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Recent Posts
- IN: Overdose call led to EMS telling police what they saw and that led to SW
- NY1: A mental health defense waives REP in the medical records about it
- MA: When a likely Franks violation comes out at trial, def gets to reopen the suppression issue
- RI: Challenge to one sentence of 8-page cell phone records SW fails; totality has to be considered
- WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics
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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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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)
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"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. 
Monthly Archives: December 2023
OH8: State showed need for evidence for further investigation after indictment dismissed without prejudice so no return
Evidence was seized, including a cell phone, and defendant was charged with a violent crime. As the case progressed to trial, the state moved to dismiss without prejudice so it could investigate further. Defendant sought return of the evidence. On … Continue reading
N-M: 94-day delay in getting cell phone SW was unreasonable; GFE not applicable
The search of defendant’s iPhones and iPads lacked probable cause at the time it happened. His wife had apparent authority to search because she knew the passcodes but that doesn’t equate to her apparent authority to seize them. Also, the … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Policy directive for criminal court appearance strip searches presumptively public and not sealed
This is litigation over strip searches of detainees coming into the Manhattan Criminal Court building for court. A policy directive from another case litigated in 2018 is pertinent. The presumption of access to public records applies, and the directive will … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Controlled buy at def’s door + sound from inside = protective sweep
Officers did a controlled buy [used to be called “buy-bust”] of drugs and then used the alleged noise from inside to justify a protective sweep. The protective sweep was valid. Defendant was in the doorway and Santana (1976) justified the … Continue reading
W.D.N.C.: No REP against being tracked by bait bill tracker from bank robbery
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy to not be tracked by a device planted in bait bills taken in a bank robbery. United States v. Day, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 226779 (W.D. N.C. Nov. 6, 2023), adopted 2023 U.S. … Continue reading
VA: Stop of men on street matching BOLO for other officers to arrive in two minutes was reasonable
The first officer to encounter defendant was responding to a BOLO of suspects on the street related to a nearby home invasion. They were close enough to the description. He stopped them and held them about two minutes until other … Continue reading
D.Mass.: No PC here, and government’s GFE argument is generic and unhelpful
The affidavit for warrant here failed to show probable cause to believe a pill manufacturing operation would be found there. There was old information in the affidavit, but it was stale on its own. Also, defendants moved in the meantime … Continue reading
LA Times: California police required to state reason for traffic stops before questioning drivers next year
LA Times: California police required to state reason for traffic stops before questioning drivers next year by Noah Goldberg (“Starting Jan. 1, California police officers will have to tell drivers why they’ve been pulled over before questioning them on any … Continue reading
NY: Dog sniff of the person is a search
A dog sniff of the person is a search. There is a greater zone of privacy for the person than an inanimate object. People v. Butler, 2023 NY Slip Op 06468, 2023 N.Y. LEXIS 2023 (Dec. 19, 2023), aff’g and … Continue reading
GA: A court order for medical records by statute requires PC
There is a statutory privacy interest in one’s medical records, and an “appropriate court order” is required for the government to access them in a criminal case. An ex parte order not shown to be based on probable cause is … Continue reading
NM: No valid purpose for impoundment and inventory of def’s car parked in his own driveway
Impoundment and inventory of defendant’s car parked in his own driveway was unreasonable. There was no valid community caretaking function to be served here. State v. Ontiveros, 2023 N.M. LEXIS 281 (Dec. 18, 2023). 2254 petitioner had a full and … Continue reading
LA4: Lack of PC finding at first appearance required OR bond
Defendant was arrested on a warrant. At the first appearance there was no determination of probable cause for the arrest, so state law required that he be ORed. The $10,000 bond is set aside. State v. Nelson, 2023 La. App. … Continue reading
Reason: This Innocent Woman Is on the Hook for Thousands After a SWAT Team Destroyed Her Home
Reason: This Innocent Woman Is on the Hook for Thousands After a SWAT Team Destroyed Her Home by Billy Binion (“In June of 2022, law enforcement arrived at a modest home on East Calvert Street in South Bend, Indiana. They … Continue reading
Bloomberg Law: Google’s Location Data Move Will Reshape Geofence Warrant Use
Bloomberg Law: Google’s Location Data Move Will Reshape Geofence Warrant Use by Skye Whitley (“There are at least three cases seeking to suppress geofence-based evidence before federal appellate courts in the Fourth, Fifth, and District of Columbia circuits. Dozens more … Continue reading
E.D.La.: Seizure of car for inventory on seeing gun was without PC; “post hoc” claim of PC falls on deaf ears because they never acted like there was
Officers procured multiple warrants for defendant’s apartment, a cooler, and another vehicle, but never his car. Then they saw a gun in the car and decided to inventory. The government also claimed probable cause and a valid reason for seizure, … Continue reading