal knowledge
The defense attorney’s affidavit for defendant’s Franks motion is insufficient because he had no direct knowledge. There was probable cause for the warrant. United States v. Rosario, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125981 (D.R.I. June 8, 2026). Protective sweep for a … Continue reading
Philadelphia Inquirer: Two Philadelphia police officers stopped hundreds of Black men on the street. Lawyers say the stops were illegal and racially biased.
Philadelphia Inquirer: Two Philadelphia police officers stopped hundreds of Black men on the street. Lawyers say the stops were illegal and racially biased. by Jillian Kramer (“Prosecutors have dismissed at least 24 firearms cases after defense lawyers challenged the legality … Continue reading
Reason: Iowa Man Seen in Viral Body Camera Footage Wins $105,000 Wrongful Arrest Lawsuit
Reason: Iowa Man Seen in Viral Body Camera Footage Wins $105,000 Wrongful Arrest Lawsuit by Autumn Billings (“After nearly four years of legal battles, Tayvin Galanakis has finally won his case against the officers who arrested him for allegedly driving … Continue reading
Wired: Wrongful Arrest Exposes Failures in One of the Oldest Police Face-Recognition Tools in the US
Wired: Wrongful Arrest Exposes Failures in One of the Oldest Police Face-Recognition Tools in the US by Dell Cameron (“A Florida man was wrongfully arrested for attempting to illegally lure a child after police relied on a face-recognition match that … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: ALPR information helped support RS
There was reasonable suspicion for the dog sniff during this stop based on prior knowledge, a GPS placed with a prior warrant, and APLR reports of where the vehicle was that day showing it went where expected for alleged drug … Continue reading
D.S.D.: If def testifies to show standing, he can be asked about his association with the drugs found
If defendant testifies at the suppression hearing to show his reasonable expectation of privacy, he opens the door to being asked about whether the drugs were his and his full association with the room [despite Simmons, which is not even … Continue reading
IL: A backpack is not as personal a repository of stuff as a purse or wallet; officers ordered it left in vehicle for safety reasons and it was inventoried
Defendant’s backpack is not as much a personal repository as a wallet or purse. When officers ordered the occupants out of the car, the backpack was at defendant’s feet, and he was ordered to leave it behind. The inventory was … Continue reading
DE: Cell phone SW was limited by time and data sought, so it was not a general warrant
The warrant for defendant’s cell phone was not for “any and all data,” and it was limited to a specific time frame, July 20, 2020 to November 30, 2021. Officers found a video of defendant having sex with a minor. … Continue reading
MD: Under Bruen, mere possession of a handgun outside the home is no longer RS; Terry stop doesn’t include looking in a bag
Bruen changed the law, and possession of a firearm outside the home is no longer reasonable suspicion for an investigative stop. Also, a Terry stop is a patdown of clothing, not looking into a bag being carried. Hicks v. State, … Continue reading
MO: When officers came with an arrest warrant, def’s admission he had a firearm justified the entry
Officers came to defendant’s house with an arrest warrant. When they entered they asked him about any weapons in the house before a protective sweep. He directed them to a gun in the bedroom. That was all reasonable and inevitable … Continue reading
PA: Shining flashlight into hole in a shoebox was a search; there was a REP in the closed box
An officer responded to an overdose call to back up EMS. While in defendant’s house, he shined his flashlight through a manufacturer’s hole in a shoebox to look inside. This was an unreasonable search because defendant had a reasonable expectation … Continue reading
CA5: Accidentally shooting the man who disarmed the shooter from a residence was not a constitutional violation
“This is a tragic case of mistaken identity. A police officer believed he was targeting a gunman who had been firing on police from a residence. Instead, he shot and badly wounded a man who had disarmed the actual shooter … Continue reading