Archives
-
Recent Posts
- FL: Violation of knock-and-announce statute doesn’t require exclusion
- TX3: DUI blood draw while in restraint chair not 4A unreasonable
- TX1: Def has a duty to make his record on PC and the SW; missing affidavit was on him
- N.D.Ala.: SW not invalid because issuing judge previously represented the target
- The Guardian: ‘We should be worried’: report sheds light on ICE’s booming arsenal of hi-tech surveillance tools
-
-
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
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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] -
“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: Plain view, feel, smell
Chicago Sun Times: Does Illinois’ pot law pass the smell test? Scent of weed can still prompt cops to search vehicles
Chicago Sun Times: Does Illinois’ pot law pass the smell test? Scent of weed can still prompt cops to search vehicles By Tom Schuba (“For many folks, the fragrance of weed is unmistakable. But the mere smell of pot can … Continue reading
MT: Plain view justifies automobile exception search
Seeing contraband in plain view justifies an entry into a car under the automobile exception. State v. Tenold, 2020 MT 263, 2020 Mont. LEXIS 2461 (Oct. 20, 2020). Three controlled buys were probable cause despite defendant’s argument that the officer … Continue reading
FL4: SW of def’s cell phone authenticated text messages
After a search warrant produced defendant’s text messages, the state was able to authenticate them by the phone. State v. Torres, 2020 Fla. App. LEXIS 14356 (Fla. 4th DCA Oct. 7, 2020). “In addition, ‘[d]uring a valid traffic stop, officers … Continue reading
CA4: Seizure of firearm was inevitable; def would have been arrested for DUI and searched incident to arrest anyway
“[W]e conclude that the district court did not err in crediting the arresting officer’s testimony and finding that the arresting officer had probable cause to arrest Herman for driving under the influence. We further conclude that the district court did … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Def’s version more credible than the police version, and motion to suppress is granted
The court sides with the defense on the credibility of the witnesses that defendant’s gun wasn’t in plain view after all, and it grants the motion to suppress. Even though he has an extensive criminal history, which the government seeks … Continue reading
AL: Manipulating object in pocket of person leaving a drug house exceeded Terry
Defendant’s patdown resulted in an impermissible Terry and Dickerson search of her pocket. The state never showed it was apparent that the object being manipulated was a weapon. It was a search for drugs because she was stopped leaving a … Continue reading
TX9: Officer didn’t smell MJ in car until he unreasonably opened car door; suppression affirmed
“Deferring to the trial court’s findings of fact and viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the trial court’s ruling, as we must, the trial court could have reasonably concluded from the evidence at the suppression hearing that … Continue reading
OH3: Contents of bookbag shown by baggies of drugs hanging out of it
Based on the officer’s observation of baggies of drugs hanging out of a bookbag, the contents were readily apparent. State v. Burroughs, 2020-Ohio-4417, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 3301 (3d Dist. Sept. 14, 2020). Defendant’s objection to the R&R had a … Continue reading
AK: Aerial surveillance of a residential backyard to photograph it with a telephoto lens violates the state constitution
Aerial surveillance of a residential backyard to photograph it with a telephoto lens violates the Alaska Constitution where the landowner took precautions to protect his privacy at ground-level. McKelvey v. State, 2020 Alas. App. LEXIS 71 (Sept. 4, 2020):
CA10: Where wrong standard of review applied below, undisputed facts allow appellate court to still decide
“Because the evidence presented by the government at the evidentiary hearing in this case was largely undisputed, we conclude that the district court’s factual findings were not clearly erroneous, and that its misapplication of the standard of review does not … Continue reading
CA11: Plain view supported SW; protective sweep essentially moot
Defendant’s arrest in a motel room resulted in a plain view of a distinctive sneaker that was probably worn in a robbery. That supported a search warrant. Defendant’s protective sweep argument wasn’t timely raised, but it would lose anyway because … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: That later police reports would shed more light on affidavit for SW, that’s not a Franks issue
Affidavits for search warrants are presumed to be accurate under Franks, and that’s why the defense has to make a substantial preliminary showing of falsity. Alleging merely that other more timely reports would shed light on the subject is not … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Articulable suspicion not needed to run a license plate
Articulable suspicion not needed to run a license plate. United States v. Thompson, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 154156 (D. Mont. Aug. 24, 2020). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not moving to suppress alleged overseizure of a doctor’s patient records where … Continue reading
TX7: Trial court’s initially misstating burden of proof was on def was corrected in the ultimate findings
The trial court first stated that the burden on consent was on the defendant, but the ultimate findings of fact and conclusions of law concluded that the state proved it by sufficient evidence. This corrected the previous mistake, and the … Continue reading
OH6: Def’s neighbor was citizen informant in reporting seeing him looking at CP through an open window
Defendant’s neighbor could see him from his house masturbating to child pornography. He called the police and the police corroborated it but walked on the curtilage, too. The neighbor was shown as a confidential informant but was really a citizen … Continue reading
CA7: Smell of burnt MJ along with def’s reaction when asked was PC
“Because the totality of the circumstances, including the smell of burnt marijuana and Kizart’s reaction and behavior when Russell asked Kizart about the trunk, provided probable cause to search his car’s trunk, we Affirm the denial of the motion to … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Def’s arrest at door in underwear permitted protective sweep before getting his clothes
Defendant was arrested in his house on a cold and dreary day. He answered the door in his underwear. Officers were permitted to conduct a protective sweep before getting his clothing for transport because at least one other person expected … Continue reading
D.D.C.: No REP in apt building laundry room when officer saw def in possession; take down when he resisted was reasonable
“In short, and as explained below, the Court finds that Leake’s stance in the corner of the laundry room was suspicious, and that upon approaching him, Officer Pantaleon observed Leake holding a small clear plastic baggie containing a powder-like substance. … Continue reading
CA4: Stopping only car in neighborhood after report of robbery was reasonable
“Approximately twenty minutes after Jacobs fled on foot, the police noticed Gilmore driving away from the neighborhood where the robbery occurred. At the time of the stop, Gilmore’s car was the only car on the road. Once the stop lawfully … Continue reading