Archives
-
Recent Posts
- S.D.N.Y.: Four year old SW materials were subject to redaction and in camera submission to see about release
- E.D.Ark.: Facts underlying QI will be submitted to jury
- CA8: Def’s 20 prior arrests helped show voluntariness of consent
- TX1: No standing to challenge seizure of ketamine off co-def, but PC was lacking for his own arrest
- KS: 13 days pole camera surveillance violated no REP
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
-
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
Supreme Court:
SCOTUSBlog
S. Ct. Docket
Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
"On the Docket"–Medill
S.Ct. Monitor: Law.com
S.Ct. Com't'ry: Law.com
-
General (many free):
LexisWeb
Google Scholar | Google
LexisOne Legal Website Directory
Crimelynx
Lexis.com $
Lexis.com (criminal law/ 4th Amd) $
Findlaw.com
Findlaw.com (4th Amd)
Westlaw.com $
F.R.Crim.P. 41
www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
DOJ Computer Search Manual (2009) (pdf)
Stringrays (ACLU No. Cal.) (pdf)
-
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)
ACLU on privacy
Privacy Foundation
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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)
-
“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: Reasonable expectation of privacy
PA: Refusing to submit to BAC blood draw under SW supports obstruction of justice conviction
Refusal to submit to a blood draw search warrant for BAC supports a conviction for obstruction of justice. Commonwealth v. Palchanes, 2019 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1186 (Nov. 27, 2019). The CI’s basis of knowledge and reliability was adequately shown, and … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: No reasonable expectation of privacy in Bitcoin records
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in Bitcoin records. Zietzke v. United States, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 204274 (W.D. Wash. Nov. 25, 2019):
MI: 4A not violated by taking of fingerprints and photographs during a Terry stop
Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment rights were not violated by police officers taking their photographs and fingerprints based on reasonable suspicion during valid Terry stops, because plaintiffs had no reasonable expectation of privacy in physical characteristics that were constantly exposed to the … Continue reading
WA: Washington Privacy Act prohibiting unwarned recordings does not apply to law enforcement bodycams and dash cams
The Washington Privacy Act prohibiting unwarned recordings does not apply to law enforcement bodycams and dash cams. “Conversations with uniformed, on-duty law enforcement officers are typically not private conversations.” State v. Clayton, 2019 Wash. App. LEXIS 2930 (Nov. 19, 2019):
M.D.Ala.: One day’s GPS monitoring reasonable under Knotts, all things considered
A valuable opinion from the Middle District of Alabama on privacy v. property, mosaic theory or not, reasonable expectations of privacy on the open road. The court is constrained to find one day’s GPS tracking was reasonable under Knotts. United … Continue reading
VT: Game wardens’ entry on def’s curtilage to investigate deer jacking was reasonable as was look through detached garage window
Defendant was suspected of “deer jacking,” shooting a deer from outside the window of a homeowner before 4 am on Thanksgiving Day 2017. A game warden investigated at the scene finding deer blood and hair. The game warden had a … Continue reading
D.Ore.: No REP in a govt computer and email where there were banner warnings at every sign in
Defendant’s government work emails were searched without a warrant, and it’s clear, based on warnings on the computer at every sign in and regular training, that he was well aware everything on the computer has no reasonable expectation of privacy. … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Govt didn’t exceed NCMEC’s private search
NCMEC was a private entity and not a government actor. The government didn’t exceed the private search. United States v. Kendall, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 192442 (E.D. Ky. Nov. 6, 2019). Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in an … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: LA ordinance on providing hotel rental info valid under Patel
An LA ordinance requires certain information from hotel and motel renters which survives analysis under Patel. The information is not private information, and it’s not even a search. If it was, it would be a valid administrative search. City of … Continue reading
CA9: Use of another’s wireless router was not protected by any REP; police tracked def with Moocherhunter
After child pornography was found exchanged on a peer-to-peer connection from a specific IP address, government agents got a search warrant for that home address in apartment 242. Once there, they determined that no devices there were involved. They found, … Continue reading
GA: REP in a hotel room expires at checkout time
The reasonable expectation of privacy in a hotel room expires with the checkout time. Lindsey v. State, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 623 (Oct. 29, 2019). The defendant officers were properly entitled to summary judgment on plaintiff’s excessive force claim. Also, … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Def’s avowed lack of connection to the borrowed car he had was a lack of REP
Defendant’s avowed lack of connection to the car he borrowed and was driving was a lack of a reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Villa-Guillén, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 185672 (D.P.R. Oct. 25, 2019)*:
IL: Def’s leaving house to deliver to a controlled buy was nexus for house
There was nexus for the search warrant for defendant’s house where he was alleged to have left his house and driven directly to the scene of a controlled buy where he was delivering. People v. Teague, 2019 IL App (3d) … Continue reading
CA4: The officer knew def had a gun before def’s alleged involuntary confession
The government proved inevitable discovery. “The record makes clear that before Alston made any involuntary admissions, Captain Aleem believed that Alston possessed a gun, had the probable cause necessary to search the car, and intended to find the gun. The … Continue reading
N.D.Fla.: Def’s coming to door and at threshold made him capable of being arrested without police entering home
When defendant came to the door and answered the officers’ knock, and moved into the threshold when they said they were “security forces,” he was subject to arrest right there without the officers violating the privacy of the home. They … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Criminal acts on premises is not a waiver of a REP in it
Defendant did not own the premises searched, but he had a reasonable expectation of privacy in it because of his connection to it. Also, criminal acts on the premises is not a waiver of a reasonable expectation of privacy. Minnesota … Continue reading
GA: Retrieval of data from airbag control module after car wreck was search requiring warrant
Warrantless retrieval of data from the airbag control module (ACM) from a vehicle after a car crash was a search that required a warrant. Mobley v. State, 2019 Ga. LEXIS 694 (Oct. 21, 2019).
D.Ariz.: Def had no REP against use of a zooming pole camera across from the front of his house
The DEA set up a pole camera across the street from defendant’s house to watch the comings and goings expecting a car to go to New Mexico with drugs. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in what the camera … Continue reading
OH2: Part owner of a business didn’t have standing to challenge seizure of surveillance DVR with video of him committing assault
Defendant was a part owner of a business with computer access cards to get in doors. He still didn’t have a sufficient reasonable expectation of privacy in the computer storage system of a surveillance video system showing where he committed … Continue reading
W.D.Okla.: Def’s on-again off-again relationship with decedent didn’t give him standing in a search of her premises when they were off-again; he had no key
“Though Defendant may have had an ‘ongoing and meaningful connection to [Zotigh’s] home as a social guest’ at certain times prior to the searches, Zotigh’s termination of their relationship, her refusal to allow Defendant to stay in her mobile home … Continue reading