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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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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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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. 
Monthly Archives: March 2024
VA: Asleep in one’s car isn’t RS
Defendant asleep in his car wasn’t reasonable suspicion. Marijuana found. Harvell v. Commonwealth, 2024 Va. App. LEXIS 142 (Mar. 19, 2024) (unpublished).* Plaintiff’s excessive force claim under Bivens is barred by Egbert. Butler v. Trett, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 6469 … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Collateral estoppel bars religitating search in a § 1983 case where motion to suppress lost in criminal case
Collateral estoppel bars relitigating a search in a § 1983 case found lawful in an underlying criminal case. Boseman v. Flint Police Dep’t, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 46699 (E.D. Mich. Mar. 15, 2024). “As discussed, Brown acquired the information giving … Continue reading
techdirt: Court To Cops: There’s No ‘Instinct Exception’ For Drug Dogs Handlers Refuse To Handle
techdirt: Court To Cops: There’s No ‘Instinct Exception’ For Drug Dogs Handlers Refuse To Handle by Tim Cushing (“Officers who handle drug dogs like to claim they’re so highly skilled at animal handling they can recognize otherwise imperceptible moves by … Continue reading
MN: No REP in trash out for collection even if local ordinance prohibits people from going through trash
“A police search of garbage set out for collection does not violate the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution or article I, section 10 of the Minnesota Constitution even if a local municipal ordinance prohibits the inspection or removal … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: Emergency motion to quash SW denied; def can still file a motion to suppress
The target of a search filed an emergency motion to quash a search warrant for DNA to compare it to a firearm but without a showing there was DNA on the gun. The motion is denied, but the target can … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Strip search of transgender woman going into jail who might bond out was reasonable
Strip search of a transgender woman going into custody was reasonable, even though she’d likely bail out soon. “Applying Florence to this case, the Court finds that JCCF’s policy is consistent with the Fourth Amendment. Although JCCF’s institutional safety concerns … Continue reading
“I think justice is a fight. It’s a fight because there are no givens, and nothing is ever guaranteed. Above all else, justice is a dangerous game.” Hubert Delarue, lawyer for Alain Marécaux, The Outreau Case: A French Nightmare (Netflix 2024, … Continue reading
CA5: Even if parole search was to aid criminal investigation, it was still reasonable
Even if defendant’s parole search was in aid of a criminal investigation, it was still reasonable. United States v. Barron, 2024 U.S. App. LEXIS 6336 (5th Cir. Mar. 15, 2024). A warrant after a shooting showed no probable cause for … Continue reading
IN: Cell phone linked to murder by TM sent before; PC for search
Defendant’s cell phone was linked to the murder by a witness saying that the meet was set up by text messages and more. Banks v. State, 2024 Ind. App. LEXIS 66 (Mar. 15, 2024):
C.D.Cal.: Inquiry into actions of others besides the officers involved in search is a new Bivens claim and barred
“Second, the type of evidence necessary to prove Plaintiffs’ case differs from Bivens. Bivens required only an inquiry into the actions of arresting officers. Meanwhile, Plaintiffs challenge the propriety of Zellhart’s warrant application and special search procedures, requiring the Court … Continue reading
D.Minn.: Regular CI had “extensive knowledge of street gangs, firearms, and narcotics distribution”; there was PC
The CI had “extensive knowledge of street gangs, firearms, and narcotics distribution,” and he’d been providing information for three months. The officers corroborated what they could. What little omissions there were in the affidavit weren’t material to the finding of … Continue reading
OH2: Stopping def before he got home for drug raid was reasonable
Stopping defendant a few blocks from his home when police were there executing a drug search warrant was for officer safety and reasonable. State v. Harrell, 2024-Ohio-981, 2024 Ohio App. LEXIS 918 (2d Dist. Mar. 15, 2024). [I remember a … Continue reading
Daily Beast: The Creepy and Unconstitutional Government Database of Newborn Babies’ DNA
Daily Beast: The Creepy and Unconstitutional Government Database of Newborn Babies’ DNA by Daryl James & Brian Morris:
CA2: Supervised release search condition not adequately addressed on the record
“We conclude that the ‘special needs’ doctrine of the Fourth Amendment permits, when sufficiently supported by the record, the imposition of a special condition of supervised release that allows the probation officer to conduct a suspicionless search of the defendant’s … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: The sealing of SW for def’s Facebook account has no bearing on reversibility of the conviction; release pending appeal denied
Release pending appeal denied. “Fourth, Ballenger has not shown that her arguments regarding the sealing of documents obtained under the search warrant for her Facebook account present a substantial question as to, or had any material impact on, the validity … Continue reading
GA: SW for marijuana supported plain view seizure of firearms, ammunition, and body armor
Police had a search warrant for marijuana. “[E]ven if the seizure of the firearms, ammunition, and body armor is not within the scope of the warrant, we agree with the State that law enforcement was authorized to seize these items … Continue reading
WA: Brief detention on no bail FTA warrant wasn’t unreasonable where there was a PC determination within 48 hours
A no bail bench warrant for FTA wasn’t unreasonable because a probable cause determination was made within 48 hours. State v. Clare, 2024 Wash. App. LEXIS 462 (Mar. 12, 2024). Defendant’s search incident occurred before the arrest. To be lawful, … Continue reading
C.D.Cal.: Police missing target and shooting innocent bystander is a 4A seizure, but with QI
Shooting at a suspect and hitting an innocent bystander is a Fourth Amendment seizure under Brower and Torres, but it gets qualified immunity. Larocca v. City of L.A., 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45650 (C.D. Cal. Mar. 14, 2024):
NYTimes: Does Having a Gun Make a Person Suspicious? Courts Aren’t Sure Now.
NYTimes: Does Having a Gun Make a Person Suspicious? Courts Aren’t Sure Now. by Karen Zraick (“A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that could allow more New Yorkers to carry guns is raising thorny questions and has jeopardized at least one … Continue reading
D.R.I.: SW affidavit that failed to incorporate what it said it was failed to show PC and thus no GFE
The affidavit for warrant was supposed to incorporate by attaching other stuff. The officer swore to it, but the stuff wasn’t there. The good faith exception is denied because it remained bare bones. United States v. Medina, 2024 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading