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- D.Utah: Minor time detours to writing up a traffic ticket didn’t unreasonable 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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General (many free):
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FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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)
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"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
OH12: Without def bringing up a suppression hearing transcript, findings uncontradicted
With no transcript of the suppression hearing, there’s nothing to contradict the trial court’s findings. State v. Harding, 2017-Ohio-8930, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 5373 (12th Dist. Dec. 11, 2017). Defense counsel’s failure to file a motion to suppress wasn’t ineffective … Continue reading
DE: IAC 4A claim requires alleging then showing that the motion to suppress not pursued would have been granted
Defendant wanted to plead guilty in his drug case at the first appearance, and defense counsel persuaded him to wait until discovery was complete. Defendant then wanted to plead, but later he claimed that defense counsel failed to consider all … Continue reading
TN: Proving 4A IAC normally requires a witness
“‘If a petitioner alleges that trial counsel rendered ineffective assistance of counsel by failing to … file a motion to suppress … the petitioner is generally obliged to present the witness or the other evidence at the post-conviction hearing in … Continue reading
CA5: COA granted on whether District Court should have held a hearing on IAC claim, but pet’r didn’t brief it. Affirmed.
“Our court granted Pryor a COA on one issue: whether the district court abused its discretion in denying Rule 60(b) relief from the denial of his § 2255 motion, by refusing to consider pages missing from his affidavit in opposition … Continue reading
MA: Def counsel gave IAC for not moving to suppress cell phone data; just because it might be interesting isn’t PC
Defendant received ineffective assistance of counsel by counsel’s failure to file a motion to suppress the search of defendant’s cell phone. The affidavit for the search warrant did not establish probable cause to search the phone. The mere fact two … Continue reading
TX13: If a motion to suppress was made under McNeely it would have been granted; def received IAC
Defense counsel’s misapprehension of the application of McNeely to blood test results was ineffective assistance of counsel. If a motion to suppress had been made, it would have been granted. Briggs v. State, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS 10891 (Tex. App. … Continue reading
M.D.N.C.: To credit def’s 2255 was to then show he repeatedly lied to arresting officers; denied
Defendant’s 2255 version of events was implausible because, to prevail on this claim, he’d have to admit that he repeatedly lied to the officers who interviewed him when he consented to a search of his computers. That’s reason enough to … Continue reading
GA: Protective sweep of a house after a street fight and stabbing outside and a brief standoff with a cut def was reasonable
A protective sweep of defendant’s house right after his arrest was reasonable. Officers responded to a 911 call about a street fight and a possible stabbing. A dying victim was found in the street, and another victim was in hysterics. … Continue reading
D.S.D.: Pinging cell phone to locate def after arrest warrant issued didn’t implicate 4A
Pinging defendant’s cell phone to locate him after an arrest warrant issued didn’t implicate the Fourth Amendment. There was also exigency from fear for safety of the CI and of destruction of evidence. United States v. Sauceda, 2017 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
OH8: 4A IAC claim requires defendant allege and offer proof of standing
Defendant doesn’t allege any facts to support that he had standing such that a motion to suppress would be granted. Therefore, no IAC shown. State v. Musleh, 2017-Ohio-8166, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 4533 (8th Dist. Oct. 12, 2017).* Defendant’s 2255 … Continue reading
IAC claims fail because of conclusory allegations or inability to show prejudice
Defendant’s conclusory 2255 allegations of IAC fail. “Defendant does not establish that, had counsel objected to the indictment and moved to suppress evidence, that the objections and motions would have been granted and that the outcome of his trial would … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: Defense counsel not ineffective for not raising search issue where law was uncertain at best in jurisdiction
Counsel was not ineffective for failing to challenge evidence obtained from an electronic surveillance device (truck bug) unlawfully installed in a vehicle outside of the authorizing court’s geographic jurisdiction. In light of the deeply unsettled law on the question of … Continue reading
OH12: SW for text messages on cell phone was particular when limited to one person’s messages
Defendant was a police officer who was suspected of sexual battery of a student ride along. There were text messages, and a search warrant was obtained for his cell phone. The lack of a time frame for the text messages … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Suspicionless parole search of def’s cell phone was reasonable
Defendant was on parole for pimping an underage prostitute out of California, and he had a warrantless search condition on his cell phone. The suspicionless parole search of the phone was reasonable. United States v. Monson, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
DE: While there was a plausible motion to suppress waived by the guilty plea, the plea offer was advantageous and undermines the prejudice
There was a good premise for a motion to suppress the probation search here from a 14 year old consenting to entry, but defendant’s benefit from the plea agreement shows that there was no prejudice. State v. Wallace, 2017 Del. … Continue reading
E.D.Wash.: No REP in jail calls
Defendant’s jail calls were not obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Angulo, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 190187 (E.D. Wash. March 18, 2015). Defendant challenges defense counsel’s performance in not asking the right questions during the suppression … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: IAC search claim, even if successful, wouldn’t undermine conspiracy conviction
Defense counsel’s failure to move to suppress was not ineffective assistance of counsel because (1) it wasn’t shown to be meritorious and (2) wouldn’t affect the outcome of the conspiracy conviction. United States v. Aybar, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155112 … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Under collective knowledge doctrine, the officer making the stop doesn’t need to know the PC
There was probable cause from collective knowledge for defendant’s stop and the search of his vehicle for a hidden compartment with drugs, even though the stopping officer didn’t know what it was. United States v. Isshpunani, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA11: Def stated enough to get a hearing on a 4A IAC claim in his 2255 action
Defendant raised a colorable claim of a Fourth Amendment violation and ineffective assistance in not pursuing it. Therefore, the district court erred in just assuming defendant would lose on any motion to suppress without a hearing. Reversed. Spriggs v. United … Continue reading