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Recent Posts
- M.D.Fla.: Unidentified pills in driver’s lap may have been RS but it wasn’t PC for arrest
- D.C.Cir.: It was reasonable for officers to conclude that evidence or instrumentalities of the crime would be found in the car used in a robbery
- CA7: Officer’s warrantless view of CSAM flagged by hash value was not unreasonable
- 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
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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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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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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
S.D.Cal.: Two border crossings at San Ysidro in 12 hrs added to reasonable suspicion
Reasonable suspicion for a stop 70 miles from the border was supported by the fact the car had crossed into the U.S. at San Ysidro twice in 12 hours. United States v. Garcia-Grimshaw, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 173631 (S.D. Cal. … Continue reading
CA5: Finding drugs in a car was probable cause to search other containers in the car
Finding drugs in a car was probable cause to search other containers in the car, here a bag. United States v. Leal, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 23777 (5th Cir. February 7, 2014).* Defense counsel was not ineffective for withdrawing a … Continue reading
In OR, driver arrested for suspended DL can hand off purse to passenger without search
When defendant was stopped and arrested for driving on a suspended DL, she refused consent to search her purse and wanted it given to the passenger for safekeeping. The police should have honored that request. The search of the purse … Continue reading
D.Minn.: The scene of a shooting is nexus for a SW
The scene of a shooting is a logical place to find evidence of the shooting. Therefore, that’s nexus, and probable cause exists. United States v. Strong, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 170882 (D. Minn. November 21, 2014). Defense counsel was not … Continue reading
CA11: Exactly when the officer found out about the arrest warrant for defendant when the search incident occurred really doesn’t matter; there was a warrant
Exactly when the officer found out about the warrant for defendant when the search incident occurred really doesn’t matter. “A valid warrant for Freeman’s arrest existed when Officer Miller searched him. Regardless of whether the dispatcher had confirmed the warrant … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: IAC claim for illegal search denied because it lacked specifics
“‘Ellis submits that some of the evidence seized were [sic] so done in violation of his Fourth Amendment right[s] against unreasonable search and seizure.’ (Mem. Supp. § 2255 Mot. 6-7.) Ellis supplies no basis upon which counsel could have filed … Continue reading
DE: No RS for this probation search based on unverified tip
Delaware requires that there be reasonable suspicion for a probation search. Here, a police officer passed on an unverified tip from an informant that defendant was selling drugs, and that was used for a home visit. Defendant had a couple … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Mistaken reference to SW attachment no. is saved by good faith exception
An FBI agent was under investigation for bribery for selling information about an investigation. The government showed probable cause for e-mail and cell phone search warrants. The SW cross-referenced Attachment II when it should have said III, and that was … Continue reading
D.Kan.: SW info was stale, so no good faith exception
“The validity of a warrant is not determined by ‘nit-picking’ discreet portions of the application. Rather, the test is whether, under the totality of the circumstances presented in the affidavit, the issuing judge had a ‘substantial basis’ for determining that … Continue reading
W.D.Wis.: Legal advice given before the right to counsel attaches can’t be IAC
Legal advice rendered before the right to counsel attaches with the initiation of adversarial proceedings cannot be the basis for an IAC claim. Ryan v. United States, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 135932 (W.D. Wis. September 19, 2014): Petitioner’s withdrawal of … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Dirty license plate justified stop even though it was called in during stop
Defendant’s stop for having a dirty obscured license plate was justified even though the officer was able to call it in when parked right behind him. The butt of a shotgun was visible in the vehicle and defendant was a … Continue reading
ID: Crosswalk sting led to valid stop
A crosswalk sting [seeing if motorists would stop for pedestrians] led to defendant’s stop and he was under the influence. The stop was valid. State v. Haugland, 2014 Ida. App. LEXIS 94 (September 8, 2014).* A traffic stop can be … Continue reading
D.Me.: New issue in reply brief after motion hearing is waived
Raising a new issue on a motion to suppress in the reply brief is a waiver because the government didn’t get to address it at the hearing. United States v. Young, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122221 (D. Me. September 1, … Continue reading