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- The Intercept: FBI Raid on WaPo Reporter’s Home Was Based on Sham Pretext
- N.D.Ga.: Slight delay in searching a cell phone of a person in custody who couldn’t possess it was reasonable
- D.Kan.: Search incident of a car after DUI arrest was reasonable under Gant
- Cal.2d: NDO in SW to Microsoft doesn’t violate state statute or 1A
- MA: Missing juvenile in BOLO was subject to community caretaking function
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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)
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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) -
“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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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
Reason: Using the National Guard in DEA Raids Is the Worst Kind of Drug War Mission Creep
Reason: Using the National Guard in DEA Raids Is the Worst Kind of Drug War Mission Creep by C.J. Ciaramella (“The Trump administration deployed National Guard soldiers to assist the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and other federal law enforcement agencies … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: Court won’t “second guess” 13 officers participating in vehicle stop and search
“Maybe thirteen officers were not needed. Maybe the officers did not need to carry and display rifles. Maybe fewer vehicles could have been used to block Defendant’s vehicle. Maybe officers did not have to place Defendant in handcuffs because their … Continue reading
Reason: Federal Courts Shrug at Potentially Lethal Wrong-Door Raids
Reason: Federal Courts Shrug at Potentially Lethal Wrong-Door Raids by Jacob Sullen (“Cops should not be free to forgo the modicum of care required to make sure they’re in the right place.”)
SCOTUS: FTCA applies to raid of the wrong house, remanded to CA11
After federal law enforcement officers raided the wrong house, which should have been evident at the time, the occupants stay in court on their FTCA claim and get to litigate the negligence claim. Martin v. United States, 2025 U.S. LEXIS … Continue reading
D.Md.: Delaying three years to indict after seizure compromised defense enough that speedy trial was violated
Defendant’s backpack was searched in 2017, but he wasn’t indicted until 2020, and his case lingered. The officer’s testimony about the search is hazy and inconclusive enough that the court finds cause to dismiss for a speedy trial violation. The … Continue reading
NJ: Entering curtilage to plant GPS device on car exceeded tracking warrant and was suppressed
Police had an otherwise valid warrant to install a tracking device on defendant’s vehicle but in a public place. Instead, they entered the curtilage to install it there. This warrant execution violated the Fourth Amendment and state constitution. The tracking … Continue reading
CA6: Two officers with separate PC can use one warrant
When two officers have separate probable cause to search, they don’t need separate search warrants, as long as the description covers their purpose. At least qualified immunity applies here. Fitzpatrick v. Hanney, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 13214 (6th Cir. May … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Being made to leave during search of premises is not a seizure
Defendant was made to leave the premises while a search occurred inside, and that was not a seizure of his person. United States v. Arcadipane, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82688 (M.D. Fla. May 1, 2025). Defendant, a sex offender on … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Protective sweep during SW execution not confined by the warrant, if otherwise justified
While the question is close here, the protective sweep of defendant’s house during a search warrant was reasonable on the totality. Essentially, the search warrant doesn’t define the scope of a justified protective sweep. “[T]he Fourth Amendment permits law enforcement … Continue reading
TX3: It was a fair inference for PC that evidence of def’s social media posts were on his phone
Defendant was a suspect in a driveby shooting. Because defendant’s social media showed firearms, it was a fair inference that evidence of the offense or the social media posts would be on his phone. Therefore, there was probable cause for … Continue reading
Reason: The FBI Wrongly Raided a Georgia Family’s Home. Now Their Case Is Going to the Supreme Court.
Reason: The FBI Wrongly Raided a Georgia Family’s Home. Now Their Case Is Going to the Supreme Court. by Billy Binion (“A federal court ruled Trina Martin could not sue the government after agents burst into her home and held … Continue reading
CA9: 71-day delay for iPhone SW was reasonable where software update was involved
71-day delay in getting search warrant to access defendant’s cell phone was reasonable where the delay was attributed to waiting for a software update for their device because the iPhone was a newer model. United States v. Powell, 2025 U.S. … Continue reading
CA9: No QI for nearly destroying a house in a search for a person to arrest
Summary judgment and qualified immunity were properly denied where officers searching for someone other than the plaintiff in plaintiff’s house [apparently] gratuitously nearly destroyed it, breaking all windows, toilets, leaving water running in the house, appliances, furniture, and a car … Continue reading
PA: For crime of obstructing a search, def didn’t have to see SW to know there was one when he was told
Defendant’s conviction for obstructing a search is affirmed. He was not entitled to a jury instruction that he had to have seen or read the warrant first where it was not disputed that he knew there was a warrant. Commonwealth … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Under Grubbs, a geofence de-anonymizer SW can’t be challenged before execution
Google responded to a series of search warrants for information and finally objected to a warrant to de-anonymize the information it previously provided. It can’t challenge the warrant before execution under Grubbs. Google LLC v. United States, 2025 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Defense counsel’s agreement to accept a SW was waiver of Rule 41 service requirements
Defense counsel’s acceptance of a warrant was a waiver of the service requirements for a warrant in Rule 41. It was also otherwise valid. United States v. Reynoso, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 40555 (D.P.R. Mar. 4, 2025). “The search and … Continue reading
KS: In responding to SW, out-of-state social media company’s authentication statement substantially complied with state law
In responding to a search warrant request, the social media company provided Rule 901 authentication for that state “under penalty of perjury,” but under the law of the United States not the State of Kansas. It was under penalty of … Continue reading
Reason: Colorado SWAT Team Raids Wrong Apartment, Locks Innocent Family in Police Car
Reason: Colorado SWAT Team Raids Wrong Apartment, Locks Innocent Family in Police Car by Emma Camp (“A Denver SWAT team burst into the wrong family’s apartment, holding several women and children at gunpoint before locking them in a police car … Continue reading
D.Me.: 4A doesn’t require that the search warrant be shown before execution
The Fourth Amendment doesn’t require that the search warrant be shown before execution. United States v. Tarr, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26832 (D. Me. Feb. 14, 2025).* During execution of a search warrant for a business, defendant wasn’t in custody … Continue reading
GA: SW for blood BAC doesn’t also allow search for drugs
A search warrant for blood BAC doesn’t also allow search for drugs. State v. Johnson, 2025 Ga. App. LEXIS 18 (Jan. 28, 2025). Defendant was on supervised release and the search of his cell phone producing child pornography was reasonable. … Continue reading