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Recent Posts
- CA3: In seeking arrest warrants, officers need not present all exculpatory evidence to issuing magistrate unless it’s “conclusive”
- D.Idaho: Trial references to SW not barred, but govt limited in what it can say
- D.D.C.: PO’s alleged violation of probation regulations doesn’t warrant suppression if a reasonable mistake
- E.D.N.C.: SW not required to look in def’s jail property bag and retrieve car keys
- D.N.M.: Consent attenuated unreasonable 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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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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"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: January 2024
NM: Def had standing in zippered bag in car under state constitution despite denial of ownership at trial
Defendant filed a motion to suppress the inventory search of a black zippered bag in his car. At trial, however, he denied the bag was his. He still had standing under the state constitution because of the higher expectation of … Continue reading
CA8: Police dog’s accidental biting of guest of officer not 4A excessive force
Police dog’s charging and biting a guest of the officer was accidental, not excessive force. Fourth Amendment claim dismissed. Whitworth v. Kling, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 1039 (8th Cir. Jan. 17, 2024) (The court cited a 1999 Arkansas case that … Continue reading
MO: Exclusionary rule does not apply to DL revocations
Even if the officer was outside his jurisdiction when defendant was stopped, that’s for criminal cases, not driver’s license revocations, which are civil. No exclusionary rule here. Craig v. Dir. of Revenue, 2024 Mo. App. LEXIS 23 (Jan. 16, 2024) … Continue reading
N.D.Tex.: Rule 41 doesn’t apply to forfeiture actions; Supplemental Rule G(8)(a) does
The government sought forfeiture of the owner’s cash after it was seized at DFW after a dog sniff on his bag. The owner responded with a motion to suppress under Rule 41, but that doesn’t apply in forfeiture cases. Supplemental … Continue reading
N.D.Fla.: No standing against tracking a stolen cell phone
Defendant claimed a Brady violation for failure to disclose a Stingray device was used to track the victim’s cell phone in his possession. It’s not. Moreover, defendant doesn’t even have standing in a stolen cell phone. Bass v. Dixon, 2023 … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Inevitable discovery applies to def giving up passcode to cell phone
Inevitable discovery applies to defendant giving up the passcode to his cell phone by a statement he challenged. The government had an independent basis to get into the phone to search it. United States v. Xiaolei Wu, 2024 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
D.C.Cir. denies rehearing en banc in Trump Twitter SW case
The D.C. Cir. denied rehearing from the Twitter account search warrant for former President Trump’s account, In re Sealed Case, 77 F.4th 815 (D.C. Cir. July 18, 2023) (corrected and unredacted version), in In re Search of Info. Stored at … Continue reading
OH6: Return of property can’t be by motion to suppress after PG
Defendant’s motion for return of his cell phone after his guilty plea was pled as a motion to suppress. Denied. He can do it over if he gets it right. State v. Cousino, 2024-Ohio-114, 2024 Ohio App. LEXIS 110 (6th … Continue reading
Guam: Seizure of USB found during frisk for officer safety unreasonable; clearly not a weapon
During a stop for stalled car, officer safety dictated the officer conduct a patdown. Seizure of a USB off defendant’s keyring was unreasonable. The stop should have ended there. Instead, the officer asked for consent which the court finds involuntary … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Affidavit for SW failed to show PC, but it wasn’t completely bare bones, so GFE applies
The affidavit averred that defendant came from his house and got in his car manifesting characteristics of somebody who was probably armed, although the officers could see no gun. This is all inference, which isn’t precluded. The affidavit is not … Continue reading
D.Me.: SW affidavit mentioned a licensing complaint against defendant doctor, but omission that the complaint was resolved favorably gets a Franks hearing
Defendant is a D.O. accused of over prescribing. She made her substantial preliminary showing to get a Franks hearing because the affiant omitted from the affidavit for warrant that the licensing authority considered the same claims and found she acted … Continue reading
CA7: SW affidavit omitted things but it wasn’t intentionally or recklessly misleading
The affidavit was lacking some important information, but it was not intentionally or recklessly misleading to the issuing magistrate. Thus, defendant’s Franks challenge fails. United States v. Hueston, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 832 (7th Cir. Jan. 12, 2024):
KS: PC for truck extended to its fifth-wheel trailer
With probable cause to search defendant’s truck, that extended to the fifth-wheel trailer it was towing. State v. Crudo, 2024 Kan. LEXIS 4 (Jan. 12, 2024). The “Rodriguez moment” came when the officer asked for consent to search. On the … Continue reading
NY: No RS where two men talked car-to-car and then moved, and one leaned in other car; nothing seen passed
There was no reasonable suspicion to stop and detain defendant for what the officer thought could have been a hand-to-hand drug transaction where he saw nothing exchanged. Defendant stopped along side another car facing in different directions, and they talked … Continue reading
DE: Challenge to search after PG doesn’t show actual innocence
After acquired information that a cell site simulator might have been misused doesn’t show actual innocence or undermine guilty plea. “The appellant pleaded guilty, and his assertion that he has new evidence that law enforcement illegally or improperly used cell-site … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Merely touching a car trying to see inside it with a flashlight wasn’t a trespass
Police touching defendant’s car when the police looked in it and saw a gun wasn’t a trespass under Jones, and then they forced their way in. Jones involved installing a tracking device on the car. This is not a “ringing … Continue reading
LA2: Anonymous report of man with a gun without some other possible crime is not RS
An anonymous tip that a man had a gun wasn’t reasonable suspicion. There was no report of any crime being committed at the time. State v. McCall, 2024 La. App. LEXIS 27 (La. App. 2 Cir. Jan. 10, 2024). Defendant … Continue reading
CA11: Austrian SW executed in Austria couldn’t be questioned here under “act of state” doctrine
Plaintiff, apparently while in the United States, had his property in Austria searched by Austrian authorities with an Austrian search warrant. [Aside from what jurisdiction is there here?,] The “act of state” doctrine prohibits a U.S. court from questioning the … Continue reading