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- N.D.Ohio: Car in driveway was on curtilage and plain view prohibited
- PA: 18 U.S.C. § 2558A doesn’t mandate social media searches, only reporting what they discover; still a private search
- D.Mont.: Delay of USPS Express Mail for dog sniff didn’t violate 4A
- S.D.W.Va.: Warrantless arrest at door for CSAM didn’t support plain view seizure of cell phone
- OH2: Parking on the grass justified stop
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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)
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“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
N.D.Iowa: Verifying validity of an AW wasn’t unreasonable extension of stop
The stop was concededly valid, and a warrant was found. Verifying that the warrant is still out is not an unreasonable extension of the stop. United States v. Colquhoun, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 149487 (N.D. Iowa Aug. 21, 2024). [Defendant … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Gang members’ waving guns in Instagram post was RS for later stop
“To start, the Instagram video that showed Brown, McCullers, and others waving firearms and pointing them directly at the camera provided the officers with reasonable suspicion to stop the two men. That’s because, under Virginia law, it is ‘unlawful for … Continue reading
CA5: Sounds of a fight inside at a domestic call justified this warrantless entry
Officers responded to a domestic disturbance call and heard shouting inside that made them believe there was a fight inside. Summary judgment for the officers in a warrantless entry case was properly granted. Ramirez v. Killian, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA9: Dog handler allegedly allowing police dog to excessively bite ptf denied QI
“Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Rock, Miller allowed the canine to continue biting Rock even though he was unarmed, did not present an immediate threat to the officers or others, and did not resist or actively … Continue reading
CA9: Where officers were attempting to de-escalate a situation, warning about deadly force not required
A warning before deadly force would be used was contrary to the officers’ efforts to de-escalate the situation. Otherwise qualified immunity applies. Eyre v. City of Fairbanks, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 19770 (9th Cir. Aug. 7, 2024) (2-1).* Plaintiff’s claim … Continue reading
CA5: Drug dog jumping in already open window not unreasonable
Drug dog’s spontaneously jumping in the vehicle window that was down when the stop began wasn’t directed by the officer and didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Wilson, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 19424 (5th Cir. Aug. 2, 2024). … Continue reading
D.Del.: Officer could open car door for officer safety to insure there was no one else inside
New arguments raised at the suppression hearing are considered waived. Even if it was considered, it lacks merit: The officer could open the car for a check for other passengers for officer safety. United States v. Hargraves, 2024 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Exposure to Covid-19 in prison doesn’t state a 4A or 8A claim
Exposure to Covid-19 in prison didn’t state a Fourth or Eighth Amendment claim. Dingle v. Tommage, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 124710 (E.D. Pa. July 16, 2024). Defendant was driving with a suspended license, and WVSP protocol dictated impoundment of the … Continue reading
CA2: Excessive force claims are new under Bivens and can’t be brought
Excessive force claims are new for Bivens, and rejected. Here, it was his restraint in a courtroom by US Marshals and CSOs. Edwards v. Gizzi, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 17100 (2d Cir. July 12, 2024). Plaintiff was shot in the … Continue reading
NY3: SW for evidence of robbery (stolen property and mask) found def’s cell phone with image of him wearing the mask on its wallpaper
A search warrant in a robbery case looked for stolen property and the mask involved. When police executed the warrant, they found his cell phone with him wearing the mask as the wallpaper image on the phone. “We find without … Continue reading
CO: State law can alter a sheriff’s agreement with CBP to enforce immigration law
While Colorado sheriffs have civil arrest powers, an agreement with CBP to enforce immigration law under 8 U.S.C. § 1357(g) violated state law. Nash v. Mikesell, 2024 COA 68, 2024 Colo. App. LEXIS 813 (July 3, 2024). In a chase … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Driving another person’s car some other times doesn’t give standing
Merely driving another person’s car some doesn’t give standing. “Defendant (like the defendants in Rakas) has neither a property nor possessory interest in the vehicle and thus lacks standing to challenge the search of it. He did not have a … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Summary judgment for defs denied in Torres v. Madrid on remand
On remand in Torres v. Madrid, 141 S. Ct. 989, 209 L.Ed.2d 190 (Mar. 25, 2021), the defendant’s summary judgment motion is denied. Torres v. Madrid, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117079 (D.N.M. July 2, 2024).* An out-of-state temporary plate where … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Owner of vehicle not in it can’t challenge stop, but he can the inventory which was unreasonable
The owner of a vehicle who was not driving or in it when it was stopped has no standing to challenge the stop as opposed to an inventory search. “After considering, as it must, ‘all the facts and circumstances’ of … Continue reading
LA1: Opening car door to check for others after speeding stop was reasonable where windows were overtinted
Defendant was seen at 10 pm on radar going 94 in a 35, and the officer gave chase for over four miles, sometimes clocking defendant at 135. When finally stopped and with defendant in the police car, the officer went … Continue reading
CA11: Cotenant’s knowledge of their cotenant being on probation enough to search them, too
“The Supreme Court has said that a warrantless search of a probationer’s home, supported by reasonable suspicion of criminal activity and authorized by a probation condition, is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. See United States v. Knights, 534 U.S. 112, … Continue reading
CA11: Officers participating in violation of 4A can be sued, too
“Marglli Gallego brought this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action against four police officers. She alleged that two of those officers—whom we’ll call the ‘off-duty officers’—unreasonably seized her in violation of the Fourth Amendment. And she alleged that the other two … Continue reading