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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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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)
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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: Franks doctrine
IL: “Premises known as xxx Street” in SW included detached garage on the curtilage
“[C]ourts have repeatedly and routinely held that a warrant that authorizes the search of ‘premises’ at a given residential address allows the search of detached garages, sheds, and other outbuildings even if these separate structures are not mentioned at all … Continue reading
IA: Failure to cite state constitution to trial court was a waiver
A state wildlife officer approached defendant at a boat ramp during ice fishing season. No lights; car not blocked or pulled over. It was not a “stop.” The officer approached only to see if defendant had a fishing license, and … Continue reading
CA8: Where driveway encircles house and car parked in back, curtilage not violated
Officers did not violate the curtilage by driving down a road looking for somebody when they came upon a house with a driveway that went around it, and the only car was parked behind it. They parked there and encountered … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Where parole search required RS, anonymous tip consistent with other violation information was enough
A parole search under Michigan law only requires reasonable suspicion. An anonymous tip in the past has been held not enough. Here, however, the anonymous telephone tip was consistent with some of defendant’s parole violations, so here it’s enough. United … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: “Logical inferences cannot constitute false or misleading statements” for Franks purposes
Based on a jail call that confederates were “‘moving their stuff’ to the ‘new place’” it was a logical inference it was the place named in the search warrant. Defendant’s Franks challenge that the inference isn’t supportable fails. “Logical inferences … Continue reading
CA2: Single incident of viewing CP on computer was not PC to believe CP on computer; GFE applies, however
A single access to child pornography from an IP address linked to defendant was not enough to find probable cause that the defendant had child pornography on the computer. The good faith exception, however, was sufficient to sustain the warrant … Continue reading
D.Utah: Owner of the truck doesn’t always have standing in the trailer being pulled
Defendant had no standing in a stolen trailer even though he owned the truck pulling it. Similar is United States v. Abreu, 935 F.2d 1130, 1132 (10th Cir. 1991). United States v. Hayes, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22860 (D.Utah February … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Franks challenge to search warrant for house fails for lack of material omission
“The charges against Moran arise from an assault that occurred on May 31, 2006, and its alleged relationship to the Hell’s Angels Motorcycle Club, Rochester Charter (‘Hell’s Angels’), a purported enterprise within the meaning of the racketeering statute.” After an … Continue reading
CA6: Violation of some regulations may be “sloppy police work” that doesn’t make out a constitutional violation
There was probable cause for this § 1983 plaintiff’s arrest. While there may have been some violations of police regulations in how the controlled buy went down, a little “sloppy police work” that doesn’t make out a constitutional violation. Womack … Continue reading
BLT: Florida Federal Prosecutor Disciplined Over Warrant Application
BLT: Florida Federal Prosecutor Disciplined Over Warrant Application by Zoe Tillman: A federal prosecutor in Florida was recently disciplined for providing false information to a U.S. magistrate judge’s secretary about a tracker warrant application.
D.Kan.: Omission of items from return not prejudicial; using footnotes in SW affidavit isn’t “hiding” information
First, defendant’s Franks argument fails. The negative information that he complains about not being more prominently displayed was “hidden” in a footnote in the 42 page affidavit. There is nothing that says that there can’t be information in footnotes. Second, … Continue reading
Nexus: Drug dealer’s homes usually have the stash
Nexus to defendant’s house for a drug search warrant was established by his leaving his house to do drug deals then coming right home. It’s common for drug dealers to keep their stash at home. State v. Hogan, 2014 Tenn. … Continue reading
Tech Crunch: Expert Witness For Silk Road Suggests FBI Lied About How They Accessed Back-End Servers
Tech Crunch: Expert Witness For Silk Road Suggests FBI Lied About How They Accessed Back-End Server by John Biggs: According to a court document released today, expert witness Joshua J. Horowitz, a lawyer and tech expert, believes the FBI is … Continue reading
D.Md.: Franks challenge successful but so limited it won’t help the defense much
The defense satisfied the court of a reckless omission of information about living arrangements in the house searched under the warrant, but the omission only leads to suppression of evidence from one room because that’s all the omission related to. … Continue reading
WA: Defendant was separated from his backpack, so it couldn’t be searched incident to arrest
During a Terry stop, the officer separated defendant from his backpack, and the backpack was searched about 10 minutes later when defendant was placed under arrest. The backpack was thus not on defendant’s person nor within his area of control … Continue reading
CA7: Defense counsel’s security clearance doesn’t help see FISA material for Franks challenge
Just because defense counsel has security clearance, he doesn’t get to see all the material used in a FISA warrant for a Franks challenge. Balancing is required. On de novo review, defense counsel doesn’t get it. United States v. Daoud, … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Officer’s testimony the falsity in the SW affidavit was a “mere mistake” good enough to overcome Franks
False statement in an affidavit was testified to being a “mere mistake” in reporting information so the good faith exception still applies. If the officer testified it was a “mere mistake,” well, then, it can’t be wilfully false. Thus, the … Continue reading