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Recent Posts
- CA11: Possession of firearm in high crime area not RS
- CO courts can issue subpoenas for out-of-state records
- Cal.4: School resource officers need RS for a weapons search in school
- FL2: Direction to roll down car window wasn’t seizure
- E.D.Mich.: Odor of burnt visible MJ is sufficient under federal law to establish PC
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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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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)
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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. 
Author Archives: Hall
CA11: Possession of firearm in high crime area not RS
Possession of a firearm in one’s pocket in an open carry state is not reasonable suspicion. Being in a high crime area adds nothing to that. United States v. Joseph, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 27723 (11th Cir. Sep. 9, 2026). … Continue reading
CO courts can issue subpoenas for out-of-state records
Colorado courts have jurisdiction to issue subpoenas for out-of-state records. Citation of the wrong statute in the application didn’t make it void. People v. Jargowsky, 2026 COA 66 (Sep. 3, 2026). There was no probable cause for this warrant for … Continue reading
FL2: Direction to roll down car window wasn’t seizure
“The trial court found that ‘the totality of the circumstances’ and the holding in Greider mandated suppression because asking Fuchs to roll down his window converted the consensual welfare check into an unlawful investigatory stop. We disagree.” State v. Fuchs, … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Odor of burnt visible MJ is sufficient under federal law to establish PC
The odor of burnt marijuana and visible marijuana is sufficient under federal law to establish probable cause. United States v. Brewer, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 197712 (E.D. Mich. Sep. 1, 2026). Defendant’s Franks challenge that the CIs were liars fails–the … Continue reading
DC: Def on supervision before sentencing had no REP in GPS monitoring
Defendant was on high intensity supervision with GPS for his current conviction, but he hadn’t yet been sentenced. Officers didn’t need a warrant to obtain his GPS data. “This case involves a defendant who had been adjudicated guilty, and PSA … Continue reading
FL4: Officer’s two-hour delay in seeking BAC SW wasn’t itself exigency
Officers called a state’s attorney for advice on a BAC blood draw and were told to get a warrant. After waiting two hours, they decided they had exigent circumstances. Suppressed and affirmed. State v. Marlin, 2026 Fla. App. LEXIS 6797 … Continue reading
FL2: No 4A right to avoid public records disclosure after suppression of search
Florida has constitutional and statutory public records laws. A target of a search doesn’t have a Fourth Amendment right to prevent public disclosure of the product of a search of his place and things even when the search was unlawful. … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: No 2255 discovery of SW materials based on mere speculation
In this 2255, petitioner doesn’t get discovery of his search warrant materials. “The Government responds that Wilson ‘has failed to provide good cause as to why he is entitled to the materials that he requests’ and instead, he ‘only speculates … Continue reading
CA4: No REP in stolen car without showing it was obtained innocently
One has no reasonable expectation of privacy in a stolen vehicle, unless he can show he acquired it innocently. United States v. Starner, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 26653 (4th Cir. Aug. 31, 2026). In this soliciting minors for sex case, … Continue reading
CA3: Officers made reasonable effort to determine whether house was multi-use
Defendant lived on the second floor of a house that was not zoned as an apartment building and had no outward appearance there were separate residences. The warrant was for the whole place. The downstairs resident wasn’t the person they … Continue reading
NACDL webinar: “Chatrie and what happens next” on 9/10
NACDL member webinar: Chatrie and what happens next, Thursday Sept. 10, 2-3pm ET. This is limited to all criminal defense lawyers: Program Summary: The Supreme Court held in Chatrie that the government’s use of a “geofence warrant” to obtain Google … Continue reading
CA8: SW affidavit can’t be supplemented, but a revised one can be filed
In the Eighth Circuit at least, the government can’t supplement a search warrant affidavit. Here, however, they submitted a revised affidavit which clarified what amounts to an immaterial fact. Affirmed. United States v. Smith, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 26544 (8th … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: PC for CSLI shown
Explaining how probable cause was shown for CSLI is United States v. Maragh, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 195812 (W.D. Pa. Aug. 31, 2026),* and, of course, the good faith exception would apply, too:
IL5: Community caretaking exception doesn’t support home searches
“Given the above precedent, we disagree with the State that the community caretaking doctrine remains a viable purpose for a warrantless entry into a home. Instead, we believe that the Caniglia decision clearly rejected the community caretaking exception outside of … Continue reading
ID: Hospital collecting umbilical cord blood conducted a private search
A hospital collecting umbilical cord blood after a birth was not a state actor nor acting at law enforcement’s request or suggestion. This was a private search, and the blood tested positive for drugs. State v. Kawano, 2026 Ida. LEXIS … Continue reading
GA: Facebook warrant was way overbroad and should have been suppressed, but harmless on whole record
The search warrant for defendant’s Facebook account was overbroad where it sought ten months of information where the alleged crime was only over a couple of days and covered “illegal activities.” Despite the illegal search, the conviction is affirmed because … Continue reading
WaPo: Americans have turned against police cameras that track license plates, new survey shows
WaPo: Americans have turned against police cameras that track license plates, new survey shows by Drew Harwell, Douglas MacMillan, Aaron Schaffer and Kevin Crowe (“Fearing the potential for invasive monitoring or abuse, more people now oppose law enforcement’s use of … Continue reading