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Recent Posts
- M.D.Fla.: Unidentified pills in driver’s lap may have been RS but it wasn’t PC for arrest
- 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
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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
CA5: Ptf doesn’t show that city’s alleged failure to use SWAT teams “threat matrix” properly led to any constitutional violation
Plaintiff failed to show a pattern of unconstitutional actions or that the SWAT teams’ use of a “threat matrix” to determine when they would be called out was unconstitutional. Plaintiff doesn’t show that the failure to implement that matrix properly … Continue reading
KS implied consent statute unconstitutional under Birchfield
The Kansas implied consent statute, K.S.A. 2016 Supp. 8-1025(a), is facially unconstitutional under Birchfield. State v. Ryce, 2017 Kan. LEXIS 327 (June 30, 2017). Under the Tennessee child exploitation statute, “process” that must be executed by the prosecutor means arrest … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: SW for premises permits search of any vehicle parked on the property
The search warrant for the house in this case permitted a search of any vehicles on the premises, not just those belonging to the owner of the residence. In any event, the good faith exception applies. United States v. Keeling, … Continue reading
OK: Def counsel not constitutionally required to be notified of DNA SW after prosecution began
A search warrant was obtained for defendant’s DNA after he was represented. The affidavit showed probable cause, and there was no requirement to advise defense counsel of the search warrant before execution. Frederick v. State, 2017 OK CR 12, 2017 … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Texas state SW was used to search cell phones, but FBI later searched by downloading contents w/o warrant so latter search suppressed; conspiracy to rob infers nexus
The Texas state court search warrant authorized a search for evidence on a cell phone of any crime, and that’s problematic. The affidavit, however, specifically referred to home invasion robberies, and that gave context. The search warrant was thus particular. … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: Fact a cell phone is searched in a county other than where the SW issued isn’t a 4A issue
The affidavit for the state search warrant for defendant’s cell phone established that cell phones were used in the drug offenses, so that establishes probable cause to search them. The fact the phones were searched in a county other than … Continue reading
NY: Grant of a SW is not appealable before execution
A court order approving a search warrant for Facebook records is not appealable under New York law. The court rejects that the SCA is more like a subpoena than a search warrant, and the rule has been long standing in … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Email SW to Google was particular, and target has no 4A right to notice of the SW
“Courts have repeatedly upheld courts’ ability to issue warrants outside their respective district under the S[tored] C[communications] A[ct]. The computer system was in California with Google. The email warrant was for nearly everything for 13 months, and it wasn’t overbroad. … Continue reading
WaPo: Marijuana raids are more deadly than the drug itself
WaPo: Marijuana raids are more deadly than the drug itself by Christopher Ingraham: Since 2010, At least 20 SWAT raids involving suspected marijuana dealers have turned deadly, according to data compiled by the New York Times.
Kerr: Oregon AG’s Office argues to State SCT that ex ante search restrictions on computer warrants not ok.
Orin Kerr on Twitter: Oregon AG’s Office argues to State SCT that ex ante search restrictions on computer warrants not ok. State v Mansor https://orinkerrblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/2017_wl_944311.pdf …
NYTimes: Door-Busting Drug Raids Leave a Trail of Blood
NYTimes: Door-Busting Drug Raids Leave a Trail of Blood by Kevin Sack: Using SWAT officers to storm into homes to execute search warrants has led time and again to avoidable deaths, gruesome injuries and costly legal settlements. (with video)
techdirt: Court Tells Cops They Can’t Use GPS Data Gathered After Suspect They Were Tracking Sold The Vehicle
techdirt: Court Tells Cops They Can’t Use GPS Data Gathered After Suspect They Were Tracking Sold The Vehicle by Tim Cushing:
EFF: Secret Court Orders Aren’t Blank Checks for General Electronic Searches
EFF: Secret Court Orders Aren’t Blank Checks for General Electronic Searches by Mark Rumhold:
D.Colo.: GPS tracking a car after it had been sold by target was unreasonable
Defendant bought a car that had a GPS device placed by the police with a 60 day tracking warrant. He paid for it for his girlfriend, with whom he had a child, and he drove it at the time of … Continue reading
CA10: GFE saves general warrant where affidavit specific and affiant served the warrant
Where officers obtained a warrant and searched two cell phones seized at the time of defendant’s arrest, the search warrant was invalid because it did not satisfy the particularity requirement since it did not identify either of the phones that … Continue reading
OH7: The SW included def’s car, and her driving off before police could search it didn’t prevent stopping and searching it away from the house
The search warrant for defendant’s house included her car. When he arrived there, the police attempted to stop her to search the car, but she got away and was stopped about a mile away. Because the warrant provided for the … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Seizure of years of emails by SW for later discriminating search was still reasonable
This email search warrant sought specific information over a several year period, and the Google production was somewhat limited yet still substantial. Yet, included were emails between attorney and client and there were no search protocols. The court declines to … Continue reading
IN: Tossing flash bang into room with only a 9 month old baby in a playpen during drug raid was excessive under the circumstances; suppressed
Using a flash bang device during a SWAT drug raid that went off in a room with only a nine-month old baby in a playpen violated the state constitution for its overall unreasonableness. Watkins v. State, 2017 Ind. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Failure to follow a document search protocol in otherwise reasonably conducted computer and device searches wasn’t unreasonable under 4A
The court conducts a second hearing over whether blanket suppression is required for over searching numerous electronic devices seized from the defendant, some of which were later turned over by defense counsel. Defendant sought to bring his case within “United … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Def can have limited discovery about the search but not a prior draft of the affidavit
Defendant’s discovery request relating to the execution of search warrants on his property is granted in part and denied in part. Essentially, he gets that which is really relevant like a video of execution of the warrant, chain of custody … Continue reading