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- VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would not be suppressed
- NM: Trial court’s finding of consent is reversed because the court engaged in its own internet investigation beyond what the parties provided
- Reason: No Warrant, No Suspicion, No Problem: Flock and Border Cellphone Searches Excluded From 4th Amendment Rules
- Reason: Flock’s Gunfire Alerts Raise a New Fourth Amendment Question
- N.D.Ohio: Car in driveway was on curtilage and plain view prohibited
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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 -
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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General (many free):
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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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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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: Issue preclusion
CA6: Govt’s failure to argue standing below was mere “forfeiture” not “waiver”
The government can raise lack of standing for the first time on appeal unless it waived it below. At any rate, it can be reviewed for plain error. This also happened in United States v. Noble, 762 F.3d 509, 526-28 … Continue reading
W.D.Wis.: Guest of an overnight guest had standing, even where owner didn’t know
The guest of an overnight guest on the premises of the owner but without the owner’s knowledge had standing. “Defendants contend that Furdge had no legitimate privacy interest because he was in the home temporarily, lacked Rundle’s knowledge or consent, … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: Def’s resisting execution of a SW was a factor in finding dangerousness to deny release pending trial
Defendant’s resisting his arrest, including a search warrant, was a factor in denying release pending trial. United States v. Wagoner, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25232 (W.D.Va. Feb. 11, 2022). Questions of fact exist on whether plaintiff’s forced digital rectal exam … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: No REP in pawnshop records uploaded to pawnshop detail
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in pawnshop records uploaded for the NYPD pawnshop detail. (Therefore, in the trial of this case, attacking the datamining of the NYPD for information is more prejudicial than relevant under F.R.E. 403.) Gem … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Guilty plea with waiver of 4A claim not judicial estoppel to § 1983 claim
Plaintiff’s guilty plea in federal court was a waiver of his Fourth Amendment claims, and that was not judicial estoppel to a § 1983 case over the merits. Moreover, because the independent source doctrine was involved, the Heck bar did … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Prosecutor absolutely immune for SW application
A prosecutor is absolutely immune in presenting search warrant applications to a court. Miller v. Rivas, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22754 (D.N.J. Feb. 8, 2022). The affidavit for search warrant here was based on probable cause. The executing officers waited … Continue reading
NY4: State fails to prove independent source for search after unlawful arrest
The search of defendant’s car was the product of an illegal arrest, and the state fails to prove the independent source doctrine applies. Here, it was argued to be a parole search. People v. Smith, 2022 NY Slip Op 00790, … Continue reading
D.Conn.: No REP in pole camera surveillance of def’s business’s front door
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in two months of pole camera surveillance of his business front door. Society would not recognize a reasonable expectation of privacy of what’s visible from the public street. United States v. Harry, 2022 … Continue reading
CA10: The specifics of the bag on Greyhound Bus search weren’t raised below, so waived
The specifics of defendant’s argument that his bag was handled on a Greyhound Bus in Albuquerque weren’t raised in the district court. His expansion of the issue on appeal was waived. United States v. Fernandez, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 3129 … Continue reading
NM: Dismissal of § 1983 excessive force case was not collateral estoppel for a state tort claims act case
Dismissal of a § 1983 excessive force case in federal court was not collateral estoppel for a state case under the state tort claims act. Hernandez v. Parker, 2022 N.M. App. LEXIS 5 (Feb. 1, 2022). Extending this stop was … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Police entry into a commercial gym with an unauthorized keycard violated the owner’s REP
Plaintiff operated a gym entered by the police for an administrative search during Covid when it should have been temporarily closed under a state executive order. They accessed it with a keycard from the prior owner who sold it years … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: There is no the state courts got it “really wrong” exception to Stone
“Paraphrased, this amounts to arguing that if the state courts got the Fourth Amendment issues really wrong, the habeas court can put Stone aside and decide the merits of the Fourth Amendment claims. [¶] Hashi cites no authority in support … Continue reading
MO: Prosecutor can’t be sued for making a file decision based on the search of ptf’s computer
Plaintiff sued a prosecutor for various things including the “privacy tort ‘of unreasonable intrusion into private facts.’” His computer was searched under a warrant and potential privileged material was obtained. Plaintiff’s own complaint says the prosecutor was given the information … Continue reading
D.Colo.: No REP in the “people’s house” on 1/6 because ptf wasn’t there
Plaintiff is an attorney pro se alleging, inter alia, a Fourth Amendment violation in Colorado against a member of the House of Representatives for the January 6th insurrection. He claims a Fourth Amendment in the “people’s house” when he doesn’t … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Complaint about co-def’s cell phone search was “specious,” and def doesn’t even have standing
Defendant’s claim the information about a co-conspirator’s phone search must be fabricated because that search warrant wasn’t in his discovery was “specious.” He doesn’t even have standing. Edwards v. United States, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 14407 (E.D.N.Y. Jan. 26, 2022).* … Continue reading
D.S.C.: On a 4th motion to keep SW materials under seal, granted for another year
On this fourth motion to extend deadline, the warrant materials here are ordered sealed for another year because of an ongoing investigation. The court finds redactions aren’t reasonably possible. In re Seized Misc. United States Currency, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA3: Def’s immigration detention was not an egregious 4A violation
Defendant was involved in an immigration stop where officers were looking for another person allegedly illegally reentering. After finding he was not the person they were looking for, they tried to confirm his identity, and the detention might have been … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Losing search issue in state court collaterally estops civil § 1983 case over same search
Collateral estoppel bars plaintiff’s suit against officers who arrested and searched him. He lost on the same search issue in state court, and that’s order is final. Bertaux v. Aurora Police Dep’t, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11260 (N.D.Ill. Jan. 21, … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Private prison’s recording of attorney-client calls states a claim
A criminal defense lawyer stated a claim against a private prison operator under the wiretapping laws for recording attorney-client calls. Bliss v. Corecivic, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10953 (D.Nev. Jan. 18, 2022). 2254 petitioner’s illegal search claim barred by Stone. … Continue reading
DE: Def counsel not ineffective for not forecasting Jones GPS case
“Because the Court will not find trial counsel ineffective for failing to ‘effectively’ raise an issue of first impression [on GPS placement], and because the Court believes that even if he had done so effectively, the issue would not have … Continue reading