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
D.N.J.: Franks motion fails where a warrant exception applies
Defendant’s Franks motion fails because the government can justify a warrantless search of the vehicle under the automobile exception. United States v. Childs, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 101370 (D.N.J. May 28, 2025). Plaintiff’s false arrest claim isn’t barred by Heck, … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Use of stop sticks was a seizure
The use of stop sticks was a seizure, but here it was justified. United States v. Jordan, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86127 (W.D. Mo. Apr. 4, 2025).* There was nexus for defendant’s place, and the Franks claim isn’t material. United … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Being made to leave during search of premises is not a seizure
Defendant was made to leave the premises while a search occurred inside, and that was not a seizure of his person. United States v. Arcadipane, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 82688 (M.D. Fla. May 1, 2025). Defendant, a sex offender on … Continue reading
AF: Military search authorization orally supplemented was subject to GFE
There were multiple military search authorizations, and the request here was orally supplemented before issuance expanding the particularity. Also, the good faith exception applies. United States v. Johnson, 2025 CCA LEXIS 193 (A.F. Ct. Crim. App. May 2, 2025). A … Continue reading
W.D.Wis.: Code inspectors looking at ptf’s place from the street didn’t violate any REP
“Przychocki alleges that defendants Kearns, Grimm, and Schill violated her Fourth Amendment rights by surveilling her property from the street to identify code violations. The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. A government action is a ‘search’ only … Continue reading
CA9: Motel owner can’t assert guests’ rights
“Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claim fails because Plaintiffs cannot assert the rights of the Motel’s guests, Plumhoff v. Rickard, 572 U.S. 765, 778 (2014), and police entry into the Motel’s public areas does not constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment, … Continue reading
D.N.J.: Boxing in def’s car was a seizure
“Law enforcement’s conduct here—boxing in Deas’ Kia, ordering both Defendants out of the car, and placing them in handcuffs—falls within the scope of a seizure.” It was with reasonable suspicion. Then a dog alerted, then they got a warrant. United … Continue reading
ME: Search for ammunition permits a search in small spaces
A search for ammunition permits a search in small spaces. State v. Thomas, 2025 ME 34 (Apr. 1, 2025). “The trial court erred when it mistakenly applied the Texas Rules of Evidence during the motion to suppress hearing by sustaining … Continue reading
OR: Following def in an unmarked police car is not a seizure, and he voluntarily stopped
Following defendant in an unmarked car was not a seizure. Defendant ultimately voluntarily stopped and talked to the officer. State v. Serini, 2025 Ore. App. LEXIS 446 (Mar. 19, 2025).* When defendant was placed in the patrol car, the officer … Continue reading
CrimProf Blog: A Hidden Seizure Issue in Barnes v. Felix
CrimProf Blog: A Hidden Seizure Issue in Barnes v. Felix by Michael J.Z. Mannheimer:
W.D.Ky.: Police battering ram to door and shots fired inside is a seizure
In the Brianna Taylor civil rights prosecution, the battering ram to the door of the apartment with shots being fired was a seizure of the occupants. United States v. Hankison, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29347 (W.D. Ky. Feb. 19, 2025).* … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Sublessee of apartment had standing
Sublessee of an apartment had standing to challenge its search. This can’t be compared to burglars or squatters. United States v. Ephron, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28794 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 18, 2025). Defendant wasn’t seized during his encounter with the police … Continue reading
D.Alaska: It was litigation strategy to not file a motion to suppress and cut def’s losses
It was litigation strategy to not file a motion to suppress and cut defendant’s losses. No ineffective assistance of counsel. United States v. Davis, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24036 (D. Alaska Jan. 8, 2025).* The cell phone warrant was sufficiently … Continue reading
E.D.Tenn.: The alleged illegality of the later arrest doesn’t undo def’s abandonment in flight
Defendant fled, he said, in fear of his life, not knowing that it was the police. He abandoned property in flight. The fact the later arrest might turn out to be invalid doesn’t undo the abandonment. United States v. Ross, … Continue reading
DE: Instagram SW was narrowly limited by time
Instagram warrants were supported by probable cause showing both that crimes occurred and that evidence would be found in the account, based on the detailed facts in the affidavits. The warrants satisfied the particularity requirement as the date ranges were … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Photographs could be taken during execution of SW
Photographs could be taken during execution of a search warrant. United States v. Schultz, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 236848 (D. Minn. Dec. 2, 2024), adopted, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4918 (D. Minn. Jan. 10, 2025). In a case involving whether … Continue reading
D.P.R.: State nighttime search rule on state warrant inapplicable in federal court
The fact a state nighttime search warrant doesn’t comply with state law doesn’t matter in federal court. It’s whether Rule 41 and the Fourth Amendment were complied with. Then, the defendant has to show prejudice. Also, the fact defendant had … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Home confinement for pretrial release is not a 4A seizure
“In sum, defendant is not entitled to credit against his sentence for time spent under home confinement as a condition of his bail release. Further, defendant’s time spent on home confinement did not constitute a seizure of his person under … Continue reading
ALPR in action
No law; license plate reader and video showed owner of car not driving: “Detective Smith also obtained footage from the Chevron across the street from Danny & Clyde’s, which allowed him to get a better look at the license plate … Continue reading
IL: Investigative alert based on an underlying finding of PC satisfies 4A
A Chicago PD investigative alert based on an underlying finding of probable cause satisfies the Fourth Amendment and the state constitution. Prior case law is overruled. People v. Clark, 2024 IL 127838, 2024 Ill. LEXIS 836 (Dec. 19, 2024):