September 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Archives
-
Recent Posts
- WaPo: Americans have turned against police cameras that track license plates, new survey shows
- W.D.Tex.: What is the duty of the neutral and detached magistrate?
- D.Me.: Yes, more investigation could have been done, but there’s still PC on what there was
- CA3: Brady doesn’t apply to SW materials
- E.D.Mich.: Person a cell phone was given to as gift could consent to search
-
-
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: Franks doctrine
N.D.Ind.: Criminal complaint can’t be challenged under Franks after indictment
A criminal complaint can’t be challenged under Franks after indictment. United States v. Sole, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 908 (N.D. Ind. Jan. 3, 2025).* Defendant’s stop for clearly overtinted windows was reasonable. Disagreement by witnesses over minor details didn’t matter. … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Honest mistake in affidavit attempted to be corrected but no Franks violation here
The search warrant was in the S.D. Tex., and the affiant found a mistake before it was finalized that he communicated to the AUSAs involved. The correction, however, wasn’t made before he signed it, and he didn’t notice it. When … Continue reading
NY Monroe Co.: The constitution doesn’t apply to citizen’s arrest
In a citizen’s arrest, if the citizen, not a law enforcement officer, violates the constitution or statute, the arrest will not be suppressed for that reason alone. His statement to an officer captured on video will not be suppressed because … Continue reading
TN: SW didn’t say blood to be taken and seized could be tested, but it could be under common sense reading
“Although the warrant did not specifically state that the blood was to be ‘tested,’ ‘analyzed,’ or ‘examined’ for such intoxicants, a logical, commonsense reading of the warrant shows that the warrant was meant to authorize such analysis because an intoxicating … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Def showed enough for a Franks violation with reckless false material fact
A misstated fact in the search warrant affidavit was material to probable cause because there was so much other stuff. United States v. Ibanez-Molina, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 225948 (S.D. Fla. Oct. 25, 2024)*:
S.D.N.Y.: No stay of execution of a computer and cell phone SW after def was indicted
Defendant was arrested in Malaysia and a computer and cell phones were seized. He was then indicted in NYC. The nine-day delay in getting a warrant was not unreasonable considering defendant was in custody and unable to use them. A … Continue reading
VI: GPS monitoring for pretrial release can be reasonable; here it was consented to as well
The VI code and rules of criminal procedure provide for electronic monitoring as a condition of pretrial release. GPS tracking is a search and involves a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy and would be reasonable if justified. Here it was … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Issuance of a criminal citation is not a seizure
Issuance of a hunting violation citation is not a seizure. Even if it was, there was probable cause. Defendant wildlife officer’s seizure of antlers from a taxidermist can proceed. Craft v. Gills, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 219453 (S.D. W.Va. Dec. … Continue reading
W.D.Mich.: State law violation in search irrelevant in federal prosecution
Defense counsel can’t be ineffective for not arguing that state law was violated by the search in his federal case. Clark v. United States, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 219107 (W.D. Mich. Dec. 4, 2024).* Defense counsel could not be ineffective … Continue reading
CA2: No less intrusive measures requirement before seeking CSLI
“The CSLI and cell-site simulator warrants provided evidence of the general and specific location of one of Brown’s cell phones and, therefore, of Brown’s likely movements between his indictment and arrest. Brown contends that investigators procured these warrants by falsely … Continue reading
IN: Handswabbing for evidence doesn’t require advice of rights under state constitution
Handswabbing didn’t require advice of Pirtle rights under Indiana Constitution. DNA swabs don’t. Owens v. State, 2024 Ind. App. LEXIS 316 (Nov. 20, 2024).* The false statements in the affidavit for warrant were neither reckless nor intentional nor even material. … Continue reading
D.Alaska: No REP in cell of 48 hr detainee
A 48 hour pretrial detainee in a dry cell has no reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Burk, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 209407 (D. Alaska Nov. 18, 2024).* Defendant’s Franks officer of proof with a proffered corrected affidavit for … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: Def succeeds in a Franks challenge
Something we don’t see hardly ever: The omitted information was material to probable cause and the affiant omitted it thinking it didn’t matter. But it did. And the good faith exception doesn’t apply here. United States v. Pettigrew, 2024 U.S. … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: The affiant’s passing on alleged exaggerations from other officers wasn’t material to PC
Relying on reports of other officers that could have been exaggerations in part didn’t show that the affiant was intentionally or recklessly misleading the court. Also, “the Defendant has failed to demonstrate that Officer Granville’s inclusion of the exaggerated statement … Continue reading
PA: CI tip gave RS for dog sniff during stop
The CI’s tip gave reasonable suspicion to extend the stop for a dog sniff. Commonwealth v. Ortiz, 2024 PA Super 249, 2024 Pa. Super. LEXIS 467 (Oct. 29, 2024).* “Moreover, as noted above, Trooper Klun’s personal observation of Harris driving … Continue reading
CA2: That a DNA sample was potentially excludable didn’t need to be disclosed in SW affidavit
There were two DNA samples here. The fact the second was potentially subject to suppression didn’t need to be disclosed in the affidavit for more testing. United States v. Green, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 25836 (2d Cir. Oct. 15, 2024). … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Reasonable during a traffic stop to ask about firearms in the car
The traffic stop was reasonable, and it was also reasonable for the officer to just ask whether there was a gun in the car for safety reasons because carrying in legal in this state. United States v. Martin, 2024 U.S. … Continue reading
IA: A brief detention at the scene is not “arrest” for speedy trial purposes
“Arrest” for speedy trial purposes doesn’t include a brief detention at the scene before the actual arrest. State v. Harris, 2024 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 79 (Oct. 4, 2024). Defendant satisfied his first Franks burden of a substantial preliminary showing of … Continue reading
CA6: New evidence of possible Franks violation for successor habeas not adequate to possibly alter outcome
2255 petitioner’s successor petition claims newly discovered evidence from an FOIA response that casts doubt on the affidavit for the search warrant obtained in 2011. “So Duval has not shown that the search warrant affidavit contained a false statement. Nor … Continue reading