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- CA6: State officer’s arrest for violation of federal MJ law likely wouldn’t violate 4A
- D.N.M.: Shared driveway outside of fence and gate was not curtilage
- CA6: Knowing passcode to cell phone shows common authority over it to consent
- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
- Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
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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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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: Reasonableness
S.D.Tex.: Officer’s belief that driver couldn’t stay in the passing lane wasn’t reasonable mistake
The officer’s belief that driving too long in the left lane of a divided highway was a traffic violation wasn’t reasonable because nothing in the statute allows that construction. Therefore, the stop was invalid. United States v. Buruato, 2017 U.S. … Continue reading
D.Haw.: 20 day delay in getting SW for backpack was unreasonable
The seizure of defendant’s backpack for 20 days without seeking a search warrant was unreasonable. It infringed on defendant’s possessory interest, even though he did not seek return of the backpack. United States v. Uu, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 170636 … Continue reading
Miami Herald: Guantánamo guards seize confidential Sept. 11 terror trial defense files
Miami Herald: Guantánamo guards seize confidential Sept. 11 terror trial defense files by Carol Rosenberg: In the latest challenge to attorney-client confidentiality here, prison guards on Wednesday seized the court-approved, non-networked laptop computers and hard drives issued to the accused … Continue reading
WI: Checkpoint minutes after an armed robbery was reasonable; only two cars stopped
Officers responding to an armed robbery call were in the vicinity and parked in the street with top lights on along a possible escape route creating de facto checkpoint or roadblock. Because of time of day, there were few cars … Continue reading
NPR: Judge Limits DOJ’s Warrant For Records From Anti-Trump Site
NPR: Judge Limits DOJ’s Warrant For Records From Anti-Trump Site by Laurel Walsley:
OH2 follows Heien on reasonable mistake of traffic law
Whether defendant properly stopped at the “stop bar” was at worst a reasonable mistake of law and thus still reasonable under Heien. Once stopped, the officer discovered defendant’s license was suspended. State v. Deacey, 2017-Ohio-8102, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 4457 … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Even though PA requires PC for certain traffic stops, 4A doesn’t
Pennsylvania’s requirement of probable cause for lane violations isn’t binding in federal court under the Fourth Amendment. “Accordingly, even though a Pennsylvania court may have held that Officer Sampere required probable cause to pull Defendant over for a violation of … Continue reading
OH Ct.Claims: Ptf prison visitor didn’t prove her strip search was justified or unreasonably conducted
Plaintiff failed to prove her visitor strip search claim against the prison guards involved. The search was based on sufficient particularized suspicion that drugs were coming in through this visitor. The court finds she didn’t remember signing the form about … Continue reading
TX1: Money was lawfully seized by SW from attorney’s bank account as proceeds of theft
The state seized $80,600 from a criminal defense lawyer’s bank account transferred from IOLTA account that was alleged to be the proceeds of crime. The attorney claimed it was earned attorney’s fees under his retainer agreement. “At the hearing, Fisch … Continue reading
ID: Stop was lengthy but still reasonable as stuff developed
The stop was lengthy, but it was still reasonably conducted to pursue legitimate investigative ends as stuff developed during the stop. State v. Fenton, 2017 Ida. App. LEXIS 73 (Sept. 29, 2017). The officers’ encounter with defendant wasn’t a seizure. … Continue reading
CA5: Thumping a spare tire, even if a search, was with RS and reasonable under 4A
“Here, the agent articulated several observations which, based on his eight years of experience at this checkpoint, indicated that the truck’s spare tire contained contraband. Viewing this testimony in the light most favorable to the Government, and giving due deference … Continue reading
CA11: Opening car door to check window tint was reasonable
“On this record, opening the car door to test the window tint did not violate the Fourth Amendment since it satisfied the factors in Class — the safety of the officers was served by the governmental intrusion, the intrusion was … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Over a year of CSLI was reasonable where the conspiracy covered over two years
Defendants were charged with a series of ATM robberies, and the government sought historical CSLI to link the defendants together. This is third party information. The fact that information was sought for over a year in some of the defendants’ … Continue reading
FL: Passengers are also detained for a reasonable time; def’s getting out of car reasonably delayed the stop while backup came
Officers could, as a matter of course, detain the passengers of a vehicle for the reasonable duration of a traffic stop without violating the Fourth Amendment. Although the traffic stop might have lasted longer than a routine, uneventful stop, it … Continue reading
CA8: Shooting ptf’s dog was objectively reasonable; it was running on a busy freeway and refused to be captured and caused safety hazard
Plaintiff’s dog escaped and ran down I-29 and cars were swerving dodging the dog. The defendant officer attempted to capture the dog but the dog eluded capture. With the patrol car in the road keeping cars back, traffic quickly backed … Continue reading
Cal.4: Probation search of “property, personal effects” reasonably includes a cell phone and its data
A probation search of “property, personal effects” reasonably includes a cell phone and its data. There are no limits on what “personal effects” means in the search condition paperwork. And, this was misdemeanor probation, and the search of the phone … Continue reading
A.F.Ct.Crim.App.: Retest of inconclusive UA was reasonable
The military judge erred in suppressing the results of a second “reinspection” UA administered as a base protocol after a first UA after an AWOL come up positive, diluted, or inconclusive. It was a reasonable command imposed requirement. United States … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Following Strieff, no matter the justification for def’s arrest, three FTA warrants justified search incident
Defendant was suspected of attempting a burglary by removing a screen when he fled. He refused to stop and officers finally caught up with him. Instead of submitted, he reached for his pants, and a frisk produced a gun. It … Continue reading
CA10: Criminal history questions during a traffic stop reveal no more than the computer check would and aren’t unreasonable
It wasn’t unreasonable for the officer to ask criminal history questions during a traffic stop because the computer check would reveal the same information. Travel plan questions didn’t extend the stop, and defendant’s gun was seen when he got out … Continue reading
CA11: Order to Apple to unlock iPad was reasonable under All Writs Act and New York Telephone
The district court’s order to Apple to unlock defendant’s iPad was reasonable and appropriate under the All Writs Act and United States v. New York Telephone Co. Also, seizing an entire Facebook account wasn’t “open and shut” a general warrant, … Continue reading