Archives
-
Recent Posts
- OH1: SW for residence justified seizure of text messages about drug transactions received during execution of warrant
- Cal.2: CA OSHA had the authority to subpoena records over a workplace death, but this one was overbroad
- 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
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
-
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
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)
-
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
Privacy Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
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)
-
“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
D.C.Cir.: FAA drone registration requirement violates no REP
The FAA rule requiring all drones when flying to transmit information about themselves violates no reasonable expectation of privacy. They operate in public airspace, which the federal government controls, and the rule requires a digital license plate but only electronically … Continue reading
USA Today: A lawyer in your pocket: Apps aim to change traffic stops forever with legal advice, live-streaming
USA Today: A lawyer in your pocket: Apps aim to change traffic stops forever with legal advice, live-streaming (“A review released this year of national police data gathered by the nonprofit Mapping Police Violence found police in the U.S. have … Continue reading
Reason: Pennsylvania Poaching Police Warrantlessly Installed Camera on Private Land To Surveil Hunting Club
Reason: Pennsylvania Poaching Police Warrantlessly Installed Camera on Private Land To Surveil Hunting Club by Jon Lancaster (“Evidence turned over in a lawsuit shows that wildlife officers set up a trail camera at a private club to surveil hunters who … Continue reading
Reason: What Is the FBI Trying To Hide About Its Raid on Innocent Americans’ Safe Deposit Boxes?
Reason: What Is the FBI Trying To Hide About Its Raid on Innocent Americans’ Safe Deposit Boxes? by Eric Boehm (“Federal prosecutors want to keep key details about the planning and execution of the March 2021 raid at U.S. Private … Continue reading
TX finally approves of anticipatory warrants
Texas high court finally approves of anticipatory warrants. Parker v. State, 2022 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 470 (July 27, 2022). On his motion for reconsideration, defendant’s Franks challenge still fails. There’s probable cause without the challenged information. “Courts long have … Continue reading
CA10: Arrest outside officer’s jurisdiction irrelevant under 4A
Even if the officer arrests plaintiff outside the jurisdiction, state law is irrelevant under the Fourth Amendment. The search incident to the arrest was valid. Frey v. Town of Jackson, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 20652 (10th Cir. July 26, 2022). … Continue reading
AZ: No REP in a police interrogation room
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a police interrogation room when a suspect is talking to anybody except their lawyer. State v. Allen, 2022 Ariz. LEXIS 235 (July 26, 2022). The defendant argues no reasonable suspicion for his … Continue reading
CA9: Having handgun in open carry state not RS without more
Washington is an open carry state, and the allegation defendant had a weapon on him was insufficient for a stop without some showing he was a danger to others per state law. United States v. Willy, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
D.S.D.: SW for shallow grave didn’t describe location well enough to easily find it, but GFE applies
The warrant’s direction to search for a shallow grave was not particularly described, and it was found a mile away from where the warrant directed. The attachment wasn’t incorporated. Still, however, the good faith exception applies. This was negligent at … Continue reading
Don’t take CP on a cash run
One search led to another. United States v. Orozco, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 20390 (4th Cir. July 25, 2022):
MI: Extending stop for photographs and fingerprints unreasonable
The Grand Rapids PD’s policy of photographing and fingerprinting people without probable cause or reasonable suspicion in a Terry stop violated the Fourth Amendment. It was a trespass on the body. Johnson v. Vanderkooi, 2022 Mich. LEXIS 1359 (July 22, … Continue reading
NE: State showed exigency for warrantless blood draw
Driver’s going in and out of consciousness at the scene of a wreck was probable cause for a blood draw. Medical treatment at ER would interfere with it. “This case presents a textbook case of exigent circumstances under Mitchell.” State … Continue reading
D.N.M.: SW for computer files created in a one week period was particular
The warrant here was for computer files created in a one week period. That was particular. United States v. Riego, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130233 (D.N.M. July 22, 2022). The district court’s findings of fact support the finding of exigent … Continue reading
CA6: Sex offender’s being around children justified parole search of house
A report that a sex offender had been around children is reasonable suspicion for a parole search of his house. United States v. Sharp, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 20291 (6th Cir. July 22, 2022). “Davis contends that the search was … Continue reading
S.D.Iowa: Video surveillance of an apartment door from a camera planted in a common area was subject to GFE
Officers planted a video camera hidden in a fake fire alarm in defendant’s apartment building hallway aimed at his door to record his comings and goings. The government argues whether this was reasonable doesn’t need to be decided because, even … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Saying police couldn’t search when it hadn’t yet come up was part of PC on totality
Defendant was stopped for an LPN that didn’t match the vehicle. Defendant’s name came back as having 20 felonies, and the officer recognized him from arresting him for drugs two weeks earlier. Before any officer mentioned searching the vehicle, defendant … Continue reading
CA9: While RS for owner evaporated because he wasn’t in car, independent RS developed for driver
The officer had reasonable suspicion that the owner of a vehicle parked at a gas station had a warrant. When he stopped the vehicle, the officer discovered that the owner of the vehicle was not there, but independent reasonable suspicion … Continue reading
CA8: Vehicle inventory after arrest on outstanding warrant was reasonable
Defendant was arrested by tribal and federal officers on an outstanding warrant. The inventory search of his vehicle thereafter followed policy and was reasonable. United States v. Blacksmith, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 20084 (8th Cir. July 21, 2022).* “Accordingly, considering … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: RS not required for knock-and-talk
Reasonable suspicion is not required for a knock-and-talk. United States v. Raley, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128634 (W.D. Ky. July 20, 2022). The officer ran defendant’s LPN and it came back with “verify proof of insurance status.” That justified the … Continue reading