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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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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. 
Category Archives: Issue preclusion
N.D.Cal.: Failure to mention denial of a TRO in civil litigation over similar issue material enough to get Franks hearing
The fact a TRO had been denied in a civil case involving some of the same facts was potentially material under Franks, and he gets a Franks hearing. Also, defendants have no standing in the search of a co-conspirator’s home. … Continue reading
CA6: GPS tracking warrant litigated in state court couldn’t be habeas issue
Defendant’s habeas claim that the application for the GPS tracking warrant was based on false information was barred by Stone v. Powell. Neil v. Forshey, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 34461 (6th Cir. Oct. 30, 2020).* Defendant’s successive habeas petition raises … Continue reading
CO: Hearing shots and seeing only one person running away from it was RS as to him
“Here, Officer Guagliardo heard multiple shots coming from an apartment complex and seconds later saw Oliver, and only Oliver, fleeing the area. When instructed to stop, Oliver ran faster. Officer Guagliardo heard screams coming from the complex. Based on the … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: ShotSpotter alert from a rooftop led to encounter then RS
A ShotSpotter report was specific as to a shot coming from a rooftop in the Bronx. That house was the subject of many police calls. This led to defendants being encountered by officers who discussed with them what was going … Continue reading
CA11: That state court’s 4A ruling was wrong isn’t ground for habeas relief
Habeas petitioner’s allegation state court decision on his Fourth Amendment claim was erroneous isn’t enough to get appellate review under Stone. CoA denied. Cisneros v. Sec’y, Dept. of Correction, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 30618 (11th Cir. Sept. 24, 2020).* There … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Def’s “Twitter page is rife with references to drug dealing and weapon possession” and that was PC
Defendant’s “Twitter page is rife with references to drug dealing and weapon possession. Lewis’ prior relationship with Doaty, coupled with Doaty’s own statements, corroborated her information and made it sufficiently reliable to justify a search of his vehicle.” It was … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Mere disagreement with state court 4A determination still bars habeas review
Defendant had his opportunity to litigate his Fourth Amendment claim in state court, and that bars habeas relief. Mere disagreement isn’t enough under Stone. Smith v. Superintendent, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 171480 (N.D. N.Y. Sept. 17, 2020)*:
CA11: Carpenter isn’t retroactive; successor habeas denied
Defendant’s CSLI claim can’t be brought as a successor habeas petition. Carpenter isn’t retroactive. In re Witherspoon, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 29717 (11th Cir. Sept. 17, 2020). Defendant was in a stolen vehicle and had a backpack in it while … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: VA drug tests for medical purposes were valid under the 4A special needs exception
Plaintiff challenged UA drug tests administered by the VA because the doctors there were trying to wean him off opiates. Those tests were reasonable under the special needs exception and for medical purposes. Gorney v. Veterans Administration, 2020 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
CA5: § 1983 4A claim that evidence was inadmissible at trial was Heck barred, and then waived on appeal
Plaintiff’s § 1983 Fourth Amendment claim was framed as a claim the evidence was inadmissible at trial. Thus it was barred. His appeal was over denial of IFP status, which was also denied, and he waived the Fourth Amendment claim … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Removal of shoes not a strip search
School administrator’s direction to a student to remove shoes was not a strip search. I.S. v. Binghamton City Sch. Dist., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 167370 (N.D. N.Y. Sept. 14, 2020). 2254 petitioner litigated and lost his illegal arrest claim in … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Stone precludes CSLI claims from before Carpenter was decided
2254 petitioner was barred from a CSLI claim because it wasn’t raised in state court where he had an opportunity to litigate. It’s no defense to attempt to overcome Stone preclusion that Carpenter came after the trial court decision because … Continue reading
OH5: 911 call of man carrying long gun on street wasn’t RS
Police received a 911 call that a man was carrying an “AK”-like long gun, hiding from passersby, and was apparently going to rob a store. Defendant was encountered openly carrying a gun, legal conduct, but he wasn’t hiding because the … Continue reading
CA8: Apparent purchase on the street justified patdown
Defendant and companion observed buying drugs from someone on the street in a car and getting back to their car was reasonable suspicion. “There was ‘more’ here [than in Ybarra], however, for the officer had been told that two men … Continue reading
CA6: Handcuffing too tight overcame QI
Plaintiff stated a claim that overcame qualified immunity that she was handcuffed too tight causing injury. Ouza v. City of Dearborn Heights, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 24679 (6th Cir. Aug. 5, 2020).* 2255 petitioner’s Fourth Amendment claim is barred by … Continue reading
CA9: Nevada JP’s PC determination never finalized has no preclusive effect in § 1983 case
A preliminary determination of probable cause by a justice of the peace that is not appealed is not entitled to preclusive effect under state law. Therefore, plaintiff states a claim for relief for his alleged false arrest despite that. Scafidi … Continue reading
CA7: Factual mistake in state court opinion doesn’t justify habeas relief
A factual mistake in a state court’s decision on defendant’s Fourth Amendment claim for the inventory of his property still doesn’t merit habeas relief. Marling v. Littlejohn, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 21616 (7th Cir. July 13, 2020). Plaintiff’s claim for … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Question for Stone v. Powell is: does the state provide a mechanism for “full and fair litigation” of a 4A claim, not whether def took advantage of it
The question for Stone v. Powell is: does the state provide a mechanism for “full and fair litigation” of a Fourth Amendment claim, not whether defendant took advantage of it. Barrera v. Sherman, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118199 (E.D. Cal. … Continue reading
NY4: Failure to complete inventory report of the search doesn’t void search
“Contrary to defendant’s contention, even assuming, arguendo, that the police officers failed to comply with the inventory provisions of CPL 690.50(5), we conclude that noncompliance with that subdivision ‘does not undermine the validity of the search warrant or the search’” … Continue reading