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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
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
Electronic Privacy Information Center
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
CA9: Denial of a suppression hearing is reviewed for abuse of discretion; no contested facts, no abuse
Denial of a suppression hearing is reviewed for abuse of discretion. Here, there were no contested facts, and the district court found that the use of a flashlight to illuminate defendant’s car seeing a gun in plain view was reasonable. … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: In rejecting a search argument, defense counsel isn’t obligated to explain all the legal theories to the client to then discount them
In explaining a guilty plea, it isn’t necessary for counsel to explain to the client all the legal theories for and against a search (among other issues) before discarding them. Counsel was not ineffective. Chrzaszcz v. United States, 2014 U.S. … Continue reading
D.S.C.: Nexus shown simply by drug dealer going home after the sale
The affidavit here was short, but not “bare bones.” Also, nexus is shown because defendant left the drug deal and went home. United States v. Hooks, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 183573 (D.S.C. April 21, 2014). 2255 petitioner did not show … Continue reading
IL: IAC where defendant would have won nonappealed search issue
Defense counsel was ineffective in not appealing a valid motion to suppress that had been denied by the trial court but, on the merits, would have been reversed. Going to the merits of the search and seizure claim, defendant would … Continue reading
NC: Open container in plain view permitted a search incident for more evidence
Defendant’s stop led to plain view of an open container. That justified a search incident for more because, after all, the console could hold beer cans, even if the officer could have merely issued a citation. State v. Fizovic, 2015 … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Defendant not entitled to new counsel where appointed counsel wouldn’t file a frivolous motion to suppress
Defendant’s motion for appointment of new counsel because defense counsel refused to file a motion to suppress is denied. The motion was patently frivolous. Defendant was detained by Home Depot employees for shoplifting, and they removed a gun from him. … Continue reading
D.Nev.: No reasonable mistake of law where only case on point says no RS for stop
A Nevada statute proscribes things “upon” the windshield. Air fresheners hanging from the mirror don’t violate the statute. The only Ninth Circuit case involves an almost identical city code provision, and that court held that something hanging from the mirror … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Having def roll up sleeves to photograph his tattoos at time of arrest was reasonable
Officers investigating child pornography found an outstanding arrest warrant for defendant, so they went and executed it first and did a search incident of the person. They also got a search warrant. They seized a cell phone and got a … Continue reading
GA: Cell phone search for evidence of “planning or premeditation to commit murder” or participation was not overbroad
Defendant was accused of being called to come and aid cousins in a fight, and a murder occurred. The police found five cell phones at the scene and seized them. A search warrant was issued for the cell phones for … Continue reading
D.Me.: Car with windows covered by curtains wasn’t the same as a home
2255 petitioner can’t show that he’d prevail on the merits of the search issues that counsel waived by not filing a motion to suppress. His car with windows covered by curtains wasn’t the same as a home, and it was … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Facially deficient motion to suppress is rejected on the merits
Defendant’s motion to suppress evidence and statements is deficient in what it alleges, so the court goes with the government’s version and denies the motion. United States v. Aleem, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 182475 (N.D.N.Y. April 30, 2014). Officers had … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: The collective knowledge rule applies to traffic stops on reasonable suspicion
The collective knowledge rule applies to traffic stops on reasonable suspicion. Questioning while defendant is rummaging around for this papers does not extend the stop. United States v. Saldana, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23850 (W.D.Tex. February 27, 2015). The argument … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: No IAC where def counsel didn’t argue nonbinding authority that likely wouldn’t be followed in this circuit
Defense counsel was not ineffective for not arguing a case from out of the circuit that would likely not be followed in this circuit. “Had counsel argued under precedent from other circuits that charges of child molestation did not justify … Continue reading
D.Ore.: Second cell phone search warrant 29 mo after first was not unreasonable
The first search warrant for defendant’s phones was valid, and the government could have still used the phones as evidence. But, 29 months later, the government sought a second search warrant to look at the phone again, and found more … Continue reading