Archives
-
Recent Posts
- Reason: Homeland Security Is Monitoring Activists Building Anti-Flock Tech
- W.D.Pa.: Def can’t repackage a losing 4A standing claim into a due process claim
- GA: No case says SW required to ask for cell phone password
- VA: Body cam video of valid arrest would not be suppressed
- NM: Trial court’s finding of consent is reversed because the court engaged in its own internet investigation beyond what the parties provided
-
Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
-
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: Excessive force
Politico Magazine: The Murders Not Deemed Newsworthy
Politico Magazine: The Murders Not Deemed Newsworthy by April Saul: When Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson a year ago, journalists from around the world beat a path to that troubled, rioting community to report on a deep, enduring racial … Continue reading
NY Times: A.C.L.U. Sues Over Handcuffing of Boy, 8, and Girl, 9, in Kentucky School
NY Times: A.C.L.U. Sues Over Handcuffing of Boy, 8, and Girl, 9, in Kentucky School by Sheryl Gay Stolberg: The American Civil Liberties Union, seeking to spotlight the use of handcuffs to restrain young children who act out in school, … Continue reading
NYTimes: Training Officers to Shoot First, and He Will Answer Questions Later
NYTimes: Training Officers to Shoot First, and He Will Answer Questions Later by Matt Apuzzo: When police officers shoot people under questionable circumstances, William J. Lewinski often appears as an expert witness who says they had no choice but to … Continue reading
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: Alabama case fills out the police brutality bingo card
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: Alabama case fills out the police brutality bingo card: This story out of Huntsville, Ala., reads like a checklist of police brutality cases. Excessive force? Check. … Coverup by fellow officers? Check. … Fears … Continue reading
TN: Fleeing, crashing, and abandoning car, taking another, and fleeing to another state is abandonment of the first car
“By leaving his crashed vehicle in a position that was blocking the roadway and fleeing in another vehicle [to another state], the defendant manifested through his own actions an intent to abandon the truck and its contents. As a result, … Continue reading
CA8: Quantity of alleged excessive force against an arrestee based on extent of injury a jury question
A jail altercation in Ferguson, MO led to the arrestee getting injured and he sued. The district court dismissed on the narrow ground the injuries were “de minimus.” The Eighth Circuit says, no, that’s a jury question here. Davis v. … Continue reading
ars technica: LAPD cop gets 3 years in jail for beating suspect caught on dashcam
ars technica: LAPD cop gets 3 years in jail for beating suspect caught on dashcam by David Kravets: A Los Angeles Police Department 18-year veteran was handed a three-year jail term Thursday, six weeks after being found guilty of striking … Continue reading
The Atlantic: A Year After Eric Garner’s Death, Has Anything Changed?
The Atlantic: A Year After Eric Garner’s Death, Has Anything Changed? by David Graham: For the past 12 months, America has actually paid attention to police violence—but what has it learned?
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: This week in police shootings
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: This week in police shootings: There were two more disturbing stories about police officers killing people this week, although both of the actual incidents occurred two years ago.
NYTimes: Judge Orders Release of Video of 2013 Police Shooting in California
NYTimes: Judge Orders Release of Video of 2013 Police Shooting in California (AP): A federal judge ordered a suburban Los Angeles city on Tuesday to release video of the police fatally shooting an unarmed man two years ago. The public … Continue reading
OH, Cuyahoga Co.: Finding of justification in the police criminal case over shooting into the car from the hood
The findings of fact and conclusions of law on the justification for the Russell police killing in Cleveland after a police chase, published on Lexis on Friday. Interesting parallels to last SCOTUS term’s Plumhoff case. State v. Brelo, 2015 Ohio … Continue reading
CA4: Seizure of things not specified in the SW is not necessarily a constitutional violation; depends on wording of SW
The fact some things were seized beyond the face of the warrant does not state a § 1983 claim. “Although some of the personal property seized was not listed in the search warrants, we find no error in the district … Continue reading
Tucson Sentinel: Judge OKs suit by family of Mexican teen fatally shot by border agent
Tucson Sentinel: Judge OKs suit by family of Mexican teen fatally shot by border agent by Paul Ingram: A federal judge ruled Thursday that a Mexican teenager was entitled to civil rights under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution … Continue reading
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: Documents show excessive use of Massachusetts SWAT teams
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: Documents show excessive use of Massachusetts SWAT teams: SWAT teams were once used only in emergency situations, when lives were in immediate danger. That is, they were primarily used to protect civilians. Today, they’re … Continue reading
CA5: Decision to use SRT to execute search warrant was not shown to be unreasonable on the totality
“Based on the totality of the circumstances, Officer Vinson’s decision to deploy the SRT to execute the search warrant for Ms. Bullock’s residence did not constitute force excessive to the need, nor was it objectively unreasonable.” Bailey v. Lawson, 2015 … Continue reading
NYTimes: Long Taught to Use Force, Police Warily Learn to De-escalate
NYTimes: Long Taught to Use Force, Police Warily Learn to De-escalate by Timothy Williams: Across the country, police departments from Seattle to New York and Dallas to Salt Lake City are rethinking notions of policing that have held sway for … Continue reading
International Business Times: Police Brutality 2015: Des Moines, Iowa Officer Colin Boone Gets 5 Years In Prison For Kicking Man In Head During Arrest
International Business Times: Police Brutality 2015: Des Moines, Iowa Officer Colin Boone Gets 5 Years In Prison For Kicking Man In Head During Arrest by Aaron Morrison: A former Des Moines, Iowa, police officer convicted of violating the civil rights … Continue reading
NYTimes: Illinois: Video of Shooting Released
NYTimes: Illinois: Video of Shooting Released (AP): A retired judge has released dashboard camera video from a Chicago police car that shows a white officer repeatedly firing his handgun into a car full of black youths who had been pulled … Continue reading
IL: “Premises known as xxx Street” in SW included detached garage on the curtilage
“[C]ourts have repeatedly and routinely held that a warrant that authorizes the search of ‘premises’ at a given residential address allows the search of detached garages, sheds, and other outbuildings even if these separate structures are not mentioned at all … Continue reading