Archives
-
Recent Posts
- CA6: Knowing passcode to cell phone shows common authority over it to consent
- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
- Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
- E.D.Mich.: Second SW for cell phone data retained by govt was valid
- S.D.W.Va.: “Shocking” nature of immigration raid on a Mexican restaurant at lunchtime didn’t warrant suppression
-
Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
-
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: Protective sweep
N.D.Ind.: Protective sweep during execution of arrest warrant was justified; four others inside
Officers came in with an arrest warrant, and the further protective sweep was justified because others were found inside. That protective sweep produced a sawed off shotgun. United States v. Ford, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107424 (N.D. Ind. June 27, … Continue reading
N.D.Ala.: Protective sweep of nearby shed on def’s arrest in wooded area valid
Defendant was arrested in an open wooded area, and the protective sweep of a shed near him was valid. United States v. Flanagan, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 100047 (N.D. Ala. May 29, 2019), adopted, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99228 (N.D. … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Failure to leave a copy of the SW does not require suppression
Failure to leave a copy of the search warrant does not require suppression. There is no prejudice. United States v. Robinson, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99902 (E.D. Mich. June 14, 2019). The CI was creditable because of admissions against interest … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Protective sweep can occur after an arrest at the threshold
A protective sweep can occur after an arrest at the threshold even though defendant’s girlfriend said nobody else was there. United States v. Villanueva, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89450 (D. S.D. May 29, 2019). The defendant being armed when the … Continue reading
SC: Three psuedo buys in one day was RS, and the smell of ammonia at his house justified a protective sweep
Defendant’s three purchases of pseudoephedrine in one day was reasonable suspicion that he had a meth lab to support a protective sweep because, when the dwelling door was opened, the smell of ammonia was overwhelming. State v. Kotowski, 2019 S.C. … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Primary object of SW found right inside front door, but that didn’t preclude larger search
The search warrant was for a package found right inside the front door. That did not preclude the officers from searching further in the house. Also, a protective sweep incident to execution of the search warrant was proper. Searching inside … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Way overbroad protective sweep violated Buie
The protective sweep went far beyond the requirements of Buie, searching the entire house, and it is ordered suppressed. As to “the inevitable discovery analysis, the Court finds that the Government has failed to demonstrate, by a preponderance of the … Continue reading
TX10: Exigency and protective sweep justified entry after a shooting
“The evidence presented at the suppression hearing, when viewed in the light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling, supports the denial of Weems’s motion to suppress based on either the exigent-circumstances or protective-sweep doctrines. … Specifically, once Taylor opened … Continue reading
LA1: Protective sweep completely unjustified and suppressed
Police surveilled defendant’s home for two hours before he arrived to arrest him. In that two hours, there was nothing that suggested anybody else was in the house. When police arrested him, they conducted a protective sweep which was facially … Continue reading
D.Utah: Def’s suspicionless parole search was valid under Samson
Defendant signed a parole agreement that he was subject to warrantless and suspicionless searches under Utah law. His parole condition wasn’t unconstitutional under Samson, and it doesn’t matter that law enforcement officers were along. Miranda v. United States, 2019 U.S. … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: GFE doesn’t apply to protective sweeps which must be objectively reasonable
The good faith exception cannot be applied to an overbroad protective sweep. [Yet, the court finds the exclusionary rule doesn’t apply for other reasons.] United States v. Garcia, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27861 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 22, 2019):
S.D.N.Y.: Protective sweep was invalid, and SW predicated on it is suppressed
The government’s assertion of need for protective sweep was belied by the delay in getting around to conducting it. The product of the protective sweep made it into the search warrant application, and the product of the warrant is suppressed. … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: No showing of RS for protective sweep on entry; observations in other rooms suppressed
The protective sweep of other rooms had no reasonable suspicion justification under Buie that another person might be present. There were two and they were unreasonable. The product of the walk through made it into a search warrant for the … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Cursory search of garage was permissible protective sweep
The bodycam video shows that the entry into the house for a search was by consent of a co-occupant. A cursory search of garage was permitted under protective sweep. United States v. Russell, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9977 (S.D. Ohio … Continue reading
KS: Smell of MJ at def’s door was PC it was inside; protective sweep valid
The smell of marijuana at defendant’s door was probable cause there was marijuana inside, and that justified a protective sweep to secure the premises pending getting a warrant. State v. Hubbard, 2018 Kan. LEXIS 592 (Dec. 7, 2018):
S.D.N.Y.: Protective sweep of small apt loft was valid
A protective sweep of even a small apartment’s loft and closet is valid. Plain view sustained. United States v. Green, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206238 (S.D. N.Y. Dec. 6, 2018).* The search issue is not dispositive of the case because … Continue reading
PA: Protective sweep justified by sounds of multiple people inside and delay in answering door
The sound of multiple people inside a house before anybody came to the door then seeing armor piercing ammunition inside the door justified a protective sweep. Commonwealth v. Hall, 2018 PA Super 319, 2018 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1266 (Nov. 28, … Continue reading
D.Minn.: RS supported a protective sweep even though it turned out that all people there were accounted for
“Given the existence of articulable facts and inferences to support a reasonable belief that an additional person on the scene could pose a danger to them, the protective sweep of the house was constitutional. ‘[T]hough hindsight reveals that the officers … Continue reading