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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 -
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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Briefs online (but no amicus briefs)
Oyez Project (NWU)
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General (many free):
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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
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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) -
“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
E.D.Pa.: Tearing down plaintiff’s building was a seizure under Soldal
Tearing down plaintiff’s building was a seizure under Soldal. The record thus far precludes summary judgment. Dvortsova v. City of Philadelphia, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23868 (E.D.Pa. Feb. 9, 2022). Defendant’s 2255 claim that defense counsel was ineffective for not … Continue reading
NY2: Def stated IAC claim that defense counsel never looked at SW materials
Defendant stated a claim for ineffective assistance of counsel that defense counsel never obtained the search warrant materials to even investigate. Reversed to have the state produce it. People v. Tindley, 2022 NY Slip Op 00886, 2022 N.Y. App. Div. … Continue reading
NC: Objection to seized evidence without a motion to suppress is waiver
Defendant objected at trial to admission of evidence, but it was not a timely motion to suppress. It is waived. State v. Draughon, 2022-NCCOA-58, 2022 N.C. App. LEXIS 53 (Feb. 1, 2022). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not moving to … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: 6 day delay in getting SW for seized cell phones not unreasonable
There was a six day delay between seizure of six cell phones and issuance of a search warrant for them. This was reasonable under CA11 precedent. Moreover, the good faith exception applies. United States v. Norwood, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
MO: Prosecutor can’t be sued for making a file decision based on the search of ptf’s computer
Plaintiff sued a prosecutor for various things including the “privacy tort ‘of unreasonable intrusion into private facts.’” His computer was searched under a warrant and potential privileged material was obtained. Plaintiff’s own complaint says the prosecutor was given the information … Continue reading
D.Colo.: No REP in the “people’s house” on 1/6 because ptf wasn’t there
Plaintiff is an attorney pro se alleging, inter alia, a Fourth Amendment violation in Colorado against a member of the House of Representatives for the January 6th insurrection. He claims a Fourth Amendment in the “people’s house” when he doesn’t … Continue reading
CA7: Record supported finding that stop was not unreasonably extended
Whether a traffic stop was unreasonably extended for a drug dog to arrive is reviewed for clear error. The stop here was for overtinting, and the officer processed a warning by entering the information into the patrol car’s computer. He … Continue reading
DE: Def counsel not ineffective for not forecasting Jones GPS case
“Because the Court will not find trial counsel ineffective for failing to ‘effectively’ raise an issue of first impression [on GPS placement], and because the Court believes that even if he had done so effectively, the issue would not have … Continue reading
CA1: Def preserved Rodriguez argument without citing it
Defendant preserved his Rodriguez argument by stating that the stop was continued without reasonable suspicion but not citing the case. Nevertheless, he loses on the merits. United States v. Reyes, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 1417 (1st Cir. Jan. 19, 2022). … Continue reading
Never 4A IAC without a meritorious claim
“Movant is not entitled to relief on Ground One because he fails to show that a motion to suppress on such grounds would have been meritorious because (1) his detention during the search was not unlawful and (2) he fails … Continue reading
CA4: Conclusory allegations don’t satisfy Franks
“In arguing that he was entitled to a Franks hearing, Landaverde-Giron relies only on his own conclusory allegations to demonstrate intentional falsity or reckless disregard for the truth by the affiant. He points to no evidence supporting his conclusion that … Continue reading
CO: Particularity of cell phone SW was harmless error and didn’t even have to be decided
Defendant’s claim that his cell phone search warrant violated the particularity requirement does not have to be decided because, if error, it is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt on this record. Pettigrew v. People, 2022 CO 2, 2022 Colo. LEXIS … Continue reading
MT: Lawyer suspended for telling client to refuse to cooperate in execution of a SW
A lawyer telling his girlfriend-client to refuse to cooperate in DUI blood draw by search warrant is suspended for 30 days. Multiple officers were ultimately involved with a restraint chair brought in before she relented. The lawyer was also convicted … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Not IAC to not raise every suppression issue def wants
Defense counsel had the discretion not to make every argument defendant wanted on a suppression motion. “It is well within counsel’s constitutional discretion to make the decision to raise or not raise certain arguments at a suppression hearing. That counsel … Continue reading
CA6: Torres v. Madrid not a new constitutional rule for successor habeas
Torres v. Madrid did not announce a new constitutional rule for an ineffective assistance of counsel claim in a successor habeas. In re Foster, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 141 (6th Cir. Jan. 3, 2022). “Considering that reasonable suspicion ‘is not, … Continue reading
TN: Even if a viable motion to suppress existed, it was reasonable strategy to work a plea deal considering all the evidence of guilt
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not filing a suppression motion and working a plea deal instead. First, with the mountain of evidence against defendant, it was wise to work out a deal and avoid sentencing after trial for sexual assault … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Criminal history questions during traffic stop reasonably related to officer safety
“Officer Nisivaco’s questions about the offense for which Carson was on parole and the recency of his gun offense were permissible, ‘negligibly burdensome precautions’ taken to ensure officer safety. Rodriguez, 575 U.S. at 356.” Asking about whether he was up … Continue reading
NY4: Evidence tech’s warrantless further search of premises unreasonable
The evidence technician’s testimony at the suppression hearing did not establish that a further search of the premises was necessary as part of an emergency. She knew dead person on the premises had already been pronounced when she got there. … Continue reading
MA: Driver’s and passenger’s conduct during traffic stop helped create RS for frisk of passenger in backseat
During a traffic stop, the driver and front seat passenger were argumentative and threatening for a fight. The officers surmised that this was a distraction from the vehicle because it could have a firearm in it. On the totality, there … Continue reading
W.D.La.: In a § 1983 suit over a SW, informer privilege prevents disclosure here
In a § 1983 suit over a search warrant, the defendants plead informer privilege to prevent disclosure of the CI that led to the search. Denied. Informant privilege stronger in civil cases than criminal. There was also significant other information … Continue reading