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- IL: A backpack is not as personal a repository of stuff as a purse or wallet; officers ordered it left in vehicle for safety reasons and it was inventoried
- DE: Cell phone SW was limited by time and data sought, so it was not a general warrant
- MD: Under Bruen, mere possession of a handgun outside the home is no longer RS; Terry stop doesn’t include looking in a bag
- MO: When officers came with an arrest warrant, def’s admission he had a firearm justified the entry
- PA: Shining flashlight into hole in a shoebox was a search; there was a REP in the closed box
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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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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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
OH12: No reason why a federal search warrant can’t result in a state prosecution
A federal search warrant produced the drugs in question, and they were not inadmissible for that reason in a state prosecution. State v. Hana, 2024-Ohio-5548, 2024 Ohio App. LEXIS 4234 (12th Dist. Nov. 25, 2024). The trial court found that … Continue reading
CA6: Defense counsel not ineffective for not forecasting Carpenter three years early
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not forecasting Carpenter years before it was decided. Cooper v. United States, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 29853 (6th Cir. Nov. 22, 2024).* Defendant was on parole for a child exploitation offense, and he was polygraphed … Continue reading
CA2: No less intrusive measures requirement before seeking CSLI
“The CSLI and cell-site simulator warrants provided evidence of the general and specific location of one of Brown’s cell phones and, therefore, of Brown’s likely movements between his indictment and arrest. Brown contends that investigators procured these warrants by falsely … Continue reading
Salon: “It is a weapon”: Ronan Farrow discusses the spyware in our pockets in “Surveilled”
Salon: “It is a weapon”: Ronan Farrow discusses the spyware in our pockets in “Surveilled” by Gary M. Kramer (“You never know [spyware] was there. It copies everything on your phone and it leaves” … “The cogent documentary, ‘Surveilled,’ now … Continue reading
techdirt: Two Missouri Cops Are Facing Criminal Charges For Helping Themselves To Nude Photos Found On Drivers’ Phones
techdirt: Two Missouri Cops Are Facing Criminal Charges For Helping Themselves To Nude Photos Found On Drivers’ Phones by Tim Cushing, updating this post from 11/15
For originalists, is using the military to conduct arrests and detentions in the U.S. a “reasonable search and seizure”?
Reuters: Republican Rand Paul opposes Trump talk of using military in deportations by Bo Erickson (“A 19th century U.S. law prohibits federal troops from being used in domestic law enforcement except when authorized by Congress. [¶] Paul, at times a … Continue reading
CA10: “Bivens is now all but dead.”
“Bivens is now all but dead.” Rowland v. Matevousian, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 29406 (10th Cir. Nov. 19, 2024). But we already knew that. Not a Fourth Amendment case, but a prison denial of medical care, but that’s where Bivens … Continue reading
IN: Handswabbing for evidence doesn’t require advice of rights under state constitution
Handswabbing didn’t require advice of Pirtle rights under Indiana Constitution. DNA swabs don’t. Owens v. State, 2024 Ind. App. LEXIS 316 (Nov. 20, 2024).* The false statements in the affidavit for warrant were neither reckless nor intentional nor even material. … Continue reading
D.Me.: State mandated GPS tracking of lobster boats reasonable under closely regulated business exception
Under the closely regulated business exception, the State of Maine can require lobsterman to have GPS tracking on their boats. (It’s an important question and the plaintiffs are urged to appeal to the First Circuit.) Thompson v. Keliher, 2024 U.S. … Continue reading
IL: Arrest on recalled AW not suppressed where officers checked and rechecked it
Officers checked a law enforcement database and found an arrest warrant on defendant. They rechecked. Afterward, it turned out the warrant had been recalled but was still in the system due to a clerical error. The court will not suppress … Continue reading
OH1: Smoking MJ in public and jaywalking was RS for a patdown
“Mr. King challenges the foundation for the Terry stop, emphasizing that smoking marijuana in public and jaywalking are not arrestable offenses. True enough, but officers can issue tickets for both offenses. Cincinnati Mun.Code § 506-46 and 512-1; R.C. 3780.99(B). And … Continue reading
LA5: Defense attorney’s email about evidence on phone not protected by attorney-client privilege
A defense attorney’s email about evidence on a cell phone was used to get authority to search and seize the phone. Defendant claimed privilege; the state claimed that defense counsel was obligated to turn over material evidence. It was not … Continue reading
Reason: Justice Department Orders DEA to Halt Airport Searches Because of ‘Significant Issues’ With Cash Seizures
Reason: Justice Department Orders DEA to Halt Airport Searches Because of ‘Significant Issues’ With Cash Seizures by C.J. Ciaramella (“The DEA paid one airline employee tens of thousands of dollars to snoop on travel itineraries and flag passengers for searches.” … Continue reading
MO: Plain error doesn’t revive a waived search claim
Defendant didn’t object pretrial or at trial to the search, and he can’t argue plain error now. State v. Lane, 2024 Mo. App. LEXIS 837 (Nov. 19, 2024). The finding defendant was stopped because of a seatbelt violation is not … Continue reading
PA: Merely reaching in car to secure gun in plain view was reasonable under state’s more stringent automobile exception
It was reasonable for the officer to reach in an open door and secure a gun seen in plain view under Pennsylvania’s more stringent automobile exception. Commonwealth v. Saunders, 2024 Pa. LEXIS 1734 (Nov. 20, 2024) (and there’s three opinions; … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Protective sweep of house was reasonable despite def’s arrest outside
The officers had knowledge defendant had confederates in his drug operation. While he was arrested outside his house, a protective sweep inside was still shown to be reasonable. United States v. Pope, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209740 (W.D. Pa. Nov. … Continue reading
NM: Trial courts can raise search issues on their own
A trial judge in New Mexico noticed that there were an unusual number of suspect warrantless searches going unchallenged by the defense. She set suppression hearings and several cases were nolle prossed. A few survived to be heard. On certification … Continue reading