September 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Archives
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Recent Posts
- 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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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)
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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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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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: Motion to suppress
CA8: Confrontation clause doesn’t apply to suppression hearings; hearsay commonly used
Defendant was added to a conspiracy case after the codefendants had a suppression hearing. It was at first agreed that their suppression hearing testimony could be considered as to defendant as well, but then defendant equivocated on that. To some … Continue reading
PA: Telling computer repair person to move files to a new hard drive was a waiver of REP
Defendant essentially waived his reasonable expectation of privacy in his computer hard drive when he took it in for repair, was told that the hard drive was failing and he needed a new one, and then directed them to move … Continue reading
FL5: Peeing in a parking lot is RS of “public nudity” justifying a stop
Peeing in a parking lot is reasonable suspicion of “public nudity” justifying a stop. State v. Harris, 2017 Fla. App. LEXIS 18994 (Fla. 5th DCA Dec. 15, 2017). Defendant’s rental company maintenance man was acting as a private citizen when … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Not filing motion to suppress but joining in codef’s renewed motion to suppress was waiver
Where one defendant didn’t file a motion to suppress but joined in a renewed motion to suppress of a codefendant, the motion is treated as waived. The procedure attempted circumvents Rule 12. Moreover, he doesn’t even have standing. United States … Continue reading
D.Mont.: Gun possession not stale after 5 months
A CI’s reference to guns in defendant’s house in Dec. 2016 was not stale by April 2017. Defendant’s arguments about a Franks violation are rejected for lack of materiality to the finding of probable cause. United States v. Wilson, 2017 … Continue reading
GA & Guam: Not getting a timely ruling on motion to suppress is waiver
Defendant didn’t get a ruling on his motion to suppress before trial. At trial, he didn’t object to one item being admitted but did to another, but not on Fourth Amendment grounds. Defendant waived his Fourth Amendment claim by not … Continue reading
PA: No REP in CI recorded video in def’s car during drug transaction; also, motion was out of time and should have been denied on that ground alone
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his car under the state constitution from a surreptitious silent video recording of a drug transaction. The trial court erred in granting it. Indeed, the filing of the motion to suppress on … Continue reading
NV: Illegally recorded conversation by recorder in child’s backpack can be used by expert in child custody proceeding
In this child custody case, the father put a recording device in the child’s backpack to record the child’s interactions with the mother. While the recording violated state law, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in permitting an … Continue reading
LA: Automatic denial of pro se motion to suppress filed by represented defendant was error; counsel needs to review
Trial court erred in denying defendant’s pro se motion to suppress solely because he was represented by counsel. At least as a matter of state law, it’s up to defense counsel to assess the motion and decide what to do … Continue reading
DE: Conclusory motion to suppress summarily denied
Defendant’s conclusory motion to suppress that states no law or fact is denied without a hearing. State v. Dunson, 2017 Del. Super. LEXIS 616 (July 7, 2017):
DE: two on motions to suppress out of time
Motion to file a motion to suppress out of time is denied for not showing a sufficient excuse. Even so, defendant doesn’t allege standing, so he couldn’t win if it was allowed to be filed. State v. Boyd, 2017 Del. … Continue reading
CA7: Def’s false suppression hearing testimony gets him 2 level obstruction sentencing enhancement
Defendant’s false testimony at suppression hearing results in 2 level enhancement under the Sentencing Guidelines. United States v. Jones, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 18204 (7th Cir. Sept. 20, 2017):
CA2: Waiting until trial to move to suppress computer was waiver
The FBI thought they had defendant’s wife’s consent to search his computer, but they realized she didn’t know the password, so they applied for a search warrant. Defendant waited until the start of the trial to move to suppress, and … Continue reading
NY4: Not granting a continuance of suppression hearing for unavailable witnesses was an abuse of discretion
The trial court erred in granting the motion to suppress for the nonattendance of its police witnesses after they were subpoenaed but didn’t show. The state sought an adjournment which the trial court denied. It was the first request for … Continue reading
D.Haw.: Possible new evidence on search issue for motion for new trial doesn’t change outcome
Defendant’s motion for new trial based on possible new evidence for litigating the search and seizure claim under F.R.Crim.P. 33 is denied because it doesn’t change the outcome. United States v. Kapahu, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88922 (D. Haw. June … Continue reading
Two on waiver of motions to suppress
Where the motion to suppress was filed the Friday before a Monday bench trial, it was within the discretion of the district court to defer the suppression motion ruling until after all the evidence was in. United States v. Hardison, … Continue reading
PA: Deciding a motion to suppress on grounds not raised by the defense was an abuse of discretion; state didn’t get to respond
Deciding a motion to suppress on grounds not raised by the defense was an abuse of discretion because the state did not get to raise a defense to it. Commonwealth v. Banks, 2017 PA Super 182, 2017 Pa. Super. LEXIS … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Potential fraud conspiracy provided inference for PC to search cell phones
There was probable cause for the search of defendant’s cell phones in his car. He fled from an attempt to make a purchase at a store with a stolen prepaid credit card. When his car was stopped, he consented to … Continue reading
OH10: Hearsay of one officer about another not inadmissible in suppression hearing about RS
The trial court did not err in relying in part on hearsay testimony by one officer about another to find that there was reasonable suspicion for defendant’s detention. State v. Box, 2017-Ohio-1138, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 1165 (10th Dist. March … Continue reading