waller
Archives
-
Recent Posts
- The Intercept: FBI Raid on WaPo Reporter’s Home Was Based on Sham Pretext
- N.D.Ga.: Slight delay in searching a cell phone of a person in custody who couldn’t possess it was reasonable
- D.Kan.: Search incident of a car after DUI arrest was reasonable under Gant
- Cal.2d: NDO in SW to Microsoft doesn’t violate state statute or 1A
- MA: Missing juvenile in BOLO was subject to community caretaking function
-
-
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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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: Cell site location information
D.Mass.: Cell site tower dump governed by Carpenter, but GFE applies here because there’s almost no case anywhere else
A cell site tower dump to see who was there at the time of the crime is governed by Carpenter, but the law is completely unclear and the good faith exception saves it. United States v. McDonald, 2026 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Ping information not stale
The ping information warrant here was not stale. United States v. Torres, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4593 (D. Idaho Jan. 9, 2026). [It also seems like it would never get stale. It is information not subject to change; if anything, … Continue reading
CA6: Random and isolated interference with prisoner mail doesn’t state a claim
Random and isolated interference with prisoner mail doesn’t state a claim for relief. Malicious interference would, but that’s not alleged. Tucker v. Horn, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 531 (6th Cir. Jan. 8, 2026). Not search case, but defendant was suspected … Continue reading
TX2: Taking car keys doesn’t make an investigative detention a custodial arrest
“[A]n officer’s confiscation of a suspect’s keys during an investigative detention does not automatically escalate the stop into a custodial arrest.” Here, it was a DUI stop and taking the keys was for safety reasons. Bwondara v. State, 2025 Tex. … Continue reading
CA6: Offer of proof required on missing suppression hearing witness for IAC claim
When claiming a witness wasn’t called at a suppression hearing as an ineffective assistance claim, there has to be an offer of proof as to what the witness would have testified to with a showing of how it would affect … Continue reading
TX5: Objection to “call detail records” is not a CSLI objection
A boilerplate motion to suppress cell phone records that wasn’t specific was followed up at trial with an objection to “call detail records” was not an objection to CSLI. Griffin v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 9566 (Tex. App. – … Continue reading
VA: Second frisk was still with RS
Defendant’s second frisk was valid, despite a prior frisk not finding anything. “We have no doubt that the situation here presented such circumstances, on the heels of a possible armed robbery with suspects on the scene and the whereabouts of … Continue reading
TX1: Pervasiveness of cell phone use is nexus in a home invasion case where victim knew def
The CSLI “affidavit showed a fair probability that the cell-site location data associated with Frazier’s cell phone would further incriminate Frazier (an identified suspect in the crime at issue) by confirming that he was in the vicinity of the crime … Continue reading
CA6: Applying PC deference, there was PC for this warrant based on informant hearsay
“Applying this deference here, we conclude that the state judge properly found probable cause based on the informant’s claims that Howard stored illegal drugs at his apartment. The officer’s affidavit adequately established the informant’s reliability and basis of knowledge. First, … Continue reading
404 Media: ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day
404 Media: ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day by Joseph Cox (“Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has bought access to a surveillance tool that is updated every day with billions of … Continue reading
CA2: Subsequent officer’s entry into protective sweep wasn’t unreasonable; it was considered part of the first
The protective sweep of defendant’s garage which led to an observation that made it into the warrant application was reasonable. A later entry into the garage by another officer wasn’t unreasonable. It mimicked the first. United States v. Constantinescu, 2025 … Continue reading
TX4: Reformed affidavit in Franks challenge still had PC
Assuming defendant’s Franks argument was valid, he got a hearing, a paragraph of the affidavit was deleted, and probable cause still remained. Affirmed. Del Toro v. State, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 5255 (Tex. App. – San Antonio July 23, 2025).* … Continue reading
CA11: Using BitTorrent to enter def’s computer peer-to-peer wasn’t an unreasonable search
Using BitTorrent to access defendant’s open child pornography files peer-to-peer on his computer was not a digital trespass and did not violate any reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Ewing, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 15437 (11th Cir. June 23, … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Nexus to CSLI would show who had the phone to connect it to crime
Defendant had standing to contest a search of this cell phone. While he didn’t attach an affidavit, the motion and other papers say it’s his, as does the consent form. Nothing suggests it’s not. The police got a warrant out … Continue reading
S.D.Cal.: FinCEN’s SWB GTO for financial reporting enjoined for APA reasons; 4A not reached yet
FinCEN’s Southwest Border Geographic Targeting Order (SWB GTO) for enhanced reporting requirements in certain zip codes appears to have been adopted without proper authority under the Administrative Procedure Act. The Fourth Amendment claim is deferred until later as unnecessary at … Continue reading
CA4: SW affidavit not required to name an offender
A search warrant is about whether evidence would be found in the place to be searched, not whether there’s an offender. United States v. Johnson, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 10138 (4th Cir. Apr. 28, 2025). 2255 petitioner’s Franks ineffective assistance … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Cell tower dump to solve a murder was a general warrant, but not suppressed
A California state judge issued a cell tower dump warrant to attempt to find who could have been involved in two dead bodies in the desert. The judge testified at the suppression hearing in the District of Nevada. The cell … Continue reading
IN: State’s reliance on GFE not waived where it didn’t argue it but trial court decided it
“The totality of the evidence before the issuing judge was sufficient to establish probable cause. Detective Salley’s affidavit in support of the search warrant had outlined observations that law enforcement had made during surveillance of the Astro Drive Residence, which, … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Criminal complaint can’t be challenged under Franks after indictment
A criminal complaint can’t be challenged under Franks after indictment. United States v. Sole, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 908 (N.D. Ind. Jan. 3, 2025).* Defendant’s stop for clearly overtinted windows was reasonable. Disagreement by witnesses over minor details didn’t matter. … Continue reading
TX1: GPS installed by dealer in a used car was owned by dealer and was not comparable to CSLI
Defendant bought a used car that the dealer had GPS installed in if necessary to recover it. The police accessed that information without a warrant to connect him to a murder. The contract for the vehicle told defendant about the … Continue reading