Archives
-
Recent Posts
- CA3: Ptf was arrested on an apparent but recalled warrant, then officers confirmed it and let him go; the arrest was reasonable
- N.D.Ohio: Failure to serve state SW within state mandated time not 4A violation
- NY1: Gunshot through floor from apartment above was exigency
- Reason: Most Civil Forfeiture Victims Never See the Inside of a Courtroom
- CA8: Admission of anonymous tip that led to stop violated Confrontation Clause
-
-
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: Reasonableness
CA4: Dog sniff before traffic ticket finished was reasonable
Dog sniff occurred here during the initial ordinary incidents of the traffic stop and writing a ticket so it didn’t extend the stop. United States v. Junkins, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 24174 (4th Cir. Aug. 13, 2021). Defendant’s vehicle was … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: The fact the search violated the state constitution isn’t a factor on legality of the search in federal case
In a federal criminal case, the fact the search violated the state constitution isn’t a factor on legality of the search under the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Breeden, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 145729 (E.D.N.C. Aug. 4, 2021). Various factors … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: CSLI tracking by state court order was reasonable under federal law despite alleged state law violation
Defendant’s cell phone location information search was reasonable and constitutional under federal law despite an alleged violation of state law. United States v. Coles, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143548 (M.D.Pa. Aug. 2, 2021). There was probable cause for the search … Continue reading
NJ declines to follow Heien under state constitution
NJ declines to adopt a reasonable mistake of law justification for an automobile stop and resulting search. At issue was a traffic law barring license plate frames that cover information on the plate that resulted in 100,000 stops per year. … Continue reading
OH1: Years old info of drug dealing coupled with current trash pull showing drug use was clearly stale; no GFE
Years old information of drug dealing in another county coupled with a trash pull of recent drug use (not trafficking) was stale, and the search warrant was clearly lacking probable cause. Therefore, the good faith exception does not apply. State … Continue reading
W.D.Tex.: SJ denied for raid on wrong house
Police raided the wrong house and got sued. Summary judgment is denied. The supervising officer and others there knew within one minute they had the wrong house, but they continued and kept plaintiff handcuffed. And nobody in the raiding party … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: “Hot watch” order for real time travel information isn’t disclosable yet; matter still under investigation
The government made an “Application request[ing] an order compelling Sabre, a travel technology firm, ‘to provide representatives of the FBI complete and contemporaneous ‘real time’ account activity’ for an individual subject to an arrest warrant—what the government refers to as … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: How long is too long a wait for search of a seized cell phone: reasonableness controls
“A seizure reasonable at its inception because it is based upon probable cause may become unreasonable as a result of its duration. The duration of the seizure pending the issuance of a search warrant must still be reasonable, and reasonableness … Continue reading
ND: Reasonableness under Heien supported even though erroneous conclusion traffic offense occurred
Whether failure to signal while exiting a roundabout is a traffic offense is a valid reason for a stop or not, it was reasonable for the officer to conclude it was, and that justifies the stop under Heien. City of … Continue reading
CA7: Groin search for drugs on side of highway was reasonable
Defendant’s side-of-the-road groin search and the reach into his underwear for a ball of drugs was reasonable on the totality. Brown v. Kazmierski, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 19962 (7th Cir. July 6, 2021):
D.Idaho: Officer can inquire of passenger’s history when contemplating turning over vehicle to passenger on driver’s arrest
“This case presents what appears to be an issue of first impression: Whether, following Rodriguez and Landeros, an officer who has reasonable suspicion that the driver of a vehicle has committed an arrestable offense (as opposed to a traffic infraction) … Continue reading
GA: Mistake as to smell of MJ v. hemp was reasonable, if there was one
“At most, Gowen’s assertion about the similarity of the smells of hemp and marijuana calls into question the reasonableness of the officer’s belief that he smelled burnt marijuana. Assuming for purposes of this appeal that Gowen’s assertion is correct (even … Continue reading
CA9: Order to get out of car permitted in Mimms doesn’t unreasonably extend stop
“The officer’s order to step out of the vehicle and his directive to stand by the patrol car were reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. See Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 109-11 (1977) (per curiam). The officer lawfully initiated the … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: No 4A REP in trash container at the street for pickup
Based on the undisputed facts (such that a hearing isn’t required), defendant’s trash was out for collection, and no reasonable expectation of privacy was violated by searching it, and then using that information to get a search warrant. “Here, Officer … Continue reading
MI: Def’s arrest being unlawful, his statement during should be suppressed
The state supreme court having found defendant’s arrest unlawful, his statement during the arrest should have been suppressed. People v. Hammerlund, 2021 Mich. App. LEXIS 3773 (June 17, 2021) (2-1) (dissent). Detention under the Material Witness Statute that was validly … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Four month delay in getting SW for cell phone was not unreasonable
There was justification for seizure of defendant’s cell phone in plain view because it might have evidence of a crime on it. The four month delay in obtaining a search warrant for the phone was reasonable under all the circumstances, … Continue reading
S.D.Ind. & E.D.La.: New crime during arrest not suppressed
Even crediting defendant’s version of events, the exclusionary rule would not be applied to the video of defendant’s violent resistance during his arrest. United States v. Hill, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111803 (S.D. Ind. June 14, 2021). Defendant’s new crime … Continue reading
D.Mass.: 14 day delay between seizure and search of cell phone reasonable
This 14 day delay between the seizure of his cell phones and the application of the warrant to seize them is reasonable. In addition, there is no Fourth Amendment right to have a search warrant issued sooner than it was, … Continue reading
SCOTUS: Tribal officers can stop and detain non-Indians on tribal lands
Tribal police have the inherent authority to stop and search non-Indians on tribal lands for potential violations of tribal, state, or federal law. United States v. Cooley, 2021 U.S. LEXIS 2816 (June 1, 2021). The syllabus:
N.D.Ill.: Pointing a gun isn’t a seizure, but def’s raising hands made it one
Defendant wasn’t seized just by the officer pointing a gun at him; it was when he raised his hands and submitted. “Here, because the officers were responding to a call about an individual with a firearm and Officer Davis reasonably … Continue reading