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- N.D.Tex.: Drone flyover approved by SW led to SW for residence
- CNS: Colorado woman wrongfully cited for theft files class action against Flock [and the police “relying” on it]
- S.D.N.Y.: Rule 41(g) petition for return of property granted; original seizure in NYC and Louisiana investigation hasn’t concluded
- VA: NC tracking warrant validly led to conviction in VA
- GA: Inverse condemnation suit stated claim v. state’s “police power” in drug interdiction
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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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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)
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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: Reasonable suspicion
FL5: Only matching description of anonymous caller’s burglary report wasn’t RS; nothing about def suggested he was a burglar
“In conclusion, the officers in this case corroborated nothing more than the innocent details of identification that matched Holliday’s appearance (other than the two snakes [wrapped around his neck], which the caller did not mention). The officers were entitled to … Continue reading
CA2: Cell phone search reasonable at the border
At the border, defendant’s cell phone was first manually searched and then forensically searched. Neither was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Robinson, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 30035 (2d Cir. Oct. 1, 2026), following United States v. Alisigwe, … Continue reading
FL3: Exclusion of evidence is a separate question from whether 4A was violated
The question of exclusion of the evidence is always separate from whether the Fourth Amendment was violated. Mercado v. State, 2026 Fla. App. LEXIS 7697 (Fla. 3d DCA Oct. 1, 2026). Defendant’s guilty plea waived his search claim in his … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Checking VIN number during traffic stop is reasonable
During a traffic stop, asking for identification and about travel plans and checking the VIN is reasonable under N.Y. v. Class. United States v. Sanchez, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 223586 (D.N.M. Sep. 30, 2026). Defendant was a passenger in a … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Possession of firearms is ongoing crime so seldom stale
Possession of firearms is an ongoing crime, not an episodic one, so the warrant was not stale. United States v. Jefferson, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 219784 (E.D. Ky. Sep. 28, 2026). The information in the affidavit for warrant was sufficient … Continue reading
TX14: RS doesn’t even require an identifiable crime
Reasonable suspicion doesn’t even require that the officer has to articulate what crime is happening or about to happen. Williams v. State, 2026 Tex. App. LEXIS 9076 (Tex. App. – Houston (14th Dist.) Sep. 29, 2026):
CA5: Bogus traffic stop can’t support frisk
Plaintiff plausibly alleged a bogus traffic stop and so the frisk lacked reasonable suspicion and violated the Fourth Amendment. This is clearly established law. Rosales v. Lewis, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 29016 (5th Cir. Sep. 22, 2026). (Reason article here.) … Continue reading
MN: Risk of destruction of evidence was exigency for seizure of cell phone
The exigency for seizure of defendant’s cell phone pending getting a warrant was risk of destruction of evidence. State v. Laflex, 2026 Minn. LEXIS 592 (Sep. 23, 2026). Furtive movements add to reasonable suspicion. Ex parte Lucio, 2026 Tex. Crim. … Continue reading
GA: No case says SW required to ask for cell phone password
Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not arguing that a warrant was required for a request for a cell phone password. No case anywhere says that’s required. Reynolds v. State, 2026 Ga. LEXIS 303 (Sep. 22, 2026). The inventory search of … Continue reading
VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would not be suppressed
Defendant doesn’t get to suppress the body cam of her detention where the officer told her to stand in one place and then she later assaulted the officer. It was not a Fourth Amendment violation. Ross v. Commonwealth, 2026 Va. … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Warrantless arrest at door for CSAM didn’t support plain view seizure of cell phone
Officers came to defendant’s house without an arrest or search warrant to arrest him for a CSAM offense. He answered the door in his underwear. They asked about cell phone and saw it and seized it. Payton applies, and the … Continue reading
CA3: Ptfs pled a 4A claim for CPS workers demanding entry without sufficient exigency
Plaintiffs plausibly pled violations of the Fourth Amendment for child protective services demanding and gaining entry into the home without a sufficient showing of exigency to protect the children. Also, the special needs doctrine doesn’t apply here. O’Bryant v. N.J. … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Pretrial detainee’s cell search and seizure of papers caused no prejudice nor revealed legal strategies
Defendant was in a federal detention center pending trial, and his cell was searched and legal materials for trial were seized. His Fourth Amendment claim fails on its face. His Sixth Amendment claim also fails because a BOP attorney screened … Continue reading
OH1: RS for stop on a prostitution 911 call even though def was significantly older than the person described in the call
Officers got a 911 call about potential prostitution with a woman approaching cars at an intersection known for that. It turned out she was significantly older than the person described in the 911 call, but there still was reasonable suspicion … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: ER nurse’s finding shell casing in def’s pants was private search
Defendant was in the ER and the hospital had his clothes. A spent shell casing was discovered in his pants by a nurse and it was turned over to the police. That was a private search. United States v. Young, … Continue reading
CA8: SW affidavit can’t be supplemented, but a revised one can be filed
In the Eighth Circuit at least, the government can’t supplement a search warrant affidavit. Here, however, they submitted a revised affidavit which clarified what amounts to an immaterial fact. Affirmed. United States v. Smith, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 26544 (8th … Continue reading
IL5: Community caretaking exception doesn’t support home searches
“Given the above precedent, we disagree with the State that the community caretaking doctrine remains a viable purpose for a warrantless entry into a home. Instead, we believe that the Caniglia decision clearly rejected the community caretaking exception outside of … Continue reading
ID: Hospital collecting umbilical cord blood conducted a private search
A hospital collecting umbilical cord blood after a birth was not a state actor nor acting at law enforcement’s request or suggestion. This was a private search, and the blood tested positive for drugs. State v. Kawano, 2026 Ida. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA11: Service of SW without attachments isn’t 4A violation
Defendant’s effort to subpoena five witnesses in support of his Franks challenge was properly denied. Their testimony would be material to the outcome, and they were also speculative. As to the execution of the warrant, the fact he got a … Continue reading