Archives
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Recent Posts
- 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
- CA8: Def’s connection to property searched was so tenuous he had no standing; no one claimed to know him
- D.Mass.: Inventory valid despite there being no impoundment policy
- CA6: The smell of burnt MJ in a car is still PC for driving under influence even where personal possession is legal.
- CA2: Failure to read a SW isn’t a 4A violation without overseizure
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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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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)
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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. 
Author Archives: Hall
S.D.N.Y.: SW affidavit not yet available to def merely for bail application
Defendant doesn’t get to see the affidavit for warrant yet just for his bail application because the government asserts the investigation is still ongoing. Discovery of child pornography was inadvertent, and the bail application isn’t a discovery device. The question … Continue reading
techdirt: Court Rejects Extremely Broad Google Search Warrant, Citing Both Carpenter And Riley
techdirt: Court Rejects Extremely Broad Google Search Warrant, Citing Both Carpenter And Riley by Tim Cushing. The case is State v. Grace from Ohio, posted here.
D.Alaska: Admin. inspections of intrastate goldmines are legal under Mine Safety and Health Act
The Mine Safety and Health Administration sought an inspection of the respondent goldmine based on safety complaints it had received. The Fourth Amendment does not require an administrative warrant for an inspection. “Regulatory inspections pursuant to the Mine Act are … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: “[T]here is no constitutional right to be free from arrest on the basis of illegally obtained evidence.”
“[T]here is no constitutional right to be free from arrest on the basis of illegally obtained evidence.” Santiago v. Swain, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 194607 (M.D. Fla. Oct. 31, 2023).* Plaintiff’s civil Franks claim fails because there was probable cause … Continue reading
NM: Too vague a description wasn’t RS for this stop, one mile from crime scene, 37-40 minutes later, vague description of car
“We view the totality of the circumstances at the time Deputy Ruiz seized Defendant through the lens of the district court’s factual finding that the suspect did not hide, as our standard of review requires. Based on the passage of … Continue reading
D.Minn.: There is no duty under Brady for officers executing a SW to seize exculpatory evidence, too
The government executed a search warrant for emails on defendant’s computer. The searching officers have no duty to seize exculpatory information when they execute the warrant. “All Brady requires is that if the prosecution seized those emails, it turn over … Continue reading
WaPo: This FISA provision goes beyond terrorism. It’s vital to beating the opioid crisis.
WaPo: This FISA provision goes beyond terrorism. It’s vital to beating the opioid crisis. by Rahul Gupta (“The U.S. government’s bedrock authority for staying ahead of international threats is about to expire. As the White House director of national drug … Continue reading
NYT: Cars Seized by Police Get Supreme Court Scrutiny in Civil Forfeiture Case
NYT: Cars Seized by Police Get Supreme Court Scrutiny in Civil Forfeiture Case by Adam Liptak (“Several justices seemed wary of allowing law enforcement officials to take vehicles used to commit crimes when their owners were not at fault.”) This … Continue reading
techdirt: Don’t Want To Be Part Of A Geofence Warrant Line-Up? You Have Options.
techdirt: Don’t Want To Be Part Of A Geofence Warrant Line-Up? You Have Options. by Tim Cushing (“Shira Ovide’s article for the Washington Post first details everything that’s extremely questionable about law enforcement’s reliance on geofence warrants. In a typical … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Nexus shown by car involved in controlled buys parked at def’s house
Defendant drove his vehicle to multiple controlled buys. The vehicle was usually parked at his home. That’s nexus. United States v. Brooks, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 193635 (N.D. Ohio Oct. 30, 2023). This child pornography affidavit for search warrant didn’t … Continue reading
CA4: No absolute immunity for a judge involved in search of ex’s property over their divorce
“We consider in this appeal whether a judge who participates in the search of a litigant’s home is entitled to judicial immunity for actions related to the search. Judge Louise Goldston went to Matthew Gibson’s residence to look for items … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Protective sweep unjustified on facts; rural area not enough
The protective sweep here wasn’t justified by any current facts justifying it. The government first relied on it being a rural area, but that’s rejected because it would render most of the country a zone where protective sweeps could always … Continue reading
CA11: SW for iCloud account from before crime even occurred sustained on good faith
Defendant’s cell phone was used to arrange a robbery. A search warrant was also obtained for defendant’s backup iCloud account before the robbery even occurred, and there was no probable cause for that. Yet, the Eleventh Circuit [some would say … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Just because legal conduct is mentioned in the SW affidavit does not mean it lacks PC otherwise shown
The inclusion of legal conduct in the affidavit for search warrant doesn’t make the warrant lack probable cause. There’s sufficient information otherwise. United States v. Reebel, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 192048 (N.D. Ohio Oct. 26, 2023). Defendant is accused of … Continue reading
IN: State could rely on alternative theory on appeal where record supports it
The state relied on inventory at trial and prevailed. On appeal it also relies on search incident. The record developed supports that, too. Cobb v. State, 2023 Ind. App. LEXIS 299 (Oct. 26, 2023). [In my state, it’s “right result, … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Non-authorized driver of rental car four hours late to return had no standing
Defendant was stopped driving a rental car four hours after the rental expired and he was not an authorized driver. He doesn’t show standing. United States v. Maiden, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 192555 (D. Minn. Sep. 5, 2023), adopted 2023 … Continue reading