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by John Wesley Hall
Criminal Defense Lawyer and
Search and seizure law consultant
Little Rock, Arkansas
Contact: forhall @ aol.com / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
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Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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State courts (and some USDC opinions)
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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
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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)
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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
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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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, Little Rock 
Category Archives: Seizure
CA1: Collective knowledge isn’t required of all officers, just those involved
Collective knowledge is not required of all the officers involved in the case, just the one with knowledge telling the one making the stop. Here there was reasonable suspicion for the stop. United States v. Cruz-Rivera, 19-1465 & 19-1509 (1st … Continue reading
AL: Suspicious noises inside from knock-and-talk was exigency
Police knock and talk led to them hearing noises of someone rushing around inside. They could also smell marijuana from outside, and they had information of buys from inside the house. Exigency established. Hall v. State, CR-20-0394 (Ala. Crim. App. … Continue reading
DC: Grabbing one’s waistband while running from the police signals contraband, despite possible innocent explanations
Grabbing at one’s waistband while running from the police may have innocent explanations, too, but it signals contraband. Newman v. United States, 7-CF-520 (D.C. Sept. 2, 2021). A delay between the traffic stop and an ultimate search is not per … Continue reading
E.D.N.Y.: Def already lawfully arrested suffered no separate 4A violation by being taken to ATF, too
Defendant already lawfully arrested wasn’t unreasonably seized by also taking him to ATF for further questioning. United States v. Rodriguez, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 158008 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 20, 2021). The affidavit showed “ample probable cause” and the Franks challenge is … Continue reading
CA7: Destruction or sale of seized property wasn’t unreasonable or a taking
Property lawfully seized by the city is destroyed or sold after a short while if unclaimed. That doesn’t make it an unreasonable seizure or a taking. Conyers v. City of Chicago, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 24676 (7th Cir. Aug. 18, … Continue reading
CA8: Handcuffing for two minutes was not an unreasonable seizure when based on furtive movements
Plaintiffs’ handcuffing for two minutes because of furtive movements was reasonable. “Based on the totality of the circumstances, we conclude that the investigative detention did not become an arrest here because Officer Marzolf only used handcuffs briefly (under two minutes) … Continue reading
CA8: Taking box off FedEx conveyor belt for dog sniff didn’t deprive FedEx of custody
Moving a suspicious looking box from the FedEx conveyor belt to a back room for a dog sniff did not require reasonable suspicion nor did it deprive FedEx of custody of the box. The dog alert provided justification for a … Continue reading
S.D.Ohio: Affidavit for SW showed home was base of DTO
The collection of information for probable cause for the warrant included a reasonable inference that defendant’s home was a base of operations for a drug trafficking operation, and this was nexus. United States v. Jackson, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 144185 … Continue reading
CA8: Officer holding DL for a few minutes wasn’t an unreasonable seizure
Where defendant turned over his DL when the officer requested it and it wasn’t returned right away while records were checked, it was [apparently] on defendant to ask for it back. This wasn’t a seizure. United States v. Lillich, 2021 … Continue reading
TN: Consent in the face of a threat to get a SW is invalid where no PC
Defendant’s consent in the face of the officer’s threat to get a search warrant was involuntary where there was no probable cause for a warrant. State v. Cohen, 2021 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 356 (July 29, 2021). There was reasonable … Continue reading
W.D.Wash.: Def’s arrest away from the place of search was justified by PC
There was probable cause for defendant’s arrest away from the place of execution of the search warrant (Summers and Bailey). United States v. Pelayo, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126671 (W.D. Wash. July 7, 2021). When defendant opened his door, the … Continue reading
WA: PC and nexus shown for CSLI warrant before Carpenter
Defendant was a suspect in a diamond theft. Police obtained a search warrant for his cell phone location records and that placed him near the burglary at the time it happened, and there was probable cause for it. The search … Continue reading
CA7: When false arrest is the claim, ptf’s bond conditions are not separate seizures for SoL purposes
Plaintiff’s false evidence claim arises from the arrest or release from detention, and here it is time barred. His release on detention was not a separate Fourth Amendment seizure. Smith v. City of Chi., 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 19136 (7th … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Def unaware he was blocked in his car wasn’t “seized”
“Inasmuch as Mr. Mitchem was unaware that his car was blocked given his somnambulant state, the mere blocking of his vehicle is of no Fourth Amendment consequence.” United States v. Mitchem, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118388 (S.D. W.Va. June 25, … Continue reading
CA3: GFE saved CP search district court found lacked PC
Officers obtained a search warrant for defendant possessing child pornography based on his interest in unclothed children and taking pictures. The district court suppressed, but the good faith exception applies to save the search. The government appealed on both probable … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: ISP’s duty to report CP under 18 U.S.C. § 2258A doesn’t make it still not a private search
Kik’s duty to report child pornography on its platform under 18 U.S.C. § 2258A doesn’t make its search still not a private search. United States v. Hart, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111166 (M.D. Pa. June 14, 2021). The trial court … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Sexual assault allegation by school official states 4A claim
Allegation of a sexual assault by a school official states a Fourth Amendment claim. Hermann v. Kirkwood R-7 Sch. Dist., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 102574 (E.D. Mo. June 1, 2021). Officers with a search warrant for electronic devices could look … Continue reading