Archives
-
Recent Posts
- IN: Overdose call led to EMS telling police what they saw and that led to SW
- NY1: A mental health defense waives REP in the medical records about it
- MA: When a likely Franks violation comes out at trial, def gets to reopen the suppression issue
- RI: Challenge to one sentence of 8-page cell phone records SW fails; totality has to be considered
- WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics
-
-
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. 
Category Archives: Uncategorized
D.C.Cir.: Def’s stop was consensual and his admission he had “some weed” was PC for search incident
“Lea’s initial interaction with Officers Woods and Wooley bears all the hallmarks of a consensual encounter: the officers did not touch Lea or brandish their weapons, which were concealed; Lea’s movement was not restricted; the officers wore plain clothes; the … Continue reading
CA6: Lies told during probation search help form RS
Defendant denied he lived in the house where the police conducted a probation search. His standing was challenged, but the merits were decided. They suspected him of being involved in drug dealing and went to talk to him and his … Continue reading
LawPracticeCLE: Evidence Seized with the Use of Canine Searches: A Guide for Attorneys
LawPracticeCLE: Evidence Seized with the Use of Canine Searches: A Guide for Attorneys (Oct. 27, 2020)
Oregon Fed.Def.: Developments in Federal Search and Seizure Law (Oct. 2020 update)
fd.org: Developments in Federal Search and Seizure Law (Oct. 2020 update) This shows defense wins, so those from the prosecution side need to be aware. (I’ll look for a usable link that doesn’t require regular updating here.)
Prosecutors drop charges against Robert Kraft
CBS2 News (Palm Beach): Prosecutors drop charges against Robert Kraft by Gary Detman WaPo: Charges against Patriots’ Robert Kraft dropped in Florida after ruling on video evidence by Matt Bonesteel
D.N.M.: Def drew a diagram of shooting scene in his statement, and that provided nexus for SW for forensic evidence
Defendant’s shooting scene diagram during his statement created nexus for the search warrant to find forensic evidence of a homicide. United States v. Smith, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 174615 (D.N.M. Sept. 23, 2020):
McDonald v. U.S. (1948) (Justice Jackson, concurring)
McDonald v. United States, 335 U.S. 451, 460-61 (1948) (Justice Jackson, concurring): I am the less reluctant to reach this conclusion because the method of enforcing the law exemplified by this search is one which not only violates legal rights … Continue reading
LATimes: Despite past denials, LAPD has used facial recognition software 30,000 times in last decade, records show
LATimes: Despite past denials, LAPD has used facial recognition software 30,000 times in last decade, records show by Kevin Rector & Richard Winton (“The Los Angeles Police Department has used facial recognition software nearly 30,000 times since 2009, with hundreds … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Removing protective sweep from affidavit for SW still leaves PC
While protective sweep was unreasonable, excising it from the affidavit for search warrant, still leaves probable cause. United States v. Lee, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 171270 (E.D. N.C. Sept. 18, 2020). “In sum, counsel reasonably could have concluded that movant … Continue reading
PA: Warrantless entry for mental health check unjustified for lack of danger
The warrantless police entry into defendant’s home for a mental health check wasn’t justified by the facts because of a lack of danger. The plain view is suppressed for lack of a proper view. Commonwealth v. Schneider, 2020 Pa. Super. … Continue reading
CNET: Warrant canary: What you need to know about this online privacy warning sign
CNET: Warrant canary: What you need to know about this online privacy warning sign by Rae Hodge (“Some companies still use warrant canaries to warn customers of threats to their privacy by US government subpoenas. But the legal waters remain … Continue reading
S.D.Iowa: Stop for “walking while black” without RS
Defendant’s stop by police on a mere hunch by police on a call from a prosecutor who was just shopping was without reasonable suspicion. United States v. Kelly, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 153543 (S.D. Iowa Aug. 20, 2020):
50 years today
5:30-5:45 pm, August 24, 1970, I registered for law school. The bar results were August 25, 1973, and, August 31st, my law license turns 47.
NE adopts an objective test on the totality of circumstances for abandonment from CA8 cases
Nebraska adopts an objective test on the totality of circumstances of abandonment from Eighth Circuit cases. State v. Dixon, 306 Neb. 853 (Aug. 21, 2020):
CA11: Def’s failure to claim cell phone once it was released was abandonment
Police released defendant’s cell phone two days after its seizure, but defendant never sought to recover it. This was considered an abandonment. Standing to challenge CSLI could be an issue because the phones weren’t claimed, but, without deciding that, the … Continue reading
TX14: There has to be a fact dispute to get an art. 38.23(a) jury instruction on legality of search
“‘To raise a disputed fact issue warranting an article 38.23(a) jury instruction, there must be some affirmative evidence that puts the existence of that fact into question.’ Madden, 242 S.W.3d at 513. In other words, a cross examiner cannot create … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: USMJ’s credibility determination is entitled to deference
While review of the R&R is de novo, the USMJ’s credibility determination on a motion to suppress is still entitled to deference. United States v. Angulo-Gomez, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 137199 (W.D. N.Y. Aug. 3, 2020). The government argued that … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Denial of medical care after arrest can be a 4A violation, but this doesn’t measure up
“To the extent Plaintiff is asserting a denial of medical care after his arrest, but before he arrived at the detention facility, district courts within the Ninth Circuit have held that law enforcement officers are required to provide objectively reasonable … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: Protester Surveillance May Test Constitutional Privacy in Courts
Bloomberg Law: Protester Surveillance May Test Constitutional Privacy in Courts by Julia Weng & Daniel R. Stoller:
E.D.Va.: Amazon gets TRO and PI in civil RICO case based on same allegations for SW a contractor was seeking kickbacks
The FBI conducted a raid of an Amazon contractor in Northern Virginia for kickbacks. Amazon sought a TRO and preliminary injunction against the defendants seeking to prevent spoliation of evidence after the target told alleged confederates of the raid by … Continue reading