Archives
-
Recent Posts
- CA6: ChatGPT’s opinion that evidence was “newly discovered” for a successor habeas is wrong
- N.D.Cal.: Tribe’s suit over overbroad SW can proceed
- DE: Warrantless entry in DUI case unreasonable
- E.D.Ark.: Ptf stated claim for SW entry without proper announcement
- E.D.Ky.: Being a lookout vehicle at a crime is RS
-
-
ABA Journal Web 100, Best Law Blogs (2015-17) (then discontinued)
-
-
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) -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fourth Amendment cases, citations, and links -
Latest Slip Opinions:
U.S. Supreme Court (Home)
S.Ct. Shadow Docket Database
Federal Appellate Courts Opinions
First Circuit
Second Circuit
Third Circuit
Fourth Circuit
Fifth Circuit
Sixth Circuit
Seventh Circuit
Eighth Circuit
Ninth Circuit
Tenth Circuit
Eleventh Circuit
D.C. Circuit
Federal Circuit
Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
Military Courts: C.A.A.F., Army, AF, N-M, CG, SF
State courts (and some USDC opinions)
Google Scholar
Advanced Google Scholar
Google search tips
LexisWeb
LII State Appellate Courts
LexisONE free caselaw
Findlaw Free Opinions
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
-
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)
-
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] -
“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: Staleness
M.D.La.: SW for examination of boat two years after alleged false BP spill claim for repairs not performed wasn’t stale
Defendant was suspected of making a fraudulent claim in the BP oil spill litigation claiming repairs on a boat. The government gathered information from others that strongly suggested that the boat was neither damaged nor repaired. The government finally applied … Continue reading
CA6: Where def refused to provide combination to his safe during execution of a SW, it was reasonable to pry it open
Defendant showed the police that he had marijuana inside his home and the police obtained a warrant to search his home. Thus, suppression was not warranted because there was an outright certainty, not just a “fair probability,” that the house … Continue reading
CA5: There is no “contemporaneity between the evidence supporting probable cause and the arrest.”
There is no “contemporaneity between the evidence supporting probable cause and the arrest.” It’s up to police discretion when to arrest. Essentially: Staleness doesn’t apply to PC for arrest. United States v. Clark, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 7959 (5th Cir. … Continue reading
CA10: GFE applies throughout: arguable PC overcomes allegation of lack of neutral detached magistrate, overbreadth, and even staleness
“This case calls for us to apply Leon where the judge who issued the search warrant was arguably not neutral and detached. Although we are unaware of any court applying the good faith exception in such circumstances, it is apparent … Continue reading
W.D.La.: BOLO for a stop in an armed robbery case was not stale after 8 days
When defendant voluntarily stops his car and gets out to walk away, the police encounter after that is not a “traffic stop” governed by traffic stop rules. The stop was consensual, but officers did have reasonable suspicion defendant’s vehicle had … Continue reading
NY: Argument can’t be changed between suppression hearing and appeal
The search argument regarding the gun found in the search presented on appeal isn’t the same as the one presented to the suppression court, so it’s waived. (Defendant wins, however, because he was denied confrontation when a DNA analyst who … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Staleness for a wiretap follows the same general rule as staleness for search warrants except it’s to find evidence of conspiracy
Staleness for a wiretap follows the same general rule as staleness for search warrants except that the question is probable cause to believe that the content of telephone calls will help prove the conspiracy. United States v. Ford, 2016 U.S. … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: One month old information about a gun is not stale
The CI’s seeing a gun in defendant’s house a month before the warrant issued is not stale at all. “The Affidavit established a fair probability that firearms would be found.” Also, the detail of the affidavit provided cross–corroboration. Finally, defendant’s … Continue reading
KY: Lack of staleness is determined from the totality of circumstances if time not specifically stated
Defendant was snitched off as a drug dealer by his own son as a citizen informant. The specific time of the possession of drugs wasn’t specifically stated, but here it can be ascertained by the totality of circumstances. Stating when … Continue reading
Two on staleness: for a stolen rifle and a backpack in the same condition
A search warrant for a stolen rifle was not stale because the CI’s statement of probable cause was two months old. Plenty of authority holds that staleness doesn’t often apply to firearms because they are items that are kept. “Consistent … Continue reading
OH9: For appellate court to consider trial testimony on motion to suppress, motion to reopen or reconsider required
To get the appellate court to consider trial testimony to supplement the motion to suppress, it’s necessary to renew the motion in the trial court after that point. Otherwise, the appeal proceeds on what was developed at the suppression hearing. … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Omission of specific dates in affidavit not fatal where whole showed ongoing drug operation
Omission of specific dates was a technical error where the affidavit as a whole showed an ongoing drug operation out of defendant’s house. Therefore, the good faith exception applies. United States v. Williams, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 154267 (D.Minn. Nov. … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Email SWs are almost never stale; the email is always there
Staleness as to an email search warrant is hard to prove. It’s always going to be on the email provider’s server. United States v. Khateeb, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143007 (M.D.Fla. Aug. 4, 2015). Defense counsel was not ineffective for … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: 1-2 yr old info coupled with current info showed ongoing drug operation at house
Information that was 1-2 years old was included in the affidavit, and there was current information, too. The old information supported showing that defendant’s counterfeiting operation was “protracted and continuous and that it was ongoing just two days to two … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Police daily briefing provided PO with RS of a probation violation
Defendant’s PO received a daily brief from the police that mentioned that defendant was in a car stopped and identified as a gang member. One of his conditions of parole was to avoid gang activity. That was justification for a … Continue reading
Cal.2d: SW for records and computers in 23 year old cold case was not stale, and GFE applied
This is a 1986 cold murder case solved in 2009 by DNA involving the killing by an LAPD officer of the wife of her lover at the time. All the forensics were retested with current DNA techniques and sent to … Continue reading
D.Mass.: “Business records, as a class, are repositories of historical facts and, therefore, are largely immune from claims of staleness.”
In an ongoing drug conspiracy with money laundering, a broader time period is permitted in the business records to be seized by a warrant. “Business records, as a class, are repositories of historical facts and, therefore, are largely immune from … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Charged, but yet unproved, conduct can appear in a search warrant affidavit
There were four GPS warrants on the defendant’s car, owned by his wife, June-October 2014, renewed in state court every 30 days. The court can’t conclude they were started on stale information since it referred to an ongoing drug operation. … Continue reading