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Recent Posts
- CA6: ChatGPT’s opinion that evidence was “newly discovered” for a successor habeas is wrong
- N.D.Cal.: Tribe’s suit over overbroad SW can proceed
- DE: Warrantless entry in DUI case unreasonable
- E.D.Ark.: Ptf stated claim for SW entry without proper announcement
- E.D.Ky.: Being a lookout vehicle at a crime is RS
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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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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)
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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
CA4: GFE applied to SW application without PC but where two state court warrants followed up based on it
The government concedes there was no probable cause for the search warrant here, but two state judges also renewed the warrants based on the first one. That’s good faith. United States v. Jordan, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 2655 (4th Cir. … Continue reading
NY3: No-knock permitted by circumstances at scene
The warrant application and warrant did not mention no-knock, but the facts and circumstances at the scene justified it. People v. Hayward, 2023 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 464, 2023 NY Slip Op 00461 (3d Dept. Feb. 2, 2023). Exigency justified … Continue reading
Miami Herald: Florida athletes may have to submit menstrual history to school
Miami Herald: Florida athletes may have to submit menstrual history to school. Anybody see a Fourth Amendment issue here, or is it just me?
W.D.N.C.: Def must state phone is his to have standing to contest SW
Without acknowledging the cell phone police searched was his, defendant did not show standing to contest the search. Even so, the use of forensic software to bypass the password protection on the phone didn’t make the search unreasonable. United States … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: Frisk by security at a bar was purely private search
Defendant was frisked by security entering a bar, and a gun was found. They kept it for the police. This was purely a private search. United States v. Wood, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 16555 (W.D.N.C. Feb. 1, 2023). The district … Continue reading
CA11: Stop on RS can’t go on indef
A stop on reasonable suspicion cannot go on indefinitely. Here, there was video of an encounter but defendant deleted it from the phone of the victim. She’d sent it to another before that, and she was trying to get it … Continue reading
NJ: Dispatcher’s mistake in BOLO on race of bank robber was attributable to officers and this “implicit bias” can make def’s case of pretext
NJ recognizes pretext, and the dispatcher’s wrong assumption that a bank robber was Black when race was never mentioned is attributable to the officer on the street making the stop. This mistake with “implicit bias” can be a basis for … Continue reading
IL: Circumstances made SW affidavit admissible at trial
The trial court abused its discretion in not permitting the defense to use the search warrant affidavit at trial that showed the warrant was targeting another person for other things other than what was found. The court cautions this may … Continue reading
Professional Responsibility in Criminal Defense Practice (4th ed. 2023) now on Westlaw
The author’s Professional Responsibility in Criminal Defense Practice (4th ed. 2023) uploaded to Westlaw this morning. The book and ebook will be on the Thomson Reuters bookstore shortly. The table of contents is here. The first edition was published in … Continue reading
IN: Fundamental (plain) error of S&S claims requires the evidence be fabricated, not just unconstitutionally obtained
The fundamental error avenue to appeal an unobjected to search and seizure claim requires a showing that the evidence was all fabricated, not just that the search was bad. Evidence obtained by search and seizure is usually highly relevant to … Continue reading
USA Today: A camera mounted on a light pole took video of police beating Tyre Nichols. What to know about ‘SkyCop.’
USA Today: A camera mounted on a light pole took video of police beating Tyre Nichols. What to know about ‘SkyCop.’ by Claire Thornton:
Galveston Co. Daily News: Galveston SWAT team wrecks wrong house in search for wrong suspect
The Galveston Co. Daily News: Galveston SWAT team wrecks wrong house in search for wrong suspect by Trace Harris:
E.D.Cal.: Def had standing in car he was driving with permission of owner
As the driver of the car and the person with lawful possession, defendant had standing to challenge the search of the car he didn’t own. The GPS warrant for it was based on probable cause, and the warrant for firearms … Continue reading
D.Haw.: Specific exigency not required for automobile exception search
Defendant’s car could be searched under the automobile exception while it was parked at his mother’s condo. Exigency isn’t specifically required. United States v. Chan, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14062 (D. Haw. Jan. 27, 2023).* Even if defendant’s otherwise objectively … Continue reading
Orin S. Kerr, Terms of Service and Fourth Amendment Rights on SSRN
Orin S. Kerr, Terms of Service and Fourth Amendment Rights on SSRN:
GA: Sound of shuffling of feet after announcement of raid justified entry in 3 seconds; no weapons found
Officers entered within about three seconds after announcing and hearing shuffling of feet. Defendant was sitting on the couch, and there were no firearms. The test is whether there is a reasonable possible fear of firearms in the house that … Continue reading
WY: In felony domestic battery case, state showed nexus that evidence could likely be found in def’s journal
Defendant was convicted of strangulation of a family member. The family member reported to the police that he had been in counseling and was keeping a detailed journal trying to break the cycle of domestic abuse. The affidavit for the … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Search warrant affiant’s reference to water emoji wasn’t false or misleading; it here referred to meth, not sex
Defendant’s Franks motion fails. Defendants’ use of a water emoji could have been a reference to sex, but it could also be a reference to methamphetamine, as has come up in police training and in other cases such as United … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Allowing theft from house after a search had a state remedy, so no § 1983 remedy
Plaintiff alleged the Sheriff’s Office, after a search, gave the keys to his place to a convicted felon who stole from him. He has a state remedy, not a § 1983 remedy. Stone v. Taylor Cty. Sheriff Dep’t, 2023 U.S. … Continue reading