Archives
-
Recent Posts
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
-
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
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
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
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
-
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)
-
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: Qualified immunity
A few § 1983 cases on QI and summary judgment
Ordering plaintiff out of the Sheriff’s Office lobby for fear of disruption was novel as a potential seizure and that’s subject to qualified immunity. “Sheriff Crone’s conduct in ordering Mr. Brandt to leave the lobby due to a perceived disruption … Continue reading
D.Ore.: Detailed extra information to provide context that ultimately proves unnecessary to the PC finding doesn’t make the warrant bad
“SA Nix’s 56-page affidavit provides detailed information that is directly connected to an evasion of payment charge. Those few sentences or portions of sentences that pertain exclusively to an evasion of tax assessment charge have a de minimis impact on … Continue reading
CA9: Two on QI: pepper spraying and Tasering
Officer denied qualified immunity for pepper-spraying a non-violent protester in the face. “In sum, every reasonable officer had notice at the time of the incident that, if reasonable alternatives are available, even in somewhat chaotic circumstances, he or she cannot … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: QI in § 1983 case over scope of search outside SW; items were related
Plaintiff’s § 1983 suit against participants in the search of his property alleging the search was overbroad is dismissed for qualified immunity. The officers showed restraint and the items seized were reasonably related to the offense under investigation. Hoeltzel v. … Continue reading
VI: Def’s incapacity not bar to BAC blood draw and implied consent
Defendant’s incapacity does not nullify his implied consent to a BAC blood draw by statute. People v. Joseph, 2022 VI SUPER 12, 2022 V.I. LEXIS 16 (Jan. 27, 2022) (10 months from suppression hearing to order). A nonprosecution agreement does … Continue reading
Child removal claim is the child’s, not the parents’
“Plaintiff may not maintain an action on behalf for her child for this removal because ‘Fourth Amendment rights are personal rights which … may not be vicariously asserted.’ Alderman v. United States, 394 U.S. 165, 174 (1969); Southerland v. City … Continue reading
FL4: Suspicionless probation search condition violates state law
The probation search condition permitting one without reasonable suspicion violates state law. Remanded to strike it from probation terms. Bowman v. State, 2022 Fla. App. LEXIS 1611 (Fla. 4th DCA Mar. 9, 2022). Window tinting stop: “Moreover, because Trooper Otterson … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: Part of this search of the wrong house under a SW dismissed
The target of this search had moved, so this was the search of the wrong house. Among a host of issues, service of an alleged illegible warrant is governed by qualified immunity. It was signed by a judge. The warrant … Continue reading
D.Kan.: One can’t pull in driveway to avoid traffic stop and prevent it by arguing curtilage
A person can’t pull into a private driveway and insulate him or herself from an officer investigating a traffic offense. Here, the officer was going to just issue a warning but saw drugs in plain view in the car in … Continue reading
CA11: Not clearly established warning required before use of deadly force
It was not well established that police need to warn armed people before shooting them. Here, the shooting victim was an innocent homeowner who had a gun on him around his own house investigating a prowler, and the police saw … Continue reading
GA: Even if knock-and-talk was valid, expanding entry onto the curtilage wasn’t
The knock-and-talk here was reasonable in its inception, but the officer violated the curtilage by inspecting a car parked there. The state’s argument that reasonable suspicion permitted approaching the car was not raised below so it’s waived. “Furthermore, even if … Continue reading
CA1 denies rehearing en banc on Jardines and denies qualified immunity
French v. Merrill, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 2625 (1st Cir. Jan. 28, 2022) (3-3*) (panel decision 15 F.4th 116 (1st Cir. Oct. 1, 2021)). On why rehearing should not be granted:
CA8: Ptfs stated claim to overcome qualified immunity and arguable probable cause during mass arrests of peaceful protesters
Qualified immunity was denied for officers who were alleged to have arrested peaceful protestors in St. Louis in 2017. People were allowed to enter an area and then were arrested. As to force, “The pleadings before us and video evidence … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: QI for PC is a reasonable belief PC exists, not whether it actually exists
“In analyzing whether law enforcement officers have qualified immunity in a false arrest claim pursuant to § 1983, the issue is not whether probable cause actually exists but whether a reasonable officer in the officer’s position would have believed he … Continue reading
CA9: It is clearly established that using “intermediate force” against a nonresisting arrestee is unreasonable
It was clearly established that using “intermediate force” against a nonresisting arrestee is unreasonable. “To be clear, we are generally loath to second-guess law enforcement officers’ actions in a dangerous situation by analyzing each act without looking at the entire … Continue reading
OH11: 4A doesn’t require alternative arrangements to towing be offered
The Fourth Amendment does not require that a motorist who’s car is about to be towed and would be inventoried can make alternative arrangements to avoid the tow. State v. Patterson, 2021-Ohio-4617, 2021 Ohio App. LEXIS 4542 (11th Dist. Dec. … Continue reading
CA11: Just saying something is clearly established doesn’t make it so for QI
Just saying something is clearly established doesn’t make it so for qualified immunity. “Stallworth has not met her burden. Although Stallworth argues that Hurst violated her ‘clearly established rights,’ she has not presented a case with materially similar facts, demonstrated … Continue reading
D.N.M.: In Torres v. Madrid on remand, defs get QI; right not clearly established in 2014
Torres v. Madrid, 141 S. Ct. 989 (2021) on remand: Defendants get qualified immunity because it wasn’t clearly established in 2014 that a shooting was an arrest. Torres v. Madrid, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 248358 (D.N.M. Dec. 30, 2021). [Once … Continue reading
CA7: Ptf’s manufactured evidence claim survives QI
Plaintiff was tried and acquitted for murder. He sued under § 1983 after two years in custody alleging evidence for his trial was fabricated and exculpatory evidence was withheld. The district court denied qualified immunity, and the defendants appealed. Defendants … Continue reading
CA8 again grants QI to stopping innocent persons at gunpoint
The Eighth Circuit again holds that stopping innocent persons at gunpoint with almost any reason at all almost always results in qualified immunity for the officer. Irvin v. Richardson, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 37110 (8th Cir. Dec. 16, 2021):