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)
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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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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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: Seizure
WA: A purse and a closed pouch within are subject to search incident
Defendant was subject to a valid search incident, and that included not only her purse, but also a pouch within her purse. State v. Richards, 2019 Wash. App. LEXIS 2772 (Oct. 29, 2019). Officers saw defendant and others and ordered … Continue reading
OH5: It was reasonable to run the dog around a car in a traffic stop where it happened without extending the stop during waiting time
The trial court did not err in denying the motion to suppress where the officer ran the dog around the car within the time of the normal traffic stop. Therefore, the traffic stop was not illegally extended because the purpose … Continue reading
MA well explains the totality of circumstances test applied to police-citizen contacts
Massachusetts well explains the totality of circumstances test applied to what a civilian would find an inherently coercive police citizen contact but the courts hardly ever do. Commonwealth v. Matta, 2019 Mass. LEXIS 582 (Oct. 21, 2019):
CO: Traffic stop alone isn’t a seizure of the passenger under Brendlin unless more happens
“Brendlin v. California, 551 U.S. 249, 263, 127 S. Ct. 2400, 168 L. Ed. 2d 132 (2007), abrogated only the holding in People v. Fines, 127 P.3d 79, 81 (Colo. 2006), that passengers in a lawfully stopped vehicle are not … Continue reading
WA: Breath for BAC is not subject to search incident doctrine
Defendant was arrested for another reason, and police did a search incident of his breath for DUI. That’s not a proper purpose. City of Vancouver v. Kaufman, 2019 Wash. App. LEXIS 2616 (Oct. 15, 2019). The search warrant appears based … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Search of car violated Rodriguez and product of that search led to suppression of SW for house
Defendant’s stop was unreasonably prolonged and violated Rodriguez. The product of that search was used to get a search warrant for the house. The search of the house is suppressed, too. United States v. Maffei, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 177755 … Continue reading
NJ: Def made showing for additional discovery to make Franks challenge
Defendant sought additional discovery to be able to pursue a Franks challenge, and it was denied, and that was error. “In sum, because defendant was not able to investigate anything in the detective’s affidavit by obtaining routine discovery that should … Continue reading
Two on Miranda custody
Defendant was not in custody for Miranda purposes. The officers went back and forth between him and his victim in his own house. He wasn’t restrained. The trial court erred in suppressing his statement. People v. Davis, 2019 CO 84, … Continue reading
CA3: A threat to violate the 4A is not a 4A violation; it is contingent for Art. III
“The Probation Department employees’ alleged threat to send Repotski back to jail does not state a constitutional violation cognizable under § 1983. See McFadden v. Lucas, 713 F.2d 143, 146 (5th Cir. 1983) (noting that mere threats do not amount … Continue reading
CA2: Initially stopping for a police signal, arguing with officers, and then fleeing in a high speed chase wasn’t a “seizure” until he was arrested after the chase
Defendant wasn’t seized when he stopped as a result of a police signal, became argumentative, and fled the scene without submitting to authority. After that, he was seized after a high speed chase that gave the officers probable cause for … Continue reading
CA11: Officer’s threat to arrest ptf for trespass if he didn’t leave a shopping center wasn’t a seizure
Police officer’s threat to arrest plaintiff for trespass if he didn’t leave a shopping center was not a Fourth Amendment seizure. Watkins v. Ramcharan, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 25016 (11th Cir. Aug. 22, 2019). The officer’s encounter with a parked … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: IRS seizure of funds in registry of court not 4A violation
IRS seizure of funds in the registry of the court invades no Fourth Amendment interest of the taxpayer. United States v. Bigley, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 142220 (D. Ariz. Aug. 20, 2019).* No showing that ICE raid was conducted egregiously … Continue reading
M.D.Ga.: Def handcuffed for officer safety was unMirandized, and his statement admitting to gun that led to search for it suppresses both
Officers had a right during a traffic stop to check criminal history, and that legitimately led to finding defendant’s search waiver. The Georgia search waiver is not complete, however, and more stringent than the one in Samson. He was handcuffed … Continue reading
IN: Even if admitting SW affidavit at trial was error, it was harmless based on all the evidence
Officers had a search warrant for defendant’s car, but he also had a community corrections search waiver on file. (The latter wasn’t even acknowledged by the parties.) Defendant was suspected of an ongoing operation of drug selling, so the older … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Def’s removal for questioning and 8 hour detention could’t be justified under Summers
Defendant’s handcuffing and removal to the police station for interrogation could not be justified by Summers and was without probable cause. He was held eight hours and interrogated. United States v. Mitchell, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 139026 (N.D. Ga. June … Continue reading
SD: Def wasn’t stopped by the officer when he encountered car based on anonymous call
Police received an anonymous call that a particular van was DUI. An officer found the van parked at a gas station, parked far enough away that defendant could back out, and he walked up and asked how defendant was doing, … Continue reading
CA2: Ordering ptf out of a city council meeting that had been disrupted wasn’t a 4A seizure
Making plaintiff leave a city council meeting that had been disrupted by her and others was not a Fourth Amendment seizure. Guiding her out wasn’t either. Youkhanna v. City of Sterling Heights, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 24165 (6th Cir. Aug. … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Def tossed gun as encounter started and that was abandonment, but the court has questions about the encounter
The DC Gun Recovery Unit encountered a person on the street and talked to him, but by the time a more intensive encounter occurred, something that troubled the court, defendant had tossed the gun. United States v. Meekins, 2019 U.S. … Continue reading
CA11: Telling ptf to move his car wasn’t a 4A seizure
Ordering plaintiff off a parking lot because of suspected trespassing wasn’t a Fourth Amendment seizure. Watkins v. Joy, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 22910 (11th Cir. Aug. 1, 2019). X-ray for contraband on an inmate is not a Fourth Amendment claim. … Continue reading