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)
ACLU on privacy
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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
KY: Officers approached men on a street corner talking; telling def to “hang tight for a minute” because he wanted to run his name and SSN was a seizure requiring RS
Officers saw a group on a corner, so they initiated contact, just because they wanted to. They also attempted to get them to clean up the trash on the corner, which wasn’t shown to be their fault or responsibility. When … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Holding def’s driver’s license shows he’s not free to leave
The officer continued to hold defendant’s driver’s license, and that meant to him he sure wasn’t free to leave. United States v. Steffens, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122096 (N.D. Iowa July 23, 2019). Defendant was stopped for a muddy license … Continue reading
TN: Def counsel can’t be ineffective for not moving to suppress where it’s apparent there was no standing
Defense counsel can’t be ineffective for not moving to suppress evidence seized off a co- defendant because defendant wouldn’t have any standing. Smith v. State, 2019 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 442 (July 22, 2019).* It was professionally reasonable for defense … Continue reading
PA: Refusal to submit to a test is admissible under Birchfield
“[W]e conclude the ‘evidentiary consequence’ provided by Section 1547(e) for refusing to submit to a warrantless blood test — the admission of that refusal at a subsequent trial for DUI — remains constitutionally permissible post-Birchfield. We therefore affirm the order … Continue reading
CA6: When PC is shown for the SW, what’s not there really doesn’t matter
There was probable cause on the totality for this search warrant. Defendant’s attack on what’s not there doesn’t help him. United States v. Jones, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 20851 (6th Cir. July 15, 2019). There was a factual basis for … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: The fact def’s car crossed the county line between when the police car lights came on and when he was stopped is not a basis to suppress
The fact a stop was started in one county and actually occurred as defendant crossed the county line is not a basis for suppressing the stop. Defendant’s consent to search his house is suppressed, however, because of language difficulties: “Thus, … Continue reading
VT: SW target gets a hearing on whether he gets access to his own SW materials
“In this matter, Jacob Oblak petitioned the superior court for access to an affidavit of probable cause filed in a criminal case and was denied.” The public access to records rule has another rule for exceptions was not properly applied. … Continue reading
CA6: State sanctioned blood draws of newborns and keeping the samples stated 4A claim
Plaintiffs stated a Fourth Amendment claim that the state took blood samples from children to check for diseases and then retained them in the Michigan Neonatal Biorepository. Remanded for further consideration. Kanuszewski v. Michigan Dept. of Health and Human Services, … Continue reading
MA: Pinging a cell phone is a search, but here it was with exigent circumstances
Pinging a cell phone to find its location was a search under the Massachusetts Constitution and Fourth Amendment, but it was reasonable because the state showed true exigent circumstances. Commonwealth v. Almonor, 482 Mass. 35 (Apr. 23, 2019). Washington declines … Continue reading
CA5: QI granted officer who detained business owner for 4 hrs for civil violation
Detaining a business owner for four hours for civil violations and pulling a gun wasn’t clearly established as a Fourth Amendment violation, so the officer gets [away with it by getting] qualified immunity. Okorie v. Crawford, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
ScotusBlog: Argument preview: Searching for an accrual rule when the government fabricates evidence in a criminal proceeding
ScotusBlog: Argument preview: Searching for an accrual rule when the government fabricates evidence in a criminal proceeding by Howard M. Wasserman: McDonough v. Smith, to be argued on April 17, offers the Supreme Court another opportunity to clarify when civil-rights … Continue reading
N.D.W.Va.: Factual mistakes in the affidavit for SW didn’t undermine the factual showing; the GFE also applies
There were factual mistakes in the affidavit for search warrant, but it doesn’t undermine the probable cause showing. In any event, the mistakes are in good faith and the good faith exception applies. United States v. Naum, 2019 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
PA: “The Fourth Amendment does not have a time limit; it protects individuals from unreasonable seizures, no matter how brief.”
“The Fourth Amendment does not have a time limit; it protects individuals from unreasonable seizures, no matter how brief.” The brief detention here wasn’t based on reasonable suspicion and implicated the Fourth Amendment. Commonwealth v. Adams, 2019 Pa. LEXIS 1734 … Continue reading
WA: It’s defendant’s burden to show a seizure occurred
“An appellant making an unconstitutional seizure claim has the burden of proving that a seizure occurred. … [¶] Here, Yang consented to Koster’s entry. Throughout their time in the house, Lucas and Koster told Ho what they were doing. They … Continue reading
S.D.Ga.: Rule 41(g) doesn’t enable return of property the govt doesn’t have
Property not in the hands of the federal government cannot be ordered returned under Rule 41(g). Administratively forfeited case can’t be returned; there was a remedy. United States v. Morris, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45071 (S.D.Ga. Mar. 19, 2019). Defendant’s … Continue reading
Reason: Volokh Conspiracy: New Cert Petition: Does the Fourth Amendment Allow “Information Seeking” Stops of Suspects?
Reason: Volokh Conspiracy: New Cert Petition: Does the Fourth Amendment Allow “Information Seeking” Stops of Suspects? by Orin Kerr:
S.D.N.Y.: A prison cell search doesn’t need justification
“‘[P]rison officials are presumed to do their best to evaluate and monitor objectively the security needs of the institution and the inmates in their custody, and then to determine whether and when such concerns necessitate a search of a prison … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: Driving below “normal speed of traffic” is undefined and couldn’t form basis for stop
There is no statutory definition of ‘normal speed of traffic.’ And, Officer Anderson did not testify that the SUV was driving less than the ‘normal speed of traffic’ as required by the statute. Rather, he stated that the SUV was … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Destruction of surveillance cameras before search not a “seizure” or due process violation
The government destroyed defendant’s surveillance cameras as a part of the search just before it started. He asserts a Fourth Amendment and Fifth Amendment due process claim as a result. The court finds no authority that disabling the cameras was … Continue reading