Archives
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Recent Posts
- NY Columbia Co.: Alleged excessive nervousness when multiple police cars arrive at a traffic stop doesn’t add to RS
- CA4: Backpack dumped in flight in grandmother’s yard was abandoned
- GA: Virtually all-inclusive list of items to be seized wasn’t overbroad
- CA4: Dist.Ct. erred in applying search incident to arrest to suppress bag when inventory was inevitable
- OR: Even if original served warrant wasn’t the one returned, it doesn’t warrant suppression
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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)
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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
TX1: Arrest on PC when standing next to vehicle justified its search incident
Defendant’s arrest for a parole violation while he was standing next to his vehicle resulted in a search of the person finding drugs, and that justified a search incident of the vehicle, too. Badyrka v. State, 2024 Tex. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
OH11: Running passenger’s ID through database didn’t violate Rodriguez
With no Ohio cases on point, looking to federal cases, the court concludes that running the passenger’s ID too was incidental to the stop and didn’t unreasonably extend it. State v. Foti, 2024-Ohio-39, 2024 Ohio App. LEXIS 47 (11th Dist. … Continue reading
Reason: Study Estimates Roadside Drug Tests Result in 30,000 Wrongful Arrests Every Year
Reason: Study Estimates Roadside Drug Tests Result in 30,000 Wrongful Arrests Every Year by C.J. Ciaramella (“Roughly 30,000 people every year may be getting wrongfully arrested and jailed because of police departments’ widespread use of unreliable roadside field tests for … Continue reading
CA6: Arrest on a PV warrant permits search incident
A parole violation warrant permits a search incident to the arrest. United States v. Henderson, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 362 (6th Cir. Jan. 4, 2024) (applying Michigan law) (and after all, the defendant’s going to jail). Stopping with the front … Continue reading
FL6: Trial court erred by de novo review of SW application
The trial court conducted a de novo review of the search warrant application, not seeing whether there was a substantial basis for finding probable cause. This was error. State v. Freeman, 2024 Fla. App. LEXIS 115 (Fla. 6th DCA Jan. … Continue reading
N.D.Iowa: Police car pulling up with activated blue and red lights wasn’t necessarily a seizure; here, it is not
“I conclude that a law enforcement officer’s activation of red and blue emergency does not, by itself, establish a seizure for Fourth Amendment purposes. However, it is a factor that weighs in favor of finding a seizure. Certain other facts … Continue reading
OH2: Municipal Court can’t issue SW for out-of-state records
An Ohio municipal court does not have authority to issue a search warrant for collection of records from out of state. State v. Worthan, 2024-Ohio-21, 2024 Ohio App. LEXIS 33 (2d Dist. Jan. 5, 2024). Defendant approached the officers and … Continue reading
OH1: Intercepted jail call led to def’s arrest and search when he showed up at co-def’s house to move drugs
Jailers intercepted a jail call between an inmate and a confederate outside who was told to move the drugs from his house. Police surveilled the house. When defendant showed up with a backpack and came out of the house, there … Continue reading
WaPo: Google location data was used to find Jan. 6 rioters. It’s disappearing.
WaPo: Google location data was used to find Jan. 6 rioters. It’s disappearing. by Rachel Weinerand Drew Harwell (“Special counsel Jack Smith has a plan for how to illustrate Donald Trump’s influence over the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol … Continue reading
DC: Frisk of jacket in car was without RS
Defendant was a passenger in a rideshare, and the car was stopped for a traffic offense. They were all ordered out, and defendant took off his jacket while “blading,” said the officer, and left it in the car. The officer … Continue reading
NY3: Entry into def’s stairwell was apparently illegal, but officers knocked at the door at the top of the stairs and got consent; this was attenuated
Officers entered the stairwell up to defendant’s second floor apartment. It was contended that the entry was unreasonable because the stairwell was part of defendant’s tenancy. At the top of the stairs, however, officers knocked and gained consent to enter. … Continue reading
CA2: Dog sniff of def’s car in driveway was done in GF reliance on law at time
Acting on a tip, officers did a dog sniff of defendant’s covered car parked in his driveway, and they used that to get a warrant for it. Collins didn’t come along until the following year. The officers laid it all … Continue reading
D.Minn.: SW arguably included use of cell site simulator to track phone; GFE applied in any event
The state issued warrant here authorized the use of a cell site simulator, but this wasn’t explicitly stated in the affidavit for warrant. And, the affidavit wasn’t incorporated into the warrant either. This is a close question. The court comes … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Def’s PC suppression argument showed a trial defense, not an argment for suppression
Defendant’s objection to the R&R isn’t enough to overrule the USMJ’s finding there was probable cause. Defendant presents a trial defense, not a defense to probable cause. United States v. Cole, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 752 (D. Minn. Jan. 3, … Continue reading
D.Neb.: A SW affidavit is evaluated for PC based on what it contains, not what it lacks
A search warrant affidavit is evaluated for probable cause based on what it contains, not what it lacks. United States v. Daigle, 947 F.3d 1076, 1081 (8th Cir. 2020). Moreover, the good faith exception applies. There was enough information to … Continue reading
CA10: City driveway shared with house next door not curtilage
A driveway shared with the house next door was not curtilage. A driveway in a city usually isn’t anyway. United States v. Vasquez, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 75 (10th Cir. Jan. 3, 2024). Defendant’s objection to the R&R that the … Continue reading
D.N.M.: Squatter in building labeled “unsafe” had no standing
Defendant was a squatter in a building with posted sign warning it was substandard and unsafe. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy in the premises. United States v. Guzman, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 550 (D.N.M. Jan. 2, 2024). Michael … Continue reading
GA: Probationer’s housemate didn’t object to probation search, so it was valid as to him, too
When you live with a probationer with a Fourth Amendment waiver, your stuff in the premises is likely subject to search, too. Here, it’s decided on defendant’s failure to object to his alleged implied consent [like he knew he could] … Continue reading
MS: One of two SWs for def’s business was accidentally destroyed but not in bad faith; officers getting second SW were justified
Here there were two search warrants: One for suite E and another for both suites D & E to be sure they were searching the right premises. Execution of the suite E warrant led officers to get another for both. … Continue reading