Archives
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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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Section 1983 Blog -
"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
CA9: SJ for officers revd; no showing of exigency for entry or need for excessive force
The plaintiff stated a § 1983 claim for unlawful entry and excessive force, and the district court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of the officers. There was no showing of exigency for the entry or need for the … Continue reading
WaPo: Massachusetts SWAT teams claim they’re private corporations, immune from open records laws
WaPo: Massachusetts SWAT teams claim they’re private corporations, immune from open records laws by Radley Balko: Unusual law enforcement counsels that operate the SWAT teams say they aren’t public entities.
Salon: A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son
Salon: A SWAT team blew a hole in my 2-year-old son by Alecia Phonesavanh: That’s right: Officers threw a flashbang grenade in my son’s crib — and left a hole in his chest. It gets worse.
Western Journalism: Shocking: Tales Of This SWAT Team Raid Might Give You Nightmares
Western Journalism: Shocking: Tales Of This SWAT Team Raid Might Give You Nightmares by B. Christopher Agee: Although the Fourth Amendment ostensibly guarantees Americans the right to security within their own homes, a Florida couple reportedly learned firsthand that federal … Continue reading
CA11: Inference of firearms nearly always with drugs less likely in small scale operations
While firearms are implicitly involved in drug transactions, the smaller the dealer, the less likely the inference. The search warrant here didn’t specify firearms, and, in drug distribution cases, it’s usually likely a gun will be found. Here, officers thought … Continue reading
CA10: Not unreasonable to handcuff occupants during execution of SW for gun
In execution of a search warrant for a gun, it wasn’t unreasonable for the officers to handcuff people there for officer safety even through there was a suggestion that the gun had moved before the SW arrived. Wigley v. City … Continue reading
MA: Reasonable delay in finishing search of cell phone with SW is permissible
Delay in searching a cell phone with a warrant is governed by the rules of searching computers with warrants, and a reasonable delay doesn’t void the search. Commonwealth v. Ericson, 85 Mass. App. Ct. 326 (May 23, 2014):
D.Alaska: SW for house includes the trash containers outside
A search warrant for a house includes the trash containers outside. United States v. Johnson, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 72729 (D. Alaska May 2, 2014). Specific information that the juvenile in this case was planning to bring a gun to … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Violation of Rule 41(d) time limit to start search not prejudicial
It’s not clear that the executing officers entered defendant’s house before 6:00 am in violation of Rule 41(d). Even if they did, “[t]here is no evidence that if the agents had waited a few minutes more, the search would have … Continue reading
NY Daily News: ‘He didn’t deserve any of this’: Toddler severely burned by stun grenade during police raid on Georgia home
NY Daily News: ‘He didn’t deserve any of this’: Toddler severely burned by stun grenade during police raid on Georgia home by Meg Wagner: A 19-month-old boy was sleeping in a Georgia home with his parents and three older sisters … Continue reading
Forbes: Lumber Union Protectionists Incited SWAT Raid On My Factory, Says Gibson Guitar CEO
Forbes: Lumber Union Protectionists Incited SWAT Raid On My Factory, Says Gibson Guitar CEO by Bill Freeza: Up until that point Gibson had not received so much as a postcard telling the company it might be doing something wrong. Thus … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Failure to comply with notice provision for “sneak and peak” warrant did not require suppression
Dog sniff at door of a storage unit was used to get a “sneak and peak” warrant which was otherwise valid, and it did not violate Jardines which is limited to homes. A dog sniff like this does not violate … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Police searching for CP left without a computer; its later seizure was covered by warrant
The police executed a search warrant for computers for child pornography. After they left the house, defendant’s grandfather called them to say that there was another computer in a closet that was not seized. He consented to that seizure. The … Continue reading
Cincinnati.com: Pants full of candy erupts into legal battle; SW for PD’s office
Cincinnati.com: Pants full of candy erupts into legal battle by Kimball Perry: A Hamilton County theft case involving a man who stuffed $200 worth of candy in his pants erupted into a heated legal battle that has left defense attorneys … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: Failure to show SW is not a Fourth Amendment violation
2255 petitioner did not show that he was prejudiced by officers showing up at 5:30 am rather than 6 for execution of a search warrant, if that in fact happened. Rule 41 violations are ministerial, it doesn’t per se violate … Continue reading
NJ: SW for house didn’t authorize search of car parked 5-6 doors away
Search warrant didn’t authorize search of a car 5-6 houses away from the place being searched under the warrant. State v. Bivins, 2014 N.J. Super. LEXIS 67 (May 13, 2014): In this appeal, we consider whether the scope of the … Continue reading
Star Tribune: Marine Corps appoints independent attorney to review seized evidence from raid on law offices
Star Tribune: Marine Corps appoints independent attorney to review seized evidence from raid on law offices by Julie Watson: Military criminal investigators raided Marine Corps defense counsel offices at Camp Pendleton, opening files during a 2½-hour search and potentially compromising … Continue reading
WaPo: Meet Howard Bowe and Detective Charles Dinwiddie, your latest casualties in the war on drugs
WaPo: Meet Howard Bowe and Detective Charles Dinwiddie, your latest casualties in the war on drugs by Radley Balko: “The way these people were treated has to be judged in the context of a war.” — Former Hallandale Beach, Florida, … Continue reading