September 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Archives
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Recent Posts
- WaPo: Americans have turned against police cameras that track license plates, new survey shows
- W.D.Tex.: What is the duty of the neutral and detached magistrate?
- D.Me.: Yes, more investigation could have been done, but there’s still PC on what there was
- CA3: Brady doesn’t apply to SW materials
- E.D.Mich.: Person a cell phone was given to as gift could consent to search
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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)
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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)
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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: Seizure
MO: Telling def to “stay right there” and “sit down” was a seizure
Telling defendant to “stay right there” and “sit down” was a seizure, and here it was with reasonable suspicion. State v. Higgs, 2022 Mo. App. LEXIS 274 (May 3, 2022).* Probable cause was shown: “A reasonable judge could, and did, … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: USDJ doesn’t second guess USMJ’s credibility determinations in the R&R
USDJ doesn’t second guess USMJ’s credibility determinations in the R&R on a motion to suppress. United States v. Bowman, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69156 (E.D.Tenn. Apr. 14, 2022).* A bag left outdoors at an apartment complex for more than a … Continue reading
Kansas Reflector: Kansas law enforcement routinely produces error-filled reports on seized cash and property
Kansas Reflector (via Rawstory): Kansas law enforcement routinely produces error-filled reports on seized cash and property by Duane Schrag:
E.D.Ark.: City’s court order made clean up and removal of ptf’s property reasonable
Plaintiff was told for years to clean up his property from unsightly construction materials and equipment. After many failed efforts to get him to do so, the city obtained a court order to remove the property. It removed nine trailerloads … Continue reading
CA3: Def’s flight before the “Rodriguez moment” was on him
“We have ‘recognized the possibility that the Rodriguez moment occurs when an officer no longer pursues the tasks tied to the traffic stop even though he reasonably could have continued with those tasks.’ Garner, 961 F.3d at 270 (citing Green, … Continue reading
MD: Def’s DNA from a prior dismissed case admissible here
Defendant’s DNA was obtained in a 2014 case that was dismissed. The DNA from that was used to connect him to this case. The prior DNA results are not excludable just because the case went away. Hayes v. State, 2022 … Continue reading
CA6: Suicide note created exigency for welfare check
Defendant’s alleged suicide note created exigency for warrantless entry. “Prior to Remillard’s trial, several Ohio courts had held that exigent circumstances permit a police officer’s warrantless entry into a home to conduct a wellness check on a suicidal individual if … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Two parking tickets in same day not a 4A violation
Multiple parking tickets in NYC in one day is not an unreasonable seizure under the Fourth Amendment. Nor an excessive fine under the Eighth; nor a due process violation under the Fourteenth. Torres v. City of New York, 2022 U.S. … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Telling def to get out of vehicle and sit on curb is seizure
“The Court concludes that the encounter transformed into a seizure only moments later, when Deputy Baptista asked Defendant to step out of the vehicle and have a seat on the curb. Although these requests were phrased as questions, they would … Continue reading
NY2: Seizure of a shooting victim’s clothing at hospital implicates 4A
The seizure of defendant’s clothing from the hospital where he was taken after being shot was unreasonable. “The defendant had a legitimate expectation of privacy in his clothing, and the fact that the police perceived the defendant as a victim … Continue reading
E.D.Mo.: Covid delay in 48 hour McLaughlin rule not unreasonable
A 12 hour delay past the 48 hour McLaughlin rule for a finding of probable cause was not shown to be unreasonable because of Covid delays and the temporary shutdown of the St. Louis federal courthouse for cleaning. United States … Continue reading
S.D.Ill.: CPS seizing child from home can be a 4A claim
A governmental actor taking a child from the home is determined under the Fourth Amendment if substantive due process does not apply. Brokaw v. Mercer County, 235 F.3d 1000, 1017-18 (7th Cir. 2000). H.P. v. Kelley, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
IA: PC to search a car is not per se PC to search the driver; more is needed
Probable cause to search a car under the automobile exception does not automatically give probable cause to search the person of the driver. It depends on the facts. State v. Stevens, 2022 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 13 (Feb. 18, 2022). Temporarily … Continue reading
M.D.N.C.: Police-suspect confrontation with guns drawn is a seizure
A police car blocking defendant’s car and officers getting out with guns drawn is a seizure. Here it was with reasonable suspicion. United States v. McDonald, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28667 (M.D.N.C. Feb. 16, 2022).* A state search warrant for … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: A reasonably conducted eviction is not a 4A violation
“Most eviction-type seizures do not violate the Fourth Amendment. Thomas v. Cohen, 304 F.3d 563, 574 (6th Cir. 2002) (citing Soldal v. Cook County, 506 U.S. 56, 71, 113 S. Ct. 538, 121 L. Ed. 2d 450 (1992)). Seizing an … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Tearing down plaintiff’s building was a seizure under Soldal
Tearing down plaintiff’s building was a seizure under Soldal. The record thus far precludes summary judgment. Dvortsova v. City of Philadelphia, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23868 (E.D.Pa. Feb. 9, 2022). Defendant’s 2255 claim that defense counsel was ineffective for not … Continue reading
CA10: Tasing a fleeing suspect is the seizure
Defendant continued to flee when he was finally Tasered. Then he was seized. United States v. Jeffers, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 3131 (10th Cir. Feb. 3, 2022). Plaintiff complains that inmate porters came into his prison cell and went through … Continue reading
TX: Exclusionary rule is statutory and harmless error analysis required
The Texas exclusionary rule is statutory and not a constitutional remedy since 1922. Thus, harmless error analysis is required, and the case remanded for that. Holder v. State, 2022 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 72 (Feb. 2, 2022). “Accordingly, under the … Continue reading
OH2: Police car blocking def’s car in a parking lot was a seizure without RS
“We conclude that a police officer’s act of positioning the cruiser in a way that made it difficult, albeit not impossible, for Jones to drive away constituted a show of authority sufficient to cause a reasonable person in Jones’ position … Continue reading
CA9: Public electric utility cutting off one’s power is not a 4A seizure
The public electric utility cutting off one’s power is not a Fourth Amendment seizure. Lull v. County of Sacramento, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 1408 (9th Cir. Jan. 19, 2022). There was probable cause on the totality, including a showing of … Continue reading