September 2026 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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Recent Posts
- WaPo: Americans have turned against police cameras that track license plates, new survey shows
- W.D.Tex.: What is the duty of the neutral and detached magistrate?
- D.Me.: Yes, more investigation could have been done, but there’s still PC on what there was
- CA3: Brady doesn’t apply to SW materials
- E.D.Mich.: Person a cell phone was given to as gift could consent to search
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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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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
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)
ACLU on privacy
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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: Nexus
DE: SW also for documents permitted seizure of a cell phone because nexus was shown; second warrant for contents of phone
Police were justified in entering defendant’s apartment without a warrant under the clothing exigency to retrieve clothing reasonably calculated to lessen the risk of injury to defendant, who was wearing only a t-shirt, underwear, and no shoes to go to … Continue reading
S.D.Ala.: No suppression hearing if defense doesn’t contradict govt’s assertions of fact
When the defendant doesn’t controvert the material facts in the government’s response to his motion to suppress, a hearing isn’t required because all the court has is to apply the law to the facts. United States v. Sledge, 2016 U.S. … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Nexus shown for SW for doctor’s home 15 miles from office in alleged “pill mill” case
“Based on the information contained in Agent Marbet’s affidavit, there was a fair probability that evidence of the alleged conspiracy and money laundering scheme occurring at Apex Health would be found in Ruble’s residence. Common sense dictates that it would … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Affidavit truly was “bare bones” on nexus, so no GFE
“It generalizes that ‘an individual’ may have information on his or her phone that connects him or her to a crime, co-defendants or victims, rather than specifically connecting Ramirez, the crime with which he was charged, or any known information … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: No reasonable expectation of privacy in jail calls
Defendant’s motion to quash subpoenas for his jail telephone calls is denied. He was on notice by the inmate handbook and notices by the phone and during the calls, sometimes twice, that the calls would be recorded. United States v. … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Nexus shown by def taking CI’s money and going to house and coming back with drugs
Probable cause to search premises, nexus, was shown by defendant receiving money for drugs, going to the address, and coming back with the drugs. United States v. Castro, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15494 (E.D. Pa. Feb. 8, 2016). Defendant was … Continue reading
FL5: SW in burglary had no nexus, was fatally overbroad, and no GFE
The affidavit for the search warrant in this case completely lacked probable cause by showing a nexus to defendant, 12 other burglaries, and the place to be searched. Moreover, the list of things to be seized was completely without particularity … Continue reading
S.D.Ala.: Logical to find serial robber’s regular outfit in his house
The defendant was a suspect in a series of robberies, and the robber wore the same things in each. It was reasonable to conclude, therefore, that the robber was keeping the outfit on hand, and it would be found where … Continue reading
FL3: Police denied SW of a box for lack of nexus x-rayed it finding a gun; then SW issued
Defendant abandoned any reasonable expectation of privacy in a black box he took from his home and placed in a neighbor’s trash receptacle while there was a fire next door. The officer saw him do it, got permission from the … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: When hidden police misconduct is the basis for a post-conviction claim, the statute of limitations starts when it was publicly disclosed
When hidden police misconduct is the basis for a post-conviction claim, the statute of limitations starts when it was publicly disclosed. Here, it was five years before the 2255 was filed. Here, the former officer’s misconduct was well known publicly … Continue reading
Three on fair probability of evidence in the home: two for drugs, other for counterfeit wine
The affidavit for the search warrant showed a fair probability that drugs would be found at defendant’s home, based largely on the officer’s experience that drug dealers usually do keep it at home. United States v. Brandon, 2015 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Nexus to crime showed on one phone but not another; second phone suppressed
Information that a cell phone was being used in drug trafficking was nexus to one phone for a search warrant. As to the other phone, probable cause is actually lacking, and the tracking of that phone is suppressed. United States … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Affidavit for SW said gun was believed to be in attic, but that did not limit the search to the attic
The police had information that defendant had a gun in the attic, and a search warrant was obtained. The search warrant for the gun did not limit the search to the attic because guns can be easily moved elsewhere in … Continue reading
DE: Being an alleged heroin dealer is nexus to search the alleged dealer’s cell phone
When the state shows probable cause for a search warrant for defendant’s house because he was a suspected heroin dealer, there is also probable cause for a search of defendant’s cell phone because cell phones are used to arrange drug … Continue reading
TN: Nexus to def’s house more easily shown when object of search is jewelry from a store robbery
Defendants were accused of a jewelry store heist. The small nature of the items involved makes it more likely they’d be kept at home until disposed of, and that shows nexus. As to standing, defendants without it don’t get to … Continue reading
AR: When two plan a homicide, it’s reasonable to infer their cell phones have evidence of communications related to the crime, so nexus shown
Where two men were alleged to have planned a homicide, it was reasonable to infer that the cell phone of one of them would have calls between the two planning and executing the murder. Therefore, the affidavit reasonably showed a … Continue reading
DE: Without a showing there is anything to test DNA against, a warrant for DNA may be without PC; but here moot for now
Without a showing there is anything to test DNA against, a warrant for DNA may be without probable cause. After surveying the cases requiring there be something to test for a sample to be obtained, the question here is moot … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: SW application failed to show nexus to def’s house, and GFE can’t apply
This search warrant’s application failed to show nexus, even by inference. This is significant, and it makes it a “bare bones” affidavit not subject to the good faith exception. United States v. Spillman, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 128878 (E.D.Ky. September … Continue reading