Archives
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Recent Posts
- D.C.Cir.: It was reasonable for officers to conclude that evidence or instrumentalities of the crime would be found in the car used in a robbery
- CA7: Officer’s warrantless view of CSAM flagged by hash value was not unreasonable
- 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
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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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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)
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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
LA2: Failure to return papers to the clerk or court does not warrant suppression
The searching officer’s failure to file the return of the paperwork with the court is not a constitutional violation requiring suppression of the search warrant. State v. Hardyway, 2019 La. App. LEXIS 320 (La. App. 2 Cir. Feb. 27, 2019). … Continue reading
WaPo: Internal memo suggests Little Rock police serve every search warrant with a SWAT team
WaPo: Internal memo suggests Little Rock police serve every search warrant with a SWAT team by Radley Balko: “It is a mandate from the Office of the Chief of Police that the SWAT team execute all search warrants.”
Above the Law: The Constitution Demands A Stronger Check On Government Raids Against Civilians
Above the Law: The Constitution Demands A Stronger Check On Government Raids Against Civilians by Tyler Broker: Despite decreasing crime across the country, the success of alternatives, and widespread criticism, the business of government raids is booming.
CA6: State SW can be used to bring a federal prosection
A state search warrant, of course, can be used to initiate a federal prosecution. Dismissal of the state case in favor of federal prosecution is not res judicata. Moreover, the federal government isn’t a party in the state case. United … Continue reading
CA7: Chicago police officer who warned search target of SW properly convicted of obstruction of justice
A Chicago police officer was properly convicted of obstruction of justice when he learned from his job that drug raids and arrests were going down and he called a target he worked with to warn him. United States v. Coleman, … Continue reading
IN: Advice of Pirtle rights before search of safe under SW not required
Because officers did not ask defendant for the combination to his safe to search it under a warrant, he was not required to have the Indiana Pirtle advisement before they searched it. Brown v. State, 2019 Ind. App. LEXIS 14 … Continue reading
Techdirt: County Pays $90,000 Settlement To Man After Seizing $80,000 Judgment From Him Using 24 Deputies And An Armored Vehicle
Techdirt: County Pays $90,000 Settlement To Man After Seizing $80,000 Judgment From Him Using 24 Deputies And An Armored Vehicle by Tim Cushing: When all you have is a war hammer, everything looks like a war. That’s how Wisconsin law … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Def motion for SW materials denied for time being; ongoing investigation
Where there is a First and Fourth Amendment and common law right to discovery of search warrant materials, Supplemental Rule G also provides for it for forfeiture. Here, however, the government shows in camera that disclosure now would jeopardize an … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: 4 month delay in producing evidence from iPod doesn’t warrant dismissal
The fact something was extracted from defendant’s iPod in April but not turned over to the defense until August isn’t a ground to dismiss. United States v. Taylor, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206364 (W.D. Wash. Dec. 7, 2018). There was … Continue reading
FL4: SW papers are public records, and due process requires def to see them
Search warrant papers are discoverable to the defense and the unredacted parts are public records that must be disclosed. “The state asks us to prevent the disclosure of information that it had redacted from search warrants and warrant applications related … Continue reading
TX4: Visitor’s property searched during SW for premises is governed by possession test: was the person in actual possession at the time?
Texas follows the possession test for searches of personal belongings of visitors found during a search of premises. Thus, defendant’s purse was not in her actual personal possession at the time of the entry and searches, so it was not … Continue reading
Cal.2: SWs must be executed reasonably, and facts determine who has the burden of proof
A search warrant must be executed reasonably, and it depends on which side has knowledge of what for the burden of proof. Here, the issue involves a blood draw at a hospital, and defendant has access to that information, and … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Two month delay in getting SW for def’s storage unit wasn’t with bad faith and didn’t prejudice him
There was a two month delay between the seizure of defendant’s storage unit and the search warrant for it. There was no bad faith here. At worse, getting a search warrant fell through the cracks. The officers had probable cause … Continue reading
WI: GPS warrant is not subject to execution in 5 days requirement because it is for information not something physical
Because placement of a GPS device gathers information and not something physical or digital or a document, it is not subject to the execution in five days requirement of state law. State v. Pinder, 2018 WI 106, 2018 Wisc. LEXIS … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Co-def’s winning suppression motion shows IAC for this defendant
Defendant satisfied his burden of proof that defense counsel was ineffective because his codefendant prevailed on his motion to suppress. If he’d timely moved to set aside the plea it would have almost certainly been granted. Perez v. United States, … Continue reading
VA: Statute on filing warrant papers in court is procedural and suppression not the remedy
The statute requiring search warrant papers be filed with the circuit clerk is merely procedural, and it confers no substantive rights for its violation. Heroin in the car was visible from outside and thus in plain view, and that was … Continue reading
NH: Def who borrowed car not prejudiced by five day delay in getting SW for it
Because defendant didn’t own the car he borrowed, he wasn’t prejudiced by the five day delay in getting a search warrant for it. State v. Stacey, 2018 N.H. LEXIS 208 (Nov. 2, 2018). State law requires automobile exception apply to … Continue reading
CT: Records of a search and seizure are public records under state FOIA
Search and seizure records are public records under the state FOIA. The records of what are seized from the subject of the search are still the public’s business. Comm’r of Emergency Servs. & Pub. Prot. v. Freedom of Info. Comm’n, … Continue reading
CA6: Seizure of cell phone under SW had to be within time prescribed but the actual off-site search can be later
The seizure of the cell phone was within the time prescribed in the search warrant, but the actual search of the phone didn’t occur until after the time prescribed. This did not violate the Fourth Amendment. Off-site analysis was expected … Continue reading