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- WaPo: Americans have turned against police cameras that track license plates, new survey shows
- W.D.Tex.: What is the duty of the neutral and detached magistrate?
- D.Me.: Yes, more investigation could have been done, but there’s still PC on what there was
- CA3: Brady doesn’t apply to SW materials
- E.D.Mich.: Person a cell phone was given to as gift could consent to search
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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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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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)
ACLU on privacy
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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)
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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: DNA
NYTimes: The Cold Case That Inspired the ‘Golden State Killer’ Detective to Try Genealogy
NYTimes: The Cold Case That Inspired the ‘Golden State Killer’ Detective to Try Genealogy by Tim Arango: Before investigators in California say they solved a decades-old case of rape and murder using a genealogy website, the only other known case … Continue reading
D.Colo.: Additional DNA sample and fingerprints despite the fact the govt already has it
The court can order an additional DNA sample and fingerprints despite the fact the government already has it. United States v. Lovato, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71592 (D. Colo. Apr. 30, 2018). Collateral estoppel doesn’t apply to a suppression order … Continue reading
AP: Earlier search for Golden State Killer led to wrong man
AP: Earlier search for Golden State Killer led to wrong man by Michael Balsamo and Jonathan J. Cooper with Frank Stoltze:
Reason.com: The Golden State Killer and Your Genetic Privacy
Reason.com: The Golden State Killer and Your Genetic Privacy by Ronald Bailey “Any right of privacy in commercial DNA testers?” This was inevitable.
NH: Warrantless DNA testing of blood obtained from hospital if error was harmless
Defendant was driving in a car crash that critically injured him and his passenger. He came to the ER, and the hospital drew five vials of blood for diagnostic testing for his condition. At the hearing all that it would … Continue reading
Cal.: Cal.’s initiated DNA act constitutionally requires DNA sampling from those charged with serious felonies
California’s initiated DNA collection act requiring DNA sampling of those charged with serious felonies applies to defendant’s arson arrest. He refused to provide a sample on booking and was convicted of a misdemeanor offense. The California statute is not exactly … Continue reading
D.D.C.: It doesn’t violate Franks to fail to mention a Miranda violation to gain def’s admissions (no violatIon either)
Officers had probable cause for a warrantless arrest of defendant for child pornography. “But Mr. Lieu argues that the names ‘Dave’ and ‘John’ are relatively common names and that the clothing description is too general to support the connection that … Continue reading
D.S.D.: 4A permits taking DNA on booking from misdemeanor defendants
Defendant, a sovereign citizen, indicted for willful failure to file tax returns, when booked by the U.S. Marshal refused to be fingerprinted, photographed, or have a DNA sample taken because they were “copyrighted.” He relented as to fingerprinting and photographing … Continue reading
Law Review: Government Analysis of Shed DNA Is a Search under the Fourth Amendment
Government Analysis of Shed DNA Is a Search under the Fourth Amendment by Tracey Maclin, Boston Univeristy School of Law, 48 Texas Tech Law Review 287 (2015) (http://ssrn.com/abstract=2685766). Abstract:
D.N.M.: There was at least circumstantial evidence defs’ DNA would be found in evidence to justify SW for it
There was sufficient probable cause defendants were involved in a robbery and could be linked to evidence in the case for DNA samples to be taken from them by search warrants. “Although the Search Warrant lacks direct evidence that the … Continue reading
CA1: No RS for a protective sweep just because def was suspected of drugs
The government had no evidence of violence or reason to believe that there was anybody else in the apartment to justify a protective sweep. The crime alone, suspected drug trafficking, didn’t provide it. United States v. Delgado-Pérez, 2017 U.S. App. … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Nighttime search clause in SW moot where search was during day
Police showed probable cause for a DNA search warrant in an effort to connect defendant to an armed robbery. The warrant had a nighttime search clause. Since this all happened during daylight hours, any issues with the nighttime clause are … Continue reading
OK: Def counsel not constitutionally required to be notified of DNA SW after prosecution began
A search warrant was obtained for defendant’s DNA after he was represented. The affidavit showed probable cause, and there was no requirement to advise defense counsel of the search warrant before execution. Frederick v. State, 2017 OK CR 12, 2017 … Continue reading
PA: Once SW issues for clothes and DNA removed, no further warrant needed for DNA testing
DNA lawfully seized from defendant’s clothes did not require a separate warrant to test it. Defendant doesn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy in his victim’s DNA on him. Once DNA is lawfully taken, there is no longer any reasonable … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: The Franks doctrine applies only to factual misstatements, not legal conclusions
Following United States v. Barnes, 126 F. Supp. 3d 735, 740 (E.D. La. 2015), the Franks doctrine applies only to factual misstatements, not legal conclusions. United States v. Tabares, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 186540 (N.D.Ga. June 3, 2016), adopted, 2017 … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Def objection to new saliva sample by SW denied
Defendant pro se opposed the taking of a new saliva sample. For some reason, the government applied for and obtained a new warrant for saliva having determined that the prior sample was too old or insufficient. The taking of the … Continue reading
WaPo: Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill
WaPo: Employees who decline genetic testing could face penalties under proposed bill by Lena H. Sun: Employers could impose hefty penalties on employees who decline to participate in genetic testing as part of workplace wellness programs if a bill approved … Continue reading