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- D.Utah: Minor detours to writing up a traffic ticket didn’t unreasonably extend this stop; the dog was quickly on its way
- KY: Despite lack of nexus, SW sustained under GFE
- CO: DNA could be seized from trash
- CA8: Nebraska statute allowing SWs to cross state lines doesn’t violate 4A
- WA: Sweat patch as condition of release violated state constitution’s privacy provision
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ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
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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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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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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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: Ineffective assistance
ID: State didn’t preserve independent source issue below so it can’t argue it on appeal
A motion to suppress cell phone contents was granted, and the state appealed. At trial, it cited a case without stating the holding that was an independent source case, and that’s not enough. In addition, the state didn’t litigate independent … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: A felon threatening somebody with a gun is nexus to believe the gun at his home
Defendant being a felon and allegedly threatening his alleged victim with a gun was nexus that he’d likely have it at home. United States v. Edwards, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112265 (N.D. Okla. July 8, 2019). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective … Continue reading
CA7: Burglar had no REP in his own backpack carried in
Defendant was stopped and searched as a suspected burglar in a house he had no business being in. Because his presence was “wrongful,” he had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the backpack he carried in. United States v. Sawyer, … Continue reading
GA: No IAC to not object to reference to SW as somehow lowering burden of proof at trial
It was not ineffective assistance of counsel to not object to a police reference to having obtained a search warrant as somehow lowering the state’s burden of proof on guilt in the trial. Franklin v. State, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA11: Officers get QI for stop of apparent burglars
The defendant officers’ actions were justified and subject to qualified immunity. They were patrolling an area known for daytime burglaries and saw plaintiff lurking along the side of homes and stopped to inquire and found that one house was open. … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Record supports def abandoned CD-Rom of CP
The record supports the conclusion that defendant abandoned a CD-Rom of child pornography, and defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not pursuing it. Rogers v. Sec’y, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107788 (M.D. Fla. June 27, 2019).* The trial court’s finding there … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: No IAC in foregoing motion to suppress to tamp down more bad facts and plea bargain instead
Facing a 21 U.S.C. § 851 enhancement, it was objectively reasonable strategy for defense counsel to forego a doubtful motion to suppress that would dredge up additional bad facts and make plea bargaining harder. Thomas v. United States, 2019 U.S. … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: No 4A claim for prison lockdown and shakedown for drugs
There is no Fourth Amendment claim available to an inmate at USP Marion for prison wide shakedowns for two days after drugs came in and the prison went into lockdown. Kammeyer v. True, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 107060 (S.D. Ill. … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: Def’s 2255 4A IAC claim was speculative at best and denied
Defendant claims his attorney was ineffective for failing to tell him about a possible motion to suppress, and, thus, he wouldn’t have pled guilty. The court, however, finds no facts anywhere in the case supporting even an inference there was … Continue reading
D.Mont.: PC to arrest also justifies extension of a stop
There was probable cause to arrest, and that also justified the extension of the stop. The actual arrest doesn’t have to happen during the extension. United States v. Phillips, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 89962 (D. Mont. April 12, 2019), adopted, … Continue reading
DC: To get the benefit of Heien mistake of law, there has to be something that shows the law mistakenly applied actually applied, and here it didn’t
A D.C. police car stopped, backed up, and four officers got out of the car, walked over to defendant, and told him to “get up.” A reasonable person would not have believed he was free to leave, and this stop … Continue reading
CA11: 4A claim can’t be brought in a successor 2255
Defendant filed a successor 2255 over the alleged nonexistence of his search warrant, and this doesn’t state ground for a successor petition. “Even if Mallety had presented evidence that the search of the Eden Street apartment was conducted without a … Continue reading
CA5: 4A IAC for not challenging search doesn’t avoid deportation
“Even if these arguments pose a constitutional claim that we may review, the IJ and BIA did not abuse their discretion in denying Trevino’s motion to reopen on the basis that his guilty plea was invalid due to ineffective assistance … Continue reading
TX3: Littering supports a stop
Littering by tossing a cigarette supports a stop. Two statutes apply when it’s something burning: one if a fire results, one if not. This was the latter. Defendant was found DWI. State v. Wood, 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 4215 (Tex. … Continue reading
GA: Giving computer password out gives recipient apparent authority to consent
Giving one’s wife the password to the computer showed that she had apparent authority to consent to its search. Massey v. State, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 267 (May 21, 2019). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not pursuing a motion to … Continue reading
No 4A IAC where motion to suppress couldn’t prevail
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not filing a motion to suppress an alleged consent search where defendant admitted to counsel that he’d consented. It is not “mandatory” that defense counsel file a motion under that circumstance. State v. Martinez-Melgar, 2019 … Continue reading
E.D.Wis.: In camera submissions to rebut Franks claim should have had a hearing
An in camera submission of materials to rebut defendant’s Franks claim required a hearing. Defendant was entitled to see it and then respond. United States v. Lewis, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81937 (E.D. Wis. May 15, 2019), reconsideration denied, 2019 … Continue reading
CA11: Petitioner’s 2255 fails for speculation and then lack of showing of prejudice
Petitioner’s 2255 fails for speculation and then lack of showing of prejudice. “First, Mathis asserted that counsel was ineffective for failing to fully investigate the forensic evidence to discover that his cell phone had been accessed by law enforcement prior … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Pro se ptf stated claim for abusive strip search in jail
Pro se prison plaintiff stated a claim for a strip search for in an improper purpose at least at the pleading stage. He also states a retaliation claim that another search occurred where the defendant referred to the lawsuit in … Continue reading