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: § 1983 / Bivens
CA9: Govt proved inevitable discovery of victims despite suppressing search of motel room
The officers’ investigation had progressed enough to have embarked on a course to readily identify defendant’s victims before the illegal search of the motel room. The government proved inevitable discovery. In addition, this wasn’t so flagrant, despite the granting of … Continue reading
CA10: No Bivens remedy for false arrest and malicious prosecution
No Bivens remedy for false arrest and malicious prosecution. Even if wrong, there was qualified immunity here. Boudette v. Buffington, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 24512 (10th Cir. Aug. 17, 2021). The citizen informant called police to say that there was … Continue reading
CA8: Handcuffing for two minutes was not an unreasonable seizure when based on furtive movements
Plaintiffs’ handcuffing for two minutes because of furtive movements was reasonable. “Based on the totality of the circumstances, we conclude that the investigative detention did not become an arrest here because Officer Marzolf only used handcuffs briefly (under two minutes) … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: SW issuing judge has judicial immunity
You can’t sue a judge for issuing a warrant where there’s no allegation that the judge abandoned the judicial role [harkening to good faith exception too]. Kolle v. Kyle, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 148629 (S.D.Ohio Aug. 9, 2021). The smell … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Ptf shows Franks violation for leaving out important mitigating information; officer also had apparent motive
Defendant satisfied his Franks burden of showing a material false statement in support of the probable cause showing for the warrant. That information undermined the probable cause. As to the good faith exception, this is what the exclusionary rule is … Continue reading
DC: Petr’s debit card records are basic third-party records under Miller and aren’t protected under Carpenter
Debit card financial records are basic third party records, like the bank records in Miller, and Carpenter offers no protection to the petitioner despite his claim of privacy interest in the information. And, if it did, the good faith exception … Continue reading
CA6: Officer continuing a prosecution on false evidence states a § 1983 claim
“A reasonable jury could find that Deputy Edmonds’s post-arrest incident reports contained knowing or reckless falsehoods. Drawing all inferences in favor of Ernest, Deputy Edmonds knew that Ernest never pointed his gun at her and that Ernest did not know … Continue reading
CA11: District Court’s § 1983 SJ credibility determinations on PC require reversal
“Because the District Court weighed testimony and made credibility determinations, it erroneously found that Officer Williams had arguable probable cause to detain Ms. Khoury. We must therefore vacate the District Court’s summary judgment order holding that Officer Williams had qualified … Continue reading
Cal.2: Nest and surveillance camera on one’s own property to record ptfs’ loud parties didn’t violate their REP
Defendant’s cameras on their own property, including a Nest camera, that was intended to record plaintiffs’ loud parties did not invade their reasonable expectation of privacy, even if the Nest camera enhanced sound. Mezger v. Bick, 2021 Cal. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA8: Officers had PC to arrest despite later investigation casting doubt and the criminal case getting dismissed
Officers had probable cause for plaintiff’s arrest for a sexual assault charge based on the totality of information, even though charges were later dismissed. Further later investigation cast doubt, but the officers weren’t reckless. Walz v. Randall, 2021 U.S. App. … Continue reading
CA7: When false arrest is the claim, ptf’s bond conditions are not separate seizures for SoL purposes
Plaintiff’s false evidence claim arises from the arrest or release from detention, and here it is time barred. His release on detention was not a separate Fourth Amendment seizure. Smith v. City of Chi., 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 19136 (7th … Continue reading
CA9: Denial of motion to suppress in state court precludes § 1983 case over same search
Defendant lost his motion to suppress in state court over a warrantless entry into his garage. He later sued over the search under § 1983 in federal court. The federal case was precluded by the state denial of the motion … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Def’s suppression motion loss precludes his § 1983 case on same issue
Plaintiff’s civil rights complaint that OnStar allegedly illegally tracked his vehicle was already decided against him in his criminal case. The issue is precluded here. Lenhart v. Savetski, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109462 (N.D. Ohio June 11, 2021). The collection … Continue reading
CA9: Franks violation states § 1983 claim
The DA declined to prosecutor the plaintiff because of a Franks violation in the affidavit for the search warrant. Plaintiff sued, and qualified immunity is found not inapplicable. Dahlin v. Frieborn, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 16077 (9th Cir. May 28, … Continue reading
CA3: No suppression hearing needed on the mere chance something will turn up
The request for an evidentiary hearing on a suppression motion based on the mere hope something might turn up is really just speculation and should be denied. United States v. Dfouni, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 15091 (3d Cir. May 19, … Continue reading
CA6: Excessive force “assault” claim under § 1983 doesn’t necessarily require contact
Jail conditions can be so bad that they amount to a § 1983 “assault” without there being a more traditional assault. Here, it was a suicidal inmate knowingly put into solitary confinement and that could be pled as excessive force … Continue reading
DE: Def had no standing to complain where govt actor entered neighbor’s property to look at his
Plaintiff had no standing to challenge a government actor’s entry into his neighbor’s property to look at his. McCafferty v. New Castle County Bd. of License, 2021 Del. Super. LEXIS 343 (Apr. 26, 2021). No matter how the court views … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Pole cam observation of def with blunt was RS for stop
Zooming in on a pole cam video, officers determined that defendant had a blunt in his hand when he was getting in his car. The question is reasonable suspicion, and officers don’t have to exhaust the innocent possibilities before acting … Continue reading