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Recent Posts
- Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
- E.D.Mich.: Second SW for cell phone data retained by govt was valid
- S.D.W.Va.: “Shocking” nature of immigration raid on a Mexican restaurant at lunchtime didn’t warrant suppression
- S.D.N.Y.: Stop on an NYPD I-card showing PC was reasonable
- ID: Drug dog’s touching nose on the car door was not a trespass
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
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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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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: September 2026
E.D.Cal.: Ptf doesn’t sufficiently allege access to private medical information violated 4A
“Plaintiff alleges that Defendants Oakden and Reynolds’s ‘unlawful access to private medical information’ violated Plaintiff’s Fourth Amendment rights. FAC at 4. Plaintiff’s vague and conclusory allegations are insufficient to establish a violation of the Fourth Amendment. See Iqbal, 556 U.S. … Continue reading
404 Media: Surveillance Company Wants to Add Facial Recognition to Flock Cameras
404 Media: Surveillance Company Wants to Add Facial Recognition to Flock Cameras by Jason Kobler (keep in mind it only requires a software update):
Reason: AI Facial Recognition Didn’t Put This Tennessee Grandma in Jail for 6 Months. Bad Policing Did.
Reason: AI Facial Recognition Didn’t Put This Tennessee Grandma in Jail for 6 Months. Bad Policing Did. by Autumn Billings (“Angela Lipps is suing for $10 million after a Fargo police detective ignored evidence that she was innocent and arrested … Continue reading
TX14: RS doesn’t even require an identifiable crime
Reasonable suspicion doesn’t even require that the officer has to articulate what crime is happening or about to happen. Williams v. State, 2026 Tex. App. LEXIS 9076 (Tex. App. – Houston (14th Dist.) Sep. 29, 2026):
Jail searches: (1) body scan led to SW for body cavity search and (2) biometric scans reasonable
Plaintiff was subjected to an electronic body scan that led to a body cavity search with a warrant for an apparent mass inside him. This search was reasonable. Brown v. Suess, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 220823 (W.D.N.Y. Sep. 28, 2026). … Continue reading
D.Haw.: Ex parte communications about SW issuance don’t require later recusal
The fact there were ex parte communications with a judge about a wiretap warrant doesn’t require recusal of the judge. United States v. Kobayashi, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 220121 (D. Haw. Sep. 28, 2026). Plaintiff can’t show causation for his … Continue reading
CA5: Bogus traffic stop can’t support frisk
Plaintiff plausibly alleged a bogus traffic stop and so the frisk lacked reasonable suspicion and violated the Fourth Amendment. This is clearly established law. Rosales v. Lewis, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 29016 (5th Cir. Sep. 22, 2026). (Reason article here.) … Continue reading
Jezebel: One Piece of Flock Camera Data Put This Innocent Woman in Jail for 13 Days
Jezebel: One Piece of Flock Camera Data Put This Innocent Woman in Jail for 13 Days by Jim Vorel (“Police didn’t care that Lindsey Isaacs’ car was the wrong color, and wasn’t damaged. They still arrested her because of Flock … Continue reading
CA3: Coast-to-coast collective knowledge
Investigators in Pennsylvania could rely on another investigator at UCLA and combine their information for probable cause. United States v. Carter, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 29575 (3d Cir. Sep. 25, 2026). Petitioner’s 2255 Franks challenge fails to “plausibly allege” falsity. … Continue reading
Reason: Border Agents Search Phones Without Warrants. This Case Asks the Supreme Court if That’s Constitutional
Reason: Border Agents Search Phones Without Warrants. This Case Asks the Supreme Court if That’s Constitutional by Tosin Akintola (“Federal appeals courts differ on whether the Fourth Amendment protects your cellphone at the border. A Texas lawyer is asking the … Continue reading
The Economist: Why licence-plate readers are angering Americans
The Economist: Why licence-plate readers are angering Americans (“ALPRs are not new: local governments have long used them to collect tolls and enforce traffic laws. More recently, activists on the left protested against their use by federal immigration authorities. Donald … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Typo in list of crimes being investigated in affidavit for SW could be overlooked
A typo in the affidavit for warrant including murder as one of the crimes under investigation could be overlooked. United States v. Pokorny, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 217899 (N.D. Cal. Sep. 24, 2026). Patdown searches are a part of institutional … Continue reading
MN: Risk of destruction of evidence was exigency for seizure of cell phone
The exigency for seizure of defendant’s cell phone pending getting a warrant was risk of destruction of evidence. State v. Laflex, 2026 Minn. LEXIS 592 (Sep. 23, 2026). Furtive movements add to reasonable suspicion. Ex parte Lucio, 2026 Tex. Crim. … Continue reading
CA4: Use of a cell-site simulator to locate def was a search under the 4A
“We hold that the use of the cell-site simulator constituted a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. We conclude, however, that the detectives are entitled to qualified immunity and state law public official immunity, and that the Baltimore … Continue reading
TX: If electronic search was illegal, it was harmless
The court of appeals applied the wrong standard for harm analysis from an alleged Fourth Amendment violation. The alleged illegal search of his electronics didn’t have that much to do with the fact defendant was convicted of smothering his child. … Continue reading
CA: Two SWs for ballots alleging no crime
In Bonta v. Bianco, S295901 (Cal. Sep. 24, 2026), the California Supreme Court dealt with two search warrants to seize ballots from a prior election. The AG of California ordered the return of the ballots because the warrant application specified … Continue reading
GA: Raising particularity in half of one sentence of argument isn’t a presentation of the issue
Raising particularity in half of one sentence of argument isn’t a presentation of the issue. Walker v. State, 2026 Ga. LEXIS 301 (Sep. 22, 2026). Defendant admitted that marijuana might be in the car, so the smell of marijuana which … Continue reading
Reason: Homeland Security Is Monitoring Activists Building Anti-Flock Tech
Reason: Homeland Security Is Monitoring Activists Building Anti-Flock Tech by Daniel Boguslaw (“Department of Homeland Security (DHS) fusion centers have started monitoring anti-surveillance activists, according to records obtained by Reason. An intelligence report compiled in Massachusetts and redistributed by a … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Def can’t repackage a losing 4A standing claim into a due process claim
A defendant can’t repackage a losing Fourth Amendment standing claim into a due process claim, at least via a 2255. United States v. Vega, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 214580 (W.D. Pa. Sep. 22, 2026):