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- 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
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- S.D.N.Y.: Stop on an NYPD I-card showing PC was reasonable
- ID: Drug dog’s touching nose on the car door was not a trespass
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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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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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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"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: Warrant papers
FL2: Walking away from car at scene of a drive-by shooting left it and was an abandonment
Defendant remained at the scene of a drive by and police in an unmarked car but with POLICE on their vests almost immediately showed up. He left the car and walked away, not to reasonably return. This was an abandonment. … Continue reading
CA2: Failure to leave SW attachment at scene of search doesn’t void the search
That searching officers didn’t leave behind Attachment B to the warrant after the search didn’t void the search. United States v. Whaley, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 16819 (2d Cir. July 10, 2024). Collective knowledge here fails: “Based on the evidence … Continue reading
CA4: Officers with arrest warrant for def could enter yard of property they knew he was visiting to arrest him; plain view sustained
Defendant was a social visitor, not a business visitor, and his standing is more like Olson than Carter. The district court erred in finding no standing. On the merits, however, he loses on a ground fully litigated but not decided … Continue reading
NY3: Typo in SW affidavit could be overlooked when context is apparent
A typographical error in the statement of probable cause could be overlooked when the affidavit is read as a whole, which is what the court is supposed to do. People v. Malloy, 2024 NY Slip Op 03203, 2024 N.Y. App. … Continue reading
D.Mont.: FBI 302s not discoverable to aid in PC and particularity challenge
Defendant cannot get discovery of FBI 302s just to see if the search warrant was based on whatever information that would disclose. United States v. Purkey, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 104824 (D. Mont. June 11, 2024). After all, the four … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: SW materials in case with weighty public interest ordered unsealed
The search warrant materials in the LA City Attorney investigation are ordered disclosed because of the weighty public interest in them. In re Consumer Watchdog, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88456 (C.D. Cal. Apr. 11, 2024):
Conflict of laws: CA parole search waiver effective in AR
Defendant was arrested in Arkansas on a California extradition warrant, and he had a California parole search waiver. The California search waiver parallels the Arkansas statute, and Arkansas officials could search his clothing under that. In addition, the search incident … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Mandamus doesn’t lie to unseal SW papers
A petition for writ of mandamus doesn’t lie parallel to an action before the USMJ to unseal search warrant materials. Martino v. United States Dist. Court for the E. Dist. of Pa., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74349 (E.D. Pa. Apr. … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: SW application redacted for discovery for now
For the time being, the search warrant application is redacted in discovery under Rule 6(e). “First, the Special Counsel opposes the disclosure of a search warrant application for Defendant De Oliveira’s Gmail account …. This includes the search warrant itself, … Continue reading
CA7: Warranted strip search in a private secure setting was conducted reasonably
“Shaw raises three responses, but they are unavailing. First, he contends that the officers did not follow Wisconsin and local laws that instruct officers to obtain written authorization from a supervisor before a strip search. But a violation of state … Continue reading
CA7: Not following state and local laws on strip searches doesn’t make one unreasonable
“Shaw raises three responses, but they are unavailing. First, he contends that the officers did not follow Wisconsin and local laws that instruct officers to obtain written authorization from a supervisor before a strip search. But a violation of state … Continue reading
OH1: Missing notary seal on SW affidavit not an error of constitutional magnitude, so no suppression
A search warrant isn’t void because the affidavit in support was missing a notary seal. The rest of the statutory requirements were satisfied, and this wasn’t an error of constitutional magnitude. State v. Whittle, 2024-Ohio-1023,2024 Ohio App. LEXIS 958 (1st … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: The sealing of SW for def’s Facebook account has no bearing on reversibility of the conviction; release pending appeal denied
Release pending appeal denied. “Fourth, Ballenger has not shown that her arguments regarding the sealing of documents obtained under the search warrant for her Facebook account present a substantial question as to, or had any material impact on, the validity … Continue reading
CA10: AOL scanned emails for CP, found some, and forwarded to NCMEC; what NCMEC did did not matter and that’s inevitable discovery
“We conclude that the inevitable discovery exception to exclusion applies, and therefore we need not address whether NCMEC violated the Fourth Amendment by opening Tolbert’s emails and attachments or whether the good faith exception to exclusion would apply. The evidence … Continue reading
D.Utah: Facebook account SW was properly limited to time and to crime under investigation and not overbroad
This Facebook account warrant was properly limited. “First, both warrants here were limited to a time period of about one year, from December 11, 2020, to November 17, 2021. As a result, neither warrant allowed the government to search everything … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Terry stop with guns drawn was reasonable here
An otherwise lawful Terry stop wasn’t made unreasonable because officers, fearing a weapon, approached with guns drawn. United States v. Thomas, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 234913 (D. Minn. Dec. 13, 2023), adopted 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 21178 (D. Minn. Feb. … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Cut-and-paste error that misidentified iPhone model overlooked by correct phone number
The search warrant was for a specific phone number on an iPhone 6S, but the phone with that number was an iPhone 13. Still, the phone number controlled, and the search was valid. Alternatively, on the totality, defendant consented to … Continue reading
IL: A detention hearing right after arrest is not the place for a suppression hearing
A detention hearing right after arrest is not the place for a suppression hearing. Thus, the detention hearing court did not err in not considering Fourth Amendment issues. People v. Parker, 2024 IL App (1st) 232164, 2024 Ill. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
Law Review: On Warrants & Waiting: Electronic Warrants & The Fourth Amendment
Tracy Hresko Pearl, On Warrants & Waiting: Electronic Warrants & The Fourth Amendment, 99 Ind. L. J., Issue 1, Article 1 (Winter 2023):