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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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Solicitor General's site
SCOTUSreport
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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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
E.D.Tenn.: 2255 gets hearing on IAC claim; court can’t say that waived issue was meritless or strategic
“Yet, as illustrated above, the record does not contain sufficient information from which the Court can find that a suppression motion would have been meritless. As a result, the Court concludes that an evidentiary hearing is required on this claim. … Continue reading
OR: Search incident to arrest warrant found on unlawful detention suppressed; no attenuation
An unlawful detention without reasonable suspicion led to a warrants check, finding a warrant, and then a search. Since the stop was unreasonable, the finding of the warrant could not be attenuated from it. State v. Benning, 273 Ore. App. … Continue reading
IA: Def counsel not charged with anticipating changes in law; no IAC for not arguing an issue adopted two years after appeal
Defense counsel was not ineffective for not arguing an issue that was not decided for the defense under the state constitution until two years after his appeal was decided. Counsel is not charged with anticipating changes in the law under … Continue reading
CA9: The statute of limitations for a § 1983 search claim runs from the date of the search
The statute of limitations for a § 1983 search claim runs from the date of the search. Belanus v. Clark, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 13648 (9th Cir. August 5, 2015). Defendant wasn’t prejudiced by defense counsel’s failure to challenge the … Continue reading
CA6: Michigan’s state forfeiture law doesn’t deprive due process after an officer seizes money
Officers can issue a notice of forfeiture under Michigan law, and the person subject to the forfeiture has a valid state remedy, and that satisfies due process. “Officer Jones’s testimony is troubling, and municipalities should take care to operate within … Continue reading
OH10: A CODIS hit on defendant’s DNA was probable cause for a confirmatory DNA test
A CODIS hit on defendant’s DNA was probable cause for a confirmatory DNA test. State v. Goins, 2015-Ohio-3121, 2015 Ohio App. LEXIS 3039 (10th Dist. August 4, 2015). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not pursuing a motion to suppress before … Continue reading
D.Minn.: If warrant lacked PC or was defective, def’s admissions in questioning would have led to another search warrant based on more, so inevitable discovery applies
Police doing a child porn investigation with an allegedly defective search warrant come to defendant to talk about it, and his admissions are enough that the police would have obtained a search warrant if they already didn’t have one. Therefore, … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Inevitable discovery applies; def counsel overlooked suppression motion, but it wouldn’t have won
The state conceded that defense counsel’s failure to file a motion to suppress satisfied the performance prong of Strickland. At issue, however, was the prejudice prong, and that failure did not amount to prejudice because the evidence would have been … Continue reading
D.Md.: Strategic basis for waiving motion to suppress: it improved plea bargain
Defense counsel filed a colorable motion to suppress that here apparently improved defendant’s plea bargaining position. Thus it was reasonable to waive the motion for the plea, and there was no ineffective assistance. Walker v. United States, 2015 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: Lack of an arrest warrant does not mean they didn’t have probable cause
Officers had probable cause to arrest defendant for child pornography before the search warrant was executed on his place. The lack of an arrest warrant does not mean they didn’t have probable cause. United States v. Ruiz, 2014 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: There was PC for a Facebook account SW
There was probable cause for a Facebook account search warrant for defendant’s account, and it was limited in time so it was not overbroad. Also, the good faith exception would apply. United States v. Lowry, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 93257 … Continue reading
CA9: Not questioning search likely sound strategy where defense at trial was disassociation from the drugs and the place they were found
Defendant’s IAC claim on his search isn’t proper for direct appeal, and it should proceed in a 2255. “However, counsel may have had strategic reasons not to file a suppression motion to avoid having Birrueta testify. For example, testifying at … Continue reading
AK: Slightly changing search incident argument on appeal and including Gant was changing the issue
Defendant raised a search incident claim about his arrest: “(1) the toiletry bag was not “immediately associated” with his person, and because (2) the search of the bag was not sufficiently contemporaneous with his arrest.” On appeal, however, he raised … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: IAC overbroad search claim requires SW be attached or otherwise in the record
In a 2255 IAC, defendant’s claim that defense counsel was ineffective for not challenging the search warrant of his hotel room as overbroad fails without attaching the warrant so the court can see. It’s not otherwise in the record. United … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Def lacked standing in any event, so whether defense counsel was ineffective for not calling him as witness at suppression hearing is moot
2255 petitioner had no standing, even on his own allegations, so whether defense counsel was ineffective for not calling him to testify to standing was moot. “Because the Court finds that Campbell’s underlying claim to have had a reasonable expectation … Continue reading
CA9: Stone v. Powell bar and the full and fair litigation requirement survived adoption of the AEDPA
Stone v. Powell bar and the full and fair litigation requirement survived adoption of the habeas limitations of AEDPA. Newman v. Wengler, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 10094 (9th Cir. June 16, 2015). [This may be the only case to ever … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Charged, but yet unproved, conduct can appear in a search warrant affidavit
There were four GPS warrants on the defendant’s car, owned by his wife, June-October 2014, renewed in state court every 30 days. The court can’t conclude they were started on stale information since it referred to an ongoing drug operation. … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Search of trash container on driveway where public was impliedly invited was not violation of curtilage
The court agrees that an entry into the curtilage to search a trash container would implicate Jardines, but it finds here that the entry onto the front part of the defendant’s property to the trash container was still the area … Continue reading