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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) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
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Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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State courts (and some USDC opinions)
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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
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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)
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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)
ACLU on privacy
Privacy Foundation
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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: Ineffective assistance
D.C.Cir.: Question of fact remains on whether PC dissipated before second handcuffing
“We reverse the district court’s grant of summary judgment on the false arrest claims for two reasons. First, there is a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether probable cause for the simple assault charge dissipated before Lin was … Continue reading
CA8: Pre-Jardines dog sniff at apt door saved by GFE
Pre-Jardines dog sniff at the door of an apartment was valid when it happened, so it is saved by the good faith exception under Davis. United States v. Perez, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 22977 (8th Cir. Aug. 18, 2022). “In … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Air freshener in a non-smoking rental car factor in RS
“[T]he air freshener in a non-smoking rental car was an early and legitimate basis for suspicion to be aroused. In general, the use of air fresheners is a recognized factor contributing to reasonable suspicion.” United States v. Hawari-Rasulullah, 2022 U.S. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Police delay in responding to 911 call in part belied exigency
There no longer was exigency, in part here from the police delay in responding to 911 call, and what was observed was innocuous. No exigency on the totality. Cotten v. Miller, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 139360 (D. Minn. Aug. 5, … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: A SW for those suspected of sending in drug-laced fake legal papers
For defense lawyers wondering about the increase in searches of legal mail, this case involved a search warrant of the house of someone suspected to sending in drug laced fake legal papers into federal prisons. Barker v. United States, 2022 … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Small closed container in a gun case was properly searched incident to arrest
Officers entered the home on an arrest warrant and consent. Inside, they saw a gun case. A search of a small closed container in the gun case was reasonable incident to arrest. If it was in a dresser drawer or … Continue reading
TX finally approves of anticipatory warrants
Texas high court finally approves of anticipatory warrants. Parker v. State, 2022 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 470 (July 27, 2022). On his motion for reconsideration, defendant’s Franks challenge still fails. There’s probable cause without the challenged information. “Courts long have … Continue reading
CA8: Vehicle inventory after arrest on outstanding warrant was reasonable
Defendant was arrested by tribal and federal officers on an outstanding warrant. The inventory search of his vehicle thereafter followed policy and was reasonable. United States v. Blacksmith, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 20084 (8th Cir. July 21, 2022).* “Accordingly, considering … Continue reading
MS: Minor errors in paperwork didn’t obscure a thing and didn’t prejudice def
Minor errors in the paperwork for the warrant were not prejudicial to defendant. There was no challenge to probable cause, and the papers as a whole show the warrant timely executed after issuance. Jenkins v. State, 2022 Miss. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
D.Md.: Def did not go to trial because counsel misstated the chances of success of a suppression motion
Defendant’s ineffective assistance of counsel of counsel claim for allegedly misstating the chances of success of a suppression motion is rejected. It was complex but not frivolous, and it was rejected and affirmed on appeal. Defense counsel didn’t misstate anything. … Continue reading
CA11: No IAC; hypothetical motion to suppress would fail
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective. The “hypothetical motion” to suppress would fail. Spriggs v. United States, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 17933 (11th Cir. June 29, 2022).* The rationale:
CO: State can’t pile hunch on hunch to try to get to PC
“Colorado State Patrol (‘CSP’) Trooper Christian Bollen had a hunch, and then another hunch, and then another hunch. And he acted on those hunches, despite a circumstance directly undermining them.” “An officer’s hunch is insufficient to establish reasonable suspicion to … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Trash pull corroborated CI
Here a trash pull corroborated the CI. United States v. Ledee, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109859 (M.D. Pa. June 21, 2022). Defendant’s traffic stop for crossing the fog line was supported by the dashcam video. United States v. Webb, 2022 … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Whether RV was immobile and used as a residence doesn’t matter where GFE applies
“In his third numbered objection, Lee argues that contrary to Officer Kennedy’s testimony, the RV was completely immobile at the time it was searched and that it was being used as a residence. But whether the RV was mobile or … Continue reading
CA9: Failure to deliver SW at scene of search violated Rule 41, but no suppression here
Failure to deliver the whole search warrant to defendant violated Rule 41(f)(1)(C), but it wasn’t deliberate so no suppression. United States v. Manaku, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 16337 (9th Cir. June 14, 2022). 2254 petitioner’s ineffective assistance of counsel for … Continue reading
CA7: Inevitable impoundment of car mooted claim dog jumped in car
Defendant’s car was inevitably going to be searched after impoundment, so the question of the drug dog jumping into the car doesn’t have to be decided. United States v. Overton, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 16158 (7th Cir. June 13, 2022). … Continue reading
TN follows Kimmelman for 4A IAC claims
Tennessee follows Kimmelman: “Upon our review of the record and applicable law, we conclude that to establish prejudice with this type of claim, the petitioner must prove that ‘his Fourth Amendment claim is meritorious and that there is a reasonable … Continue reading
NY Bronx: REP in one’s apartment building mailbox
Defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his mailbox in an apartment building from unreasonable searches. A search warrant was sought through the Bronx DA, but they were short staffed and recommended the officers get landlord consent. That was … Continue reading
OH8: Disavowing reliance on Franks at suppression hearing is waiver
Defendant’s disavowing the search issue in his motion to suppress involved Franks is waiver for appeal. The state sought clarification it wasn’t an issue and got it. State v. Claytor, 2022-Ohio-1938, 2022 Ohio App. LEXIS 1812 (8th Dist. June 9, … Continue reading