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Recent Posts
- CA8: Admission of anonymous tip that led to stop violated Confrontation Clause
- CO: Anonymous report of student smoking pot in school justified backpack search
- CA6: CI’s lie to get into def’s house to video him making a drug deal with the CI didn’t violate 4A
- TN: Def lived in a van left wide open in a public area, but it didn’t belong to him, so no REP as to interior
- VI: Despite ubiquity of cell phones, nexus has to be shown to alleged crime
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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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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)
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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: Administrative search
CA10: EPA subpoena to determine cost of cleanup was within agency jurisdiction and was reasonable
An EPA subpoena to determine whether this mine could pay for the cost of a cleanup was within the agency’s jurisdiction and valid and did not violate the Fourth Amendment. United States v. United Park City Mines Co., 2020 U.S. … Continue reading
CA4: Administrative search by nonregulatory officer invoking regulatory processes was unreasonable
A stop of a regulated truck for a regulatory inspection by an nonregulatory officer was unreasonable under the administrative search doctrine. Otherwise, it upends the Burger scheme. United States v. Feliciana, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 28881 (4th Cir. Sept. 11, … Continue reading
CA9: Motel operator in Los Angeles fails to state Patel claim
Plaintiff’s second amended complaint didn’t state a City of Los Angeles v. Patel claim. “The SAC’s allegation that the Motel’s registration records were searched pursuant to a CUP condition that was imposed by a vote of the City Council provides … Continue reading
CA9: Bringing police with criminal investigative motive to execute admin. warrant was unreasonable
An administrative inspection warrant is based on a programmatic probable cause standard, and not probable cause to believe that a crime occurred. Using the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office to help do a City of Lancaster administrative entry and search … Continue reading
CA1: Drunk underage partiers puking outside and going back in justified a community caretaking entry to see if anyone was in distress
Drunk underage partiers puking outside and going back in justified a community caretaking entry to see if anyone was in distress. Castagna v. Jean, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 11357 (1st Cir. Apr. 10, 2020). The use of an administrative warrant … Continue reading
CA10: Criminal history checks may be run in any stop under Rodriguez
Criminal history checks are reasonable under any traffic stop because they negligibly extend the stop. This court held that en banc in 2001 in a case relied upon in Rodriguez. Other circuits are in accord. United States v. Mayville, 2020 … Continue reading
Quarantines and the Fourth Amendment
Is a government quarantine order for a person or group of people a violation of the Fourth Amendment as a reasonable seizure? Despite being an ardent civil libertarian, I must conclude the Constitution means: No. Protection from infectious diseases … Continue reading
CA9: Facial challenge to housing inspection ordinance fails because there is an administrative warrant provision
Plaintiffs’ facial challenge to Los Angeles’ housing inspection ordinance fails because it isn’t unconstitutional in all applications. An administrative warrant provision is provided for. Garris v. City of Los Angeles, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 8361 (9th Cir. Mar. 17, 2020). … Continue reading
Cal.4: SDT for financial records in a pollution investigation to properly assess penalty was reasonable
The state’s subpoena for records in a pollution investigation were statutorily based, within the agency’s jurisdiction, and reasonable in scope. Here, the records were financial, and it was for imposing a reasonable penalty. The subpoena also did not violate a … Continue reading
IL: Truck inspection search was with RS from suspect log book and wrong seal and locks on cargo door
The truck inspection officer here had reasonable suspicion because the log book looked like it was false, there was an unnecessary private seal on the trailer, and the lock was on the wrong door meaning the load wasn’t protected. Two … Continue reading
Cal.5th (concurring): Are routine administrative searches with guns on hip and bulletproof vests always reasonable?
Officers showed up for an OSHA inspection armed and wearing bulletproof vests and insisted upon the inspection starting without giving the company representative a chance to even think about it. The concurring judge finds this excessive in a free society, … Continue reading
Reason: Contempt for Renters Leads to Second-Class Search and Seizure Protections
Reason: Contempt for Renters Leads to Second-Class Search and Seizure Protections by J.D. Tuccille (“Signing a lease instead of a deed shouldn’t erase your right to be free of government home invasions.”):
D.C.Cir.: Dewey and Mine Safety Act provide for no precompliance warning or review before inspection
The petitioner here was a contractor working at a mine, and a mine safety inspector looked at equipment and cited the contractor a $116 fine. The ALJ denied relief, and, on a petition for review of the fine, the court … Continue reading
WA: Was a courthouse security search that turned up drugs properly limited? Remanded for more fact finding
An issue that hasn’t appeared in appellate decisions for a while: May a jacket be searched for drugs at courthouse security? Not here, but more fact finding required. The CSO felt a cell phone to remove it from a pocket, … Continue reading
NY2: Pawnbrokers are “pervasively regulated” under 4A
Pawnbrokers are “pervasively regulated” for consumer protection. City of Los Angeles v. Patel is way different because that industry was not so regulated. Collateral Loanbrokers Assn. of N.Y., Inc. v City of New York, 2019 NY Slip Op 09354, 2019 … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: New Appeals Test for Medical Prescription Warrantless Searches
Bloomberg Law: New Appeals Test for Medical Prescription Warrantless Searches by John Nancarrow (“A federal appeals court could rule anytime on whether law enforcement needs a warrant to access information on people’s prescription drug use from state databases—a case that’s … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: LA ordinance on providing hotel rental info valid under Patel
An LA ordinance requires certain information from hotel and motel renters which survives analysis under Patel. The information is not private information, and it’s not even a search. If it was, it would be a valid administrative search. City of … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Idaho fish and game checkpoints that minimally detain nonhunters and fishers isn’t likely a violation of 4A
Plaintiff sought a preliminary injunction against wildlife checkpoint stops that included nonhunters and fishers. The court finds that there is little likelihood of success on the merits. The state’s interest in protection of wildlife is high, and, on balance, the … Continue reading
D.Neb.: Violation of an ATF regulation during administrative search of an FFL doesn’t justify suppression without a 4A violation
Defendant had a federal firearms dealer license and he was subjected to an inspection. Firearms dealers, of course, are closely regulated businesses. After the motion to suppress was denied, he decided that ATF regulations were violated. The court concludes, based … Continue reading