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- E.D.Tenn.: Application for SW was considered in detention ruling
- TN: RS didn’t develop to continue stop; second stop based on first suppressed
- CA4: Traffic stop immediately became firearms investigation; suppressed
- CA10: Disagreement over spelling of street name didn’t make warrant fail particularity; GFE at least would apply
- VA: Statutory requirement to provide SW papers only applies to “places of abode”
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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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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (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) -
“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: Rule 41(g) / Return of property
S.D.Ohio: Def not entitled to return of property deemed “classified”
Defendant is not entitled to return of property that the government has deemed “classified.” United States v. Montgomery, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29115 (S.D. Ohio Feb. 17, 2021) (“In re Search Warrant for the Person of John F. Gill, 2014 … Continue reading
Orchids of Asia Day Spa unlawfully made videos ordered destroyed
Reason: Cops Must Destroy Illegal Surveillance Videos From Spa Visited by Robert Kraft by Elizabeth Nolan Brown (“Authorities ‘shall destroy the videos unlawfully obtained through the surveillance of the Orchids of Asia Day Spa,’ a federal judge says.”) Techdirt: Federal … Continue reading
Reason: Cops Must Destroy Illegal Surveillance Videos From Spa Visited by Robert Kraft
Reason: Cops Must Destroy Illegal Surveillance Videos From Spa Visited by Robert Kraft by Elizabeth Nolan Brown (“Authorities ‘shall destroy the videos unlawfully obtained through the surveillance of the Orchids of Asia Day Spa,’ a federal judge says.”)
S.D.Ill.: Rule 41(g) doesn’t permit return of property held by state officers
“As this Court has tried to explain several times, the property Turner seeks is held by the Illinois State Police–not the Federal Government. The Court cannot order the Government to return something that it does not have. For these reasons, … Continue reading
CA3: A predicate to a 41(g) motion to return property is a prior request
“To the extent Baer complains of the Government’s failure to return his devices, his argument fails because he never sought their return. Defendants who never seek the return of the property cannot argue that delay violated the Fourth Amendment. United … Continue reading
CA11: Standing required for 41(g) motion for return of property
The district court did not abuse its discretion in declining equitable jurisdiction under Rule 41(g) for lack of a threshold showing of standing and justiciability. United States v. Stoune, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 1178 (11th Cir. Jan. 15, 2021). The … Continue reading
CA5: Examination of addresses on package was reasonable and led to RS
There was reasonable suspicion for detaining this package based on the lack of veracity of the delivery and return addresses. Examination of the package in the mail sorting system was not a search or seizure. United States v. Jones, 2020 … Continue reading
D.Minn.: SW for ion scan of door for presence of drugs was at least subject to GFE
The search warrant here for swabbing defendant’s door for an ion scan to determine presence of drugs didn’t describe what the ion scan would show. The existence of case law from at least 1999 supporting ion scan warrants satisfies good … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Intervention for return of A-C privileged information denied as moot because they have the information
Intervention in a criminal case to attempt to recover information obtained in alleged violation of the attorney-client privilege is denied as moot. They already have that information, and there is a fundamental difference between recovery of property under Rule 41(g) … Continue reading
D.Ore.: Illegibility of judge’s signature on SW not 4A violation
Just because the state trial judge’s signature was illegible doesn’t violate the Fourth Amendment. The judge’s name was stamped below. United States v. McElroy, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132608 (D. Ore. July 24, 2020). Franks challenge fails: “Thus, the bottom … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Private party, here the owner, can be enlisted to help in computer search
Both the Fourth Amendment and Ohio law permitted law enforcement to seek private assistance in executing a search warrant, here of a computer, and the search was conducted by the company that owned the computer. United States v. Powell, 2020 … Continue reading
OH9: Motion for returned property may still be appropriate after conviction
“[W]e find that a motion for the return of seized property may be a viable means to request the return of property even after conviction. Therefore, the trial court erred when it denied Mr. Castagnola’s motion for the return of … Continue reading
MN: Return of digital copies of attorney’s files seized by SW was only issue and now moot; legality of SW comes later
The attorney here was the target of a search warrant for all her files where the attorney was the suspect, not a client. That distinguishes O’Connor. The parties, the client interveners, and amici have briefed all kinds of constitutional arguments … Continue reading
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
S.D.Miss.: Preindictment suppression governed by equitable standards, and GFE still applies
Plaintiff seeks preindictment suppression of evidence and return of evidence of illegal employment of undocumented workers. Preindictment suppression is based on equitable grounds. In the face of the good faith exception, Koch Foods can’t show that it does not apply … Continue reading
OH6: Checking DMV records involves no 4A intrustion
“[T]he law is clear that a police officer’s check of a person’s Bureau of Motor Vehicles records does not implicate Fourth Amendment rights, as it does not constitute an invasion as it involves no intrusion.” State v. Price, 2020-Ohio-220, 2020 … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Venue for a motion for return of seized property is where the property was seized
Venue for a motion for return of seized property is where the property was seized, here the E.D. N.Y. United States v. Collado, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7873 (S.D. N.Y. Jan. 16, 2020). Defense counsel wasn’t ineffective for not challenging … Continue reading
D.D.C.: No statute of limitations for equitable actions for return of property not forfeited
Plaintiff pro se and post-conviction filed a pleading for return of property. Some was forfeited, and it was treated as a motion to set aside the forfeitures. Some were not forfeited, and there is no statute of limitations for equitable … Continue reading