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- The Intercept: FBI Raid on WaPo Reporter’s Home Was Based on Sham Pretext
- N.D.Ga.: Slight delay in searching a cell phone of a person in custody who couldn’t possess it was reasonable
- D.Kan.: Search incident of a car after DUI arrest was reasonable under Gant
- Cal.2d: NDO in SW to Microsoft doesn’t violate state statute or 1A
- MA: Missing juvenile in BOLO was subject to community caretaking function
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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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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)
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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) -
“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, Colorado Springs. 
Category Archives: Arrest or entry on arrest
E.D.Mo.: Search for shell casings in curtilage exceeded community caretaking function entry
A shotspotter alert brought the police to this house, and the police went around looking for signs of anyone that might be injured. Within 20 seconds it was apparent there wasn’t, but then they looked for spent shell casings in … Continue reading
D.D.C.: A dozen officers involved in traffic stop slow walked it for drug dog
A dozen officers purposely delayed the traffic stop for a dog sniff. “The Government has failed to show that police conducted this stop in a reasonably diligent manner. To the contrary, Officer Brennan’s decision to delegate all four warnings to … Continue reading
MA: Facebook selfie supported SW for def’s cell phone
A Facebook photo that appeared to be a selfie on defendant’s Facebook account wearing the shirt witnesses to the shooting describe supported a search warrant for defendant’s cell phone. Commonwealth v. Carleton, 2026 Mass. LEXIS 1 (Jan. 5, 2026). Plaintiff … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: CSAM PC allegations never go stale
Child pornography probable cause allegations, especially those on a computer have a “long shelf life” and virtually never go stale. United States v. Picca, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 267611 (M.D. Pa. Dec. 30, 2025). Plaintiff alleged enough to proceed past … Continue reading
NMI: “An arrest warrant is exhausted once used.”
“An arrest warrant is exhausted once used. Carlson v. Landon, 342 U.S. 524, 546 (1952); ….” After that, another must issue. The trial court didn’t err in requiring one. Commonwealth v. Superior Court, 2025 MP 14 (N.M.I. Dec. 23, 2025). … Continue reading
TX2: Taking car keys doesn’t make an investigative detention a custodial arrest
“[A]n officer’s confiscation of a suspect’s keys during an investigative detention does not automatically escalate the stop into a custodial arrest.” Here, it was a DUI stop and taking the keys was for safety reasons. Bwondara v. State, 2025 Tex. … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: A ruse arrest is legal in CA6
Police using a ruse to arrest defendant is legal in the Sixth Circuit. (Not necessarily in the Ninth, but we’re in the Sixth.) It also doesn’t “shock the conscious [sic, quoting a pleading].” United States v. Carmona, 2025 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: Search of car after stop for obstructed windshield valid under 4A despite state law saying officers couldn’t search
Illinois law holds that a car cannot be searched for violation of the windshield obstruction statute. Defendant’s car ultimately was, and the court finds that the search comported with the Fourth Amendment and state law didn’t grant greater rights here. … Continue reading
AR: Defendant claiming they were searching her place was sufficient for probation search waiver
The premises was subject to defendant’s search waiver on file. At court she disputed the state proved it was her place, but, at the time of the search, she and a friend said that it was her place. Inside, her … Continue reading
NV citizen’s arrest requires crime occur in arrestor’s presence
Defendant entered making a citizen’s arrest for a crime that did not occur in his presence. His conviction is affirmed because that’s a statutory requirement. The knock-and-announce requirement in the statute also serves an important purpose in citizen’s arrest. Ser … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: 16 shot ShotSpotter alert confirmed by witnesses was exigency to enter curtilage
A ShotSpotter alert of 16 gunshots from the vicinity of defendant’s home confirmed by witnesses in a car leaving the area was justification for exigent entry onto the curtilage. “Since the addition of the omitted information does not disturb the … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: “In the presence” of the officer for misdemeanor arrests is not a part of the common law
The “in the presence” of the officer for misdemeanor arrests is not a part of the common law, citing Woods v. City of Chicago, 234 F.3d 979, 995 (7th Cir. 2000). It is by statute or rule in various places. … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Private case subpoenas not 4A issue
A private party issuing subpoenas in a civil case is not subject to the Fourth Amendment. Rodney v. TransUnion LLC., 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 211570 (C.D. Cal. Sep. 2, 2025). This Walmart store’s asset protection person was considered a reliable … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: No REP in one’s talking to oneself in a building elevator that security cameras picked up
Plaintiff had no reasonable expectation of privacy in talking to himself in his building elevator. Therefore, Title III didn’t apply. He knew there was video recording but not audio. “While in the elevator, Plaintiff writes that that is when he … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: No duty to verify an outstanding arrest warrant before execution
Search incident to an arrest for an outstanding warrant was valid. There was no duty to check first to see if it was possible the warrant had been recalled or quashed. United States v. Lockridge, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 203313 … Continue reading
WA: DV order of protection can include disarming respondent
A proven domestic violence order of protection can provide justification for the respondent to give up his firearms under the Fourth Amendment and state constitution. In re Domestic Violence Prot. Ord. For Hernandez, 2025 Wash. App. LEXIS 1953 (Sep. 30, … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Arrest on outdated warrant doesn’t depend on its underlying validity
Plaintiff’s arrest on an outdated warrant doesn’t depend on the underlying validity of the warrant. Here, the warrant wasn’t purged from the system before plaintiff’s stop and arrest. Otero v. District of Columbia, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 185918 (D.D.C. Sep. … Continue reading
LAT: You look Latino. You speak Spanish. You work hard. That’s now probable cause.
LAT: You look Latino. You speak Spanish. You work hard. That’s now probable cause. by Dean Florez (“When I was a young UCLA constitutional law major, we learned that the Constitution wasn’t just parchment behind glass: It was a living … Continue reading
Reason: Florida Deputies Jailed Her for 3 Days Even Though She Was Obviously Not the Suspect Described in a Warrant
Reason: Florida Deputies Jailed Her for 3 Days Even Though She Was Obviously Not the Suspect Described in a Warrant by Jacob Sullum (“A federal judge cleared the way for Jennifer Heath Box’s lawsuit against the cops who misidentified her … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Handcuffing def resisting patdown didn’t make it an arrest
Officers had reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop and patdown. His resistance justified handcuffs, and it still did not become an arrest until the gun was found. United States v. Gatling, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 171825 (D.D.C. Sep. 2, 2025)*: