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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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General (many free):
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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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: Franks doctrine
PA: The best evidence rule does not apply to establishing probable cause
In establishing probable cause, the best evidence rule under Rule 1002 & 1004(a) did not apply to a still photograph of a truck that was taken from a security videotape that was erased and then taped over by a camera … Continue reading
TX1: On a remand for entry of findings of fact, a new hearing should not have been held
The court of appeals remanded this case for entering findings of fact and conclusions of law so the appeal could be decided. It was not authorized to conduct a further hearing after the record was logged, so it could not … Continue reading
TX4: Fact that PC was via collective knowledge but not all details how was not Franks violation
It was apparent that the person whose information ended up in the search warrant application was a citizen informant not subject to a more intense review for probable cause. The fact that the affiant didn’t personally talk to the informant … Continue reading
OR: Passenger’s backpack in car was subject to automobile exception
Passenger’s backpack in the vehicle at the time of the stop was subject to the automobile exception. State v. Furrillo, 274 Ore. App. 612, 2015 Ore. App. LEXIS 1291 (Nov. 4, 2015). Defendant’s admission during a stop on reasonable suspicion … Continue reading
ID: Child sex offense witnesses were discovered prior to likely illegal phone search
Defendant was under investigation for various offenses, including sex crimes. His cell phone was seized when he was arrested for burglary. Minor sex offense witnesses were identified by the allegedly illegal search of the phone, and the court doesn’t suppress … Continue reading
TN: Motion for return of property doesn’t require a motion to suppress and can come after judgment
A state motion for return of property does not require a motion to suppress. “Additionally, the State’s argument that the trial court lacks jurisdiction because the judgment has become final is misplaced. The Defendant is not seeking to challenge his … Continue reading
CA11: Overbreadth challenge fails for computers on wireless at a fire station
Defendant was a fireman who was suspected of actively downloading child pornography via a P2P connection at work. Certain representations in the affidavit about the investigators trying to pickup the wireless signal outside the station and who was on duty … Continue reading
WA: Violation of state rule that SW inventory be in presence of another officer requires suppression
Washington rules require that a search warrant inventory be done in the presence of another officer. In this case, the department had only five officers, and the search occurred during the night shift when only one officer was on duty. … Continue reading
MO: Omission from affidavit that CI was “working off a case” not material–it’s virtually a given
An alleged material omission for Franks purposes was not material because adding it in would essentially be misleading. Telling the issuing magistrate that the CI was “working off a case” isn’t really required under Franks because that’s usually a given … Continue reading
W.D.Okla.: The detailed nature of how CP file sharing tracking software works isn’t required to show PC
In a child pornography investigation, DHS used investigative software named Torrential Downpour which is used to track file sharing on P2P computers looking for child porn for transfer and monitoring data flow. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in … Continue reading
D.Mont.: An unauthorized driver of a rental car still has standing to challenge its search as long as permission was given by the renter
An unauthorized driver of a rental car still has standing to challenge its search as long as permission was given by the renter. United States v. Pinex, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118558 (D.Mont. September 4, 2015). Packages in the mail … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: 2255 gets hearing on IAC claim; court can’t say that waived issue was meritless or strategic
“Yet, as illustrated above, the record does not contain sufficient information from which the Court can find that a suppression motion would have been meritless. As a result, the Court concludes that an evidentiary hearing is required on this claim. … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Omitted informant information needs to be dispositive to undermine PC
More information could probably be included in all search warrant affidavits, but that doesn’t make them misleading for omissions. The omissions must be “dispositive” of probable cause, not just cast a little doubt on it. United States v. Wijetunge, 2015 … Continue reading
ID: Dog putting nose in open window of car wasn’t search; it was dog following smell
A drug dog putting his nose up to the open window during an exterior dog sniff was not a search of the interior. The officers didn’t tell him to do it, and the dog was just following his smell (citing … Continue reading
CA10: Extended border search of truck that had been flagged was with RS
Defendant’s vehicle was subjected to a border search in February 2013 and an empty hidden compartment was found after a dog alert. That information was entered in the computer. In September, defendant came through the border twice, and a border … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: Just because something is exculpatory, it isn’t a Franks violation to fail to include it in the affidavit
Just because something is exculpatory, it isn’t a Franks violation to fail to include it in the affidavit for search warrant. Even exculpatory information doesn’t always undermine probable cause. United States v. Awtrey, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103284 (W.D.N.C. July … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: A sweep upstairs was justified by voices, even though it turned out to be a TV set
The officer’s testimony about exigent circumstances is credited. It was also reasonable for an officer to go upstairs for a sweep after hearing a voice, even though that voice turned out to be from a television set. United States v. … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Def gets return of property seized 7½ years ago
Defendant is entitled to return of property originally seized 7½ years ago to prosecute him that is not contraband and no longer needed. United States v. Green, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 85174 (E.D.Pa. June 30, 2015). A state law enforcement … Continue reading