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- D.Utah: Minor time detours to writing up a traffic ticket didn’t unreasonable extend this stop; the dog was quickly on its way
- KY: Despite lack of nexus, SW sustained under GFE
- CO: DNA could be seized from trash
- CA8: Nebraska statute allowing SWs to cross state lines doesn’t violate 4A
- WA: Sweat patch as condition of release violated state constitution’s privacy provision
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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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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)
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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 execution
D.Me.: Admittedly valid state SW for drug evidence on phone led to finding CP and a valid federal SW
Officers got a state search warrant for defendant’s cell phone for drugs and stumbled upon child pornography otherwise linked to him by his tattoos and voice. He admits the warrant was valid for drugs. A later federal search warrant was … Continue reading
IL: Simple question during SW execution about whether def had been subjected to a SW before wasn’t interrogation where he volunteered where a gun was
A question to defendant during execution of a search warrant whether he’d been the target of a search warrant before led to an incriminating and unsolicited response about a gun that would not be suppressed. He wasn’t being interrogated. Therefore, … Continue reading
CBS4 Miami: New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Wants Massage Parlor Videos Destroyed
CBS4 Miami: New England Patriots Owner Robert Kraft Wants Massage Parlor Videos Destroyed (“New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft says he wants a judge to destroy the controversial spa recordings that landed him with prostitution charges. Kraft’s legal team called … Continue reading
CA11: Officers executing a SW at a house can approach an occupied car parked out front
“The district court did not err by denying Turner’s motion to suppress. Delgado was entitled, ‘without any level of suspicion,’ to approach a car in a dangerous locale with an unknown number of occupants parked near a residence where he … Continue reading
AL: IAC claim not stated for not challenging failure to deliver copy of SW to def
Defendant didn’t adequately plead an ineffective assistance of counsel claim for defense counsel not arguing that defendant wasn’t given a copy of the search warrant at the time of the search so he could challenge the search. Smith v. State, … Continue reading
OH2: Giving false name and DOB after SW executed supports obstruction charge
Defendant was removed from his house after a search warrant was served by the SWAT team. His false name and DOB to the officers supported his obstruction conviction. State v. Castleberry, 2020-Ohio-4233, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 3129 (2d Dist. Aug. … Continue reading
OH3: Unsigned SW still entitled to GFE
Even though the search warrant wasn’t signed in violation of the state rule, the good faith exception applies because the issuing judge found probable cause and said he issued the warrant. State v. Harrison, 2020-Ohio-3920, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 2821 … Continue reading
CA2: 31 day delay in getting SW for computer after seizure was unreasonable under 4A
“Following the district court’s hearing and ruling that the delay was not unreasonable, the appeal has been restored to this panel. We now rule that the police delayed unreasonably long in violation of the Fourth Amendment when they waited without … Continue reading
NM: SW time limit to execute cell phone SW is from initial seizure, not the download
“[W]hen a warrant is issued to search an electronic device, that warrant is executed when the device is seized or the data is copied on-site, which must occur within Rule 5-211(C)’s ten-day time limit. Rule 5-211(C)’s ten-day time limit applies … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Broad email warrants are not per se unreasonable
Broad email search warrants were not unreasonable just because they were broad. The breadth of the financial crime under investigation justifies it. In addition, the good faith exception applies and it’s too early to tell if any has to be … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: Applications for orders under SCA and ECPA presumptively public judicial records
Applications for orders under the Stored Communications Act and Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 are judicial records subject to public view under the common law. Pen register records are presumptively sealed under Title III. In the Matter of the … Continue reading
OH9: State argued RS but didn’t come forward with proof of it
The state argued there were factors supporting reasonable suspicion, but they didn’t come forward with it. Order granting motion to suppress affirmed. State v. Thomas, 2020-Ohio-3539, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 2453 (9th Dist. June 30, 2020). The search warrant was … Continue reading
MA: No right to counsel at execution of SW
“The defendant has presented no case law supporting his proposition that the target of a search warrant has a right to have counsel present during the execution of a warrant. The officers executed a warrant to search the defendant’s cell … Continue reading
IN: Search of def’s car when he shows up at home while SW being executed there was reasonable even though SW didn’t mention car
“Do law-enforcement officers violate either constitution by searching a person’s vehicle when the person drives that vehicle up to his or her house while officers are there executing a search warrant for the house that does not address vehicles? Based … Continue reading
RI: Reasonable use of force to take inmate’s DNA under SW wasn’t grounds for suppression
The trial court erred in granting defendant’s motion to suppress the taking of his DNA by force under a search warrant when he refused to cooperate. He already had a reduced expectation of privacy in the jail, and the state’s … 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
AL: SW to “any law enforcement officer ” in the state can be directed to one from a different county than the place of the search
A search warrant to “any law enforcement officer ” in the state can be directed to one from a different county than the place of the search. When defendant admitted that he had child pornography on the computer at his … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: SW was issued before entry; even if not, emergency justified the entry
“On this record, Reynolds has not shown that the search of his room was illegal. The officers did not enter it until they had a valid warrant. For the sake of completeness, the Court also finds that entering Reynolds’s room … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Six days to draft a cell phone SW was reasonable
The government was diligent in getting a warrant over six days, including a weekend, where the agents and the USAO spent most of three days drafting it. “Still, the Fourth Amendment obligated the United States to ‘diligently obtain[ ] a … Continue reading
techdirt: On The Same Day The FBI Claimed No Vendor Could Crack IPhones, Another Way To Crack IPhones Made The News
techdirt: On The Same Day The FBI Claimed No Vendor Could Crack IPhones, Another Way To Crack IPhones Made The News by Tim Cushing: