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- 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
- E.D.Mich.: Second SW for cell phone data retained by govt was valid
- S.D.W.Va.: “Shocking” nature of immigration raid on a Mexican restaurant at lunchtime didn’t warrant suppression
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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)
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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: Particularity
AK: Misspelling of target name in a warrant to record a conversation didn’t void the warrant when right person was recorded
Officers obtained a warrant under state law to record a future conversation with defendant about his alleged sexual assault of a passed out woman, but they didn’t have the spelling right (Darren, not Darin) and a wrong middle initial. There … Continue reading
CA2: Second Tasing of nonresisting detainee was unreasonable
On this record, the second Tasing of plaintiff could be found unreasonable for lack of resistance, which the jury did. Jones v. Treubig, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 19883 (2d Cir. June 26, 2020). The search under defendant’s consent for “firearms/evidence” … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Def’s efforts to cast innocent explanation to the facts articulated by the officer don’t undermine PC
While it is certainly possible the officer likely had a subjective intent to search, “‘[s]ubjective intentions play no role in ordinary, probable-cause Fourth Amendment analysis.’ Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 813 (1996). A showing that a police officer … Continue reading
NE: Indicia linking def to premises searched could be subject of SW; affidavit didn’t need a detailed explanation of CODIS for magistrate
Obtaining defendant’s CSLI in February 2017, 16 months before Carpenter, was in good faith and reasonable. That information could thus be used in an affidavit for search warrant for his house because probable cause was otherwise shown for it. Also, … Continue reading
OH4: Folded piece of paper wasn’t plain feel during stop and frisk
A folded piece of paper couldn’t be searched in a stop and frisk and plain feel because the contents weren’t felt. State v. McClure, 2020-Ohio-1574, 2020 Ohio App. LEXIS 1524 (4th Dist. Apr. 16, 2020). “The search warrant was sufficiently … Continue reading
KY: Detaining bystanders to facilitate the arrest of one was reasonable
State case law already permits officers to detain bystanders for a reasonable period for officer safety in execution of search warrants. The court adopts the Sixth Circuit rule and extends it to arrest warrants, too. “We hold that detaining Constant … Continue reading
CO: SW for everything on cell phone was general warrant in violation of 4A
The search warrant for defendant’s cell phone had a particular list of files sought, but it still was effectively a general warrant in violation of the Fourth Amendment because it sought virtually everything on the cell phone without regard to … Continue reading
CO: Cell phone SW is particular if it gives just the phone number and expected owner’s name
A cell phone search warrant is sufficiently particular by identifying merely the phone number and the expected owner of the phone. People v. Pettigrew, 2020 COA 46, 2020 Colo. App. LEXIS 656 (Mar. 26, 2020). Defense counsel didn’t fail to … Continue reading
W.D.Va.: Whistleblower CI has “strong[er] motive to supply accurate information.”
In a health care fraud case, a whistleblower confidential informant for a search warrant was entitled to more credit than a regular CI because of a likely “strong[er] motive to supply accurate information.” The search warrant for documents here was … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: A generic list of the items to be seized is appropriate in drug cases
A generic list of the items to be seized is appropriate in drug cases. United States v. Grant, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50390 (N.D. Ohio Mar. 24, 2020):
W.D.N.Y.: Just because the govt can’t unlock def’s iPhone doesn’t mean he can get return of it under Rule 41(g)
Just because the government hasn’t yet accessed defendant’s iPhone because it can’t crack the code to unlock it doesn’t mean that defendant can get it back under Rule 41(g). It’s still potential evidence. United States v. Morgan, 2020 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Address of a building is usually sufficient for particularity
The address of a building is generally sufficient particularity for a search warrant. Even so, the good faith exception would apply. United States v. Wilson, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37210 (E.D. Tex. Jan. 17, 2020), adopted, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA5: Def’s office in building behind his house was properly searched under IRS SW for house/office for records where officers relied on address publicly listed
IRS agents’ search of the home office behind defendant’s home was reasonable and did not violate the Fourth Amendment where the search warrant described defendant’s primary residence but the office carried a different address. It was reasonable to believe the … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Search of defendant’s entire Facebook account was overbroad for lack of temporal limitations
Search of defendant’s entire Facebook account was overbroad for lack of temporal limitations. United States v. Burkhow, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 20319 (N.D. Iowa Feb. 6, 2020):
CA4: 4A doesn’t require a particular statement of the crime under investigation if it otherwise adequately describes the place to be search or the person or thing to be seized
“More fundamentally, we think that the premise of Blakeney’s argument — that a search warrant always must specify the crime for which the executing officers may seek evidence – is mistaken. The Fourth Amendment ‘specifies only two matters that must … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: Def’s felony drug arrest after a patdown on RS of fleeing justified search of his car
Defendant was being watched by police, and he was being followed and ran a stop sign. In the stop, the officer told defendant to roll down his window and turn off the car. He rolled the window part way down … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: In a 3 page affidavit for SW, showing the crimes under investigation was particular enough
The affidavits for search warrant are only three pages long, and they reference the crimes under investigation on page one or the first paragraph. That is enough here to show particularity. “The Court concludes that the fact that these brief … Continue reading
OH8: Seat belt ordinance permissible under police power
A seat belt ordinance (as well as state law on the subject) is a proper exercise of police power for which a traffic stop may occur when an officer sees an occupant without a seat belt on. City of South … Continue reading
LA4: Lack of apt no. in SW wasn’t inspecific where officers were directed to his door
The search warrant for defendant’s apartment didn’t have the apartment number, but the warrant was specific and directed the officers to his door. That was constitutionally adequate. State v. Gilmartin, 2020 La. App. LEXIS 118 (La. App. 4 Cir. Jan. … Continue reading
MO: When there’s one black phone to be seized and searched, that’s all the SW needs to describe
Identifying the thing to be searched as a “black Samsung cell phone with a black case” was specific enough without including the phone number or serial number when there was only one in hand. State v. Bales, 2020 Mo. App. … Continue reading