November 2025 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Archives
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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 / 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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S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
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First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
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LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
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: Dog sniff
E.D.Mo.: [Without waiting for Rodriguez,] littering stop can justify use of a drug dog
Littering stop validly led to a dog sniff without reasonable suspicion being required [and couldn’t wait for Rodriguez?]. United States v. Woods, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 180639 (E.D. Mo. December 16, 2014). An off-duty officer observed defendant involved in a … Continue reading
WaPo: The Supreme Court’s massive blind spot
WaPo: The Supreme Court’s massive blind spot by Radley Balko: This term, the Supreme Court heard two cases involving the actions of police officers during traffic stops. How the court comes down on the two cases will likely have significant … Continue reading
Reason.com: Sotomayor to Justice Department Lawyer: ‘We Can’t Keep Bending the Fourth Amendment to the Resources of Law Enforcement’
Reason.com: Sotomayor to Justice Department Lawyer: ‘We Can’t Keep Bending the Fourth Amendment to the Resources of Law Enforcement’ by Damon Root: Sonia Sotomayor stands up for the Fourth Amendment in drug-sniffing dog case.
Courthouse News Service: Justices Weigh How Long is Too Long to Wait on K-9
Courthouse News Service: Justices Weigh How Long is Too Long to Wait on K-9 by Lorraine Bailey: The Supreme Court on Wednesday debated whether prolonging a traffic stop to allow police to conduct a K-9 dog sniff violates the driver’s … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Def’s stop was without RS on the totality
Officers drove into the parking lot of an extended stay hotel in Dallas known for its being a high crime area. Defendant was first seen peeking out a propped open door at the end of the building. The officers circled … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: Argument preview: Dog sniffs and traffic stops – once more to the Fourth Amendment well
SCOTUSBlog: Argument preview: Dog sniffs and traffic stops – once more to the Fourth Amendment well by Rory Little: Prior decisions of the Supreme Court addressing the constitutionality of the use of narcotics-sniffing dogs versus other law enforcement techniques have … Continue reading
Animal Cognition: Handler beliefs affect scent detection dog outcomes
Animal Cognition: Handler beliefs affect scent detection dog outcomes by Lisa Lit, Julie B. Schweitzer & Anita M. Oberbauer: Abstract: Our aim was to evaluate how human beliefs affect working dog outcomes in an applied environment. We asked whether beliefs … Continue reading
Forbes: What Good Is A Pot-Sniffing Dog When Pot Is Legal?
Forbes: What Good Is A Pot-Sniffing Dog When Pot Is Legal? by Jacob Sullum: Testifying before a House subcommittee last year, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration warned that marijuana legalization is bad for dogs. DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart … Continue reading
CA4: Use of a drug dog for a walk-through of a house of one on supervised release violates Fourth Amendment
The use of a drug dog for a walk-through of a house of one on supervised release is suppressed, and it was contrary to precedent, so no good faith exception. United States v. Hill, 2015 U.S. App. LEXIS 499 (4th … Continue reading
CA8: Drug dog was on the scene of speeding stop immediately; sniff was valid
Defendant was on a motorcycle. Before the stop even occurred, the officer called for a drug dog. When the canine officer heard of the stop, he came to the scene. Defendant refused consent to search, and the drug dog was … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Use of a drug dog during a house search here wasn’t objectively unreasonable; interesting case on changes Jardines might have wrought on dogs and houses
Officers searched defendant’s house with a search warrant, and, after it started, a drug dog was brought in and didn’t find anything. Noting that blanket suppression is a drastic remedy, and Jardines changed the landscape of use of dogs in … Continue reading
NC: When a trained police “dog [is] just being a dog,” as if that’s possible
A burglar alarm went off at defendant’s house and the police arrived, finding a broken window. The first officer didn’t enter, and he called for a dog and handler and backup. The defendant’s mother arrived, and she let the police … Continue reading
TX13 finds an “apartment curtilage” in dog sniff at door of inside apartment
Because defendant’s apartment was only one of two on the floor, and he kept plants outside the door, the court finds a curtilage in his apartment such that a dog sniff at the door invaded the curtilage. This situation is … Continue reading
SCOTUS grants cert. on dog sniff after stop should be complete; the Eighth Circuit’s de minimus rule
Rodriguez v. United States, 13-9972, cert. granted October 2, 2014 (ScotusBlog). Question presented: This Court has held that, during an otherwise lawful traffic stop, asking a driver to exit a vehicle, conducting a drug sniff with a trained canine, or … Continue reading
CA8: Hour long wait for a drug dog was not unreasonable in rural SD on reasonable suspicion
Once reasonable suspicion arose in a motorist assist, the officer called for drug dog, but the closest was an hour away because they were in rural South Dakota. The detention was still reasonable under all the circumstances despite that delay. … Continue reading
CA8: Pre-Jardines dog search at the door saved by Davis good faith; Jardines had been already argued
A drug dog alerted at defendant’s door. After the motion to suppress was filed, but before it was heard, Jardines was decided. Because Eighth Circuit precedent allowed the use of a dog at the door prior to Jardines, the Davis … Continue reading
OH12: RS for DUI doesn’t support calling drug dog; new RS needed for that
Defendant was pulled over for having no rear bumper. Reasonable suspicion developed for DUI based on the smell of alcohol, but when the officer called for a drug dog, he needed separate reasonable suspicion for that. The first detention and … Continue reading