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Recent Posts
- CA6: Knowing passcode to cell phone shows common authority over it to consent
- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
- Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
- E.D.Mich.: Second SW for cell phone data retained by govt was valid
- S.D.W.Va.: “Shocking” nature of immigration raid on a Mexican restaurant at lunchtime didn’t warrant suppression
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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 -
Latest Slip Opinions:
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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)
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
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S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
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General (many free):
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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)
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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
Privacy Foundation
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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)
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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. 
Category Archives: Prison and jail searches
S.D.N.Y.: Search of DOC employee’s papers for drug soaked paper on entering prison was reasonable
Search of a NYC DOC employee’s belongings for drug soaked paper after passing the metal detector at Riker’s Island was reasonable either under special needs or because there is no reasonable expectation of privacy and it’s not even a Fourth … Continue reading
NE: No REP in cell in pretrial detention for evidence of witness tampering; also, SW obtained
The state got a search warrant for a pretrial detainee’s county jail cell for evidence of witness tampering. The search was not institutional security. The trial court suppressed, but the court of appeals reversed: there is no reasonable expectation of … Continue reading
SD: Failure to put video of stop in record limits review of lack of consent claim
Failure to put the video of defendant’s stop in the record means the court can’t consider it on appeal, and it goes from the trial court’s findings. State v. Slepikas, 2021 SD 43, 2021 S.D. LEXIS 82 (July 21, 2021) … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: SW for single family dwelling valid even if there’s a renter living inside
A search warrant for what’s ostensibly a single family dwelling is sufficient to search the entire building, despite the fact that it turned out that there was a renter in one room. The good faith exception applies, too. United States … Continue reading
D.Mass.: 14 day delay between seizure and search of cell phone reasonable
This 14 day delay between the seizure of his cell phones and the application of the warrant to seize them is reasonable. In addition, there is no Fourth Amendment right to have a search warrant issued sooner than it was, … Continue reading
NY3: No REP in pretrial detainees’ jail calls
There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in jail telephone calls for pretrial detainees because the inmates were warned. “To the extent that defendant argues that the admission of the phone calls violated his rights because he was being held … Continue reading
CA6: Protective sweep under a couch was reasonable
The government showed that a protective sweep under a couch was reasonably justified in looking for a person. United States v. Vanhook, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 17245 (6th Cir. June 10, 2021). The contents of recorded jail telephone calls coupled … Continue reading
CA4: Trash out for collection at the curb is not on the curtilage
Trash out for collection at the curb is not on the curtilage. United States v. Holmes, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 16418 (4th Cir. June 2, 2021). The affidavit for a tracking warrant was misleading in one respect, but it wasn’t … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Sexual assault allegation by school official states 4A claim
Allegation of a sexual assault by a school official states a Fourth Amendment claim. Hermann v. Kirkwood R-7 Sch. Dist., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102574 (E.D. Mo. June 1, 2021). Officers with a search warrant for electronic devices could look … Continue reading
CA6: Misdescription of alleged robber was close enough for RS for stop
There was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop. “But the touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is reasonableness, not perfection. See Heien v. North Carolina, 574 U.S. 54, 60-61, 135 S. Ct. 530, 190 L. Ed. 2d 475 (2014). The facts reported … Continue reading
NY1: Pretrial detainee doesn’t have equal protection right not to have jail calls recorded
A pretrial detainee at Riker’s Island didn’t have an equal protection right or a reasonable expectation of privacy in his telephone calls from the jail. People v. Jennings, 2021 NY Slip Op 03262, 2021 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3363 (1st … Continue reading
OR: Lifting jail curtain to see def in jail bathroom was not violation of State Const. or 4A
Partially lifting a curtain in jail to observe defendant in the bathroom was not a violation of his reasonable expectation of privacy under the State Constitution nor the Fourth Amendment. State v. Taplin, 311 Or. App. 542, 2021 Ore. App. … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Govt doesn’t overcome right of access to seek to seal SW materials
The defense moved for access to search warrant materials for a potential motion to suppress. The government moved to seal them. The government’s motion is denied. There is generally a right of access in search warrant materials by the defendant … Continue reading
CA5: Claim stated for excessive force for allowing dog to bite subdued arrestee
Plaintiff stated a claim for a dog bite after he was subdued, and there would be no qualified immunity. Hinson v. Martin, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 12775 (5th Cir. Apr. 29, 2021).* There was arguable probable cause for plaintiff’s arrest … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Ptf inmate’s unreasonable prison strip search case survives screening
Plaintiff, an inmate at Corcoran, stated enough to survive screening for his prison strip search case. Jacobs v. CDCR, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 66813 (E.D. Cal. Apr. 6, 2021):
S.D.N.Y.: No REP in medical questioning in jail
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy against medical questioning in a jail. Jones v. Quinones, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 59654 (S.D. N.Y. Mar. 26, 2021). The search warrants for a business that was searched by ICE remain under seal. … Continue reading
TX1: Police coming to door for knock-and-talk wasn’t a trespass
Police came to defendant’s door for a knock-and-talk, and, when he opened it, the officers smelled marijuana. They went off for a search warrant. Approaching the door for a knock-and-talk was not a trespass. Howard v. State, 2021 Tex. App. … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Stopping highspeed chase with motorcycle by causing accident not unreasonable under Scott
An officer’s pulling in front of a motorcycle eluding police at 105 mph was not a Fourth Amendment violation. “Accordingly, even if Duvall pulled his car over in a manner likely to cause the collision and serious injury or death, … Continue reading