Archives
-
Recent Posts
-
-
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 / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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, Little Rock 
Category Archives: Franks doctrine
S.D.Fla.: The fact FL law provides a reasonable expectation of privacy in bank records has nothing to do with an IRS summons
The fact Florida law provides a reasonable expectation of privacy in bank records has nothing to do with an IRS summons for bank records. Presley & Presley P.A. v. United States, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65421 (S.D. Fla. Apr. 16, … Continue reading
MA: Affidavit established MJ grow was for sale, not personal use
The affidavit for the search warrant established probable cause that defendant’s marijuana grow was for distribution and not for personal medical use. Commonwealth v. Richardson, 2018 Mass. LEXIS 236 (Apr. 17, 2018). The Franks challenge here was over an internet … Continue reading
TN: Argument “the rule” of witness exclusion of Rule 615 at suppression hearing has to be made in trial court
Defendant didn’t preserve for appeal his argument that the suppression hearing court allowed witnesses to sit in the rehearing of the suppression hearing because he didn’t make it to the trial court. At any rate, the transcripts of the hearing … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: In CA5, a person’s identity and nationality is not subject to the exclusionary rule
In the Fifth Circuit, a person’s identity and nationality is not subject to the exclusionary rule. United States v. Meza-Gonzalez, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63254 (W.D. Tex. Apr. 16, 2018). Defendant fails on the second prong of Franks: excising the … Continue reading
IN: Def’s backpack would have been searched anyway, so inevitable discovery applied
Inevitable discovery applied to the search of defendant’s backpack. He was arrested, and the search would have occurred as a result of that. The merits of defendant’s search claim is thus moot. Winborn v. State, 2018 Ind. App. LEXIS 133 … Continue reading
CA4: The facts not included in the affidavit for SW only would have enhanced the PC
“We conclude that, contrary to Combs’ assertions, there is no evidence that Davis intentionally or recklessly omitted material information from the affidavit. In fact, Davis’s testimony at the suppression hearing shows that the facts not included in the affidavit would … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: Even if Karo didn’t permit monitoring a tracker on a package brought into the house, there was PC anyway
Even if Karo required excising or excluding the statement in the affidavit for search warrant that the package was in the target residence for the anticipatory warrant, there was probable cause without it, so it doesn’t matter. United States v. … Continue reading
TN: There’s normally no reason why the judge that issued the SW would be a witness at a suppression hearing on a Franks motion
The judge that issued the search warrant is not required to recuse from being the trial judge, so there was no ineffective assistance of counsel for failure to raise that issue. Moreover, the issuing judge would not be a witness … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Email SW completely lacked PC, then there were false statements and material omissions, too
The motion to suppress the search warrant for defendant’s emails is granted. “Nothing in the 2013 affidavit used to obtain the search warrant approaches probable cause.” And, “Therefore, the 2013 search warrant affidavit is so lacking in indicia of probable … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Def’s Franks IAC claim fails for lack of any allegations of fact
“Lloyd makes four claims of ineffective assistance of counsel. Those claims border on the ridiculous.” As to his Fourth Amendment IAC claim for not making a Franks challenge, he alleges nothing was false. United States v. Lloyd, 2018 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Suit over opening medical records envelope as non-legal mail was frivolous
Suit over opening of non-legal mail, here medical records, was frivolous. Villafana v. Clarke, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54893 (E.D. Va. Mar. 30, 2018). The first officer at the scene conducted a search without probable cause. A supervising officer appeared … Continue reading
CA3: Controlled buy moots Franks challenge to CI
The CI’s story was confirmed by two controlled buys. The Franks challenge to the CI fails as to whether it was corroborated or completely immaterial because of the controlled buys. United States v. Carney, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 8116 (3d … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: SW was for drugs; a gun found was in plain view
The search warrant was for drugs and a gun was found. Guns are instruments of the drug trade. The warrant otherwise being valid, the finding of the gun was essentially in plain view. United States v. Pizarro, 2018 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
IA: IAC Franks claim was speculative; def claims no facts at all
Defendant filed an ineffective assistance of counsel claim alleging that if defense counsel had investigated the officer’s allegations he’d have found a Franks challenge. This was purely speculative because not a word was provided about what such an investigation would … Continue reading
CA6: A controlled delivery as a part of the PC essentially moots a Franks claim
2255 petitioner’s post-conviction Franks claim fails because there was a controlled delivery that essentially moots it. There was no “substantial preliminary showing” under Franks. COA denied. Fleming v. United States, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 6934 (6th Cir. Mar. 20, 2018). … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Chiropractor’s co-def in insurance fraud had no standing in the clinic’s records or chiro’s phone
Defendant was a co-defendant with Schultz, a chiropractor, charged with false insurance claims. “The Court concludes that Defendant Hassan does not have standing to challenge the evidence obtained from Defendant Schulz because Defendant Hassan did not have a reasonable expectation … Continue reading
OH3: Court declines to extend state const to trash searches
The court declines to extend the state’s constitution to prohibit trash searches permitted by the Fourth Amendment. While other state courts have done so, this state has not yet, and that’s for the state supreme court. Another district had also … Continue reading
S.D.Ala.: AL state requirement of recording SW application doesn’t apply to SW used in federal court
The Alabama state requirement that an application for a search warrant be recorded doesn’t apply to using the product of the search in federal court. United States v. Tensley, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29979 (S.D. Ala. Feb. 26, 2018). Defendant’s … Continue reading
DE: Exclusionary rule does not apply in probation revocation proceedings
Deciding an issue of first impression in the state, the court concludes that the exclusionary rule does not apply in probation revocation proceedings. Surveying law from other states, some recognize a bad faith exception for probation searches, but this case … Continue reading
GA: Nexus shown where def left house and drove directly to controlled buy
Deleting the detective’s false statement from the affidavit that he had seen a black male with short dreadlocks in an SUV, the affidavit nonetheless provided probable cause to issue the warrant based on a controlled buy from defendant. The remainder … Continue reading