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Recent Posts
- D.Haw.: It wasn’t objectively reasonable that def’s bag had been abandoned
- D.R.I.: Defense attorney’s affidavit for Franks motion was insufficient for lack of personal knowledge
- Philadelphia Inquirer: Two Philadelphia police officers stopped hundreds of Black men on the street. Lawyers say the stops were illegal and racially biased.
- Reason: Iowa Man Seen in Viral Body Camera Footage Wins $105,000 Wrongful Arrest Lawsuit
- Wired: Wrongful Arrest Exposes Failures in One of the Oldest Police Face-Recognition Tools in the US
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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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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: May 2026
N.D.Ga.: PIT maneuver here was not excessive force
A PIT maneuver here was not excessive force. Defendant repeatedly refused to stop and even after attempted PIT maneuvers kept fleeing. United States v. Damons, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118141 (N.D. Ga. Apr. 2, 2026):
LA4: Acting like carrying a gun and wearing a ski mask in New Orleans in June was RS
The juvenile here acted like he was carrying a weapon and he had on a ski mask in June in New Orleans. That was reasonable suspicion. State In the Int. of L.V., 2026 La. App. LEXIS 1070 (La. App. 4 … Continue reading
MI: Lifetime SO registration and GPS monitoring was reasonable
Lifetime SORNA registration and GPS monitoring was reasonable here because defendant’s victim was under 13. People v. Vandermel, 2026 Mich. App. LEXIS 4464 (May 28, 2026).* On a successor habeas: “Here, the ground Mack raises in his instant application was … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Four-year-old SW materials were subject to redaction and in camera submission to see about release
Project Veritas sued over sealed search warrant materials, and it’s been four years since the warrants. There’s a public interest in disclosure, and the government shall file in camera proposed redactions of the materials. Generalized claims of law enforcement need … Continue reading
E.D.Ark.: Facts underlying QI will be submitted to jury
In a qualified immunity order, the court decides to submit underlying fact questions to the jury to decide it. Steelman v. City of Shannon Hills, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 118665 (E.D. Ark. May 29, 2026). 2255 petitioner’s claim about his … Continue reading
TX1: No standing to challenge seizure of ketamine off co-def, but PC was lacking for his own arrest
Defendant didn’t have standing to challenge the seizure of ketamine off a codefendant. [Even better for him,] There was no probable cause for his warrantless arrest. Akinrinlola v. State, 2026 Tex. App. LEXIS 4935 (Tex. App. – Houston (1st Dist.) … Continue reading
KS: 13 days pole camera surveillance violated no REP
Pole camera observation for 13 days violated no reasonable expectation of privacy. The state’s search and seizure provision is interpreted the same as the Fourth Amendment. State v. Garrett, 2026 Kan. App. LEXIS 20 (May 22, 2026). The pictures in … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: WaPo reporter’s SW was overbroad and 1A protected
In the Washington Post reporter’s search warrant case, the district court held, inter alia, that the overbroad seizure of material was at least First Amendment privileged, and it was ordered returned. In re Natanson, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 113296 (E.D. … Continue reading
CAAF: GFE applies to cell phone’s geolocation data because of substantial basis for the search authorization
Defendant Air Force enlisted man at a base in Italy was convicted of burglary and entering quarters with the intent to assault and photograph what was an AFOSI, where his victim beat him up in the act. Geolocation data from … Continue reading
CA9: When a digital computer search reveals a CP hash value, officer doesn’t have to see image to have PC
A digital computer search that produces an image with a hash value that matches known child pornography is probable cause without the officer even seeing the image. United States v. Johnsen, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 14893 (9th Cir. May 26, … Continue reading
I’m back
Took off a week for serious family time. This is the first time in 23 years I’ve missed a week. The book is still on sale through tomorrow, May 31, with the code MEMDAY26, here.
IN: Overdose call led to EMS telling police what they saw and that led to SW
EMS responded to an overdose call, and they reported what they saw inside which led to police getting a search warrant. Leon v. State, 2026 Ind. App. LEXIS 171 (May 20, 2026). “Missouri courts have indicated that the question of … Continue reading
NY1: A mental health defense waives REP in the medical records about it
When the accused raises a mental health defense, he waives any reasonable expectation of privacy in the records. S.M. v. City of N.Y., 2026 NY Slip Op 03248, 2026 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 3413 (1st Dept. May 21, 2026).* “[T]he … Continue reading
MA: When a likely Franks violation comes out at trial, def gets to reopen the suppression issue
When a likely Franks violation comes out at trial, defendant gets to reopen the suppression issue. Here, the officer’s false statement he was present for a third controlled buy satisfied Franks and was excised. Defense counsel showed that it couldn’t … Continue reading
RI: Challenge to one sentence of 8-page cell phone records SW fails; totality has to be considered
Defendant’s challenge to the search warrant for his cell phone records focused on one sentence adding nothing to the calculus. On the totality, the 8-page affidavit showed probable cause for the cell phone records. State v. Pinkerton, 2026 R.I. LEXIS … Continue reading
WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics
WaPo: Subpoena bill would curtail secretive tool used to target government critics by John Woodrow Cox (“The bipartisan legislation, which comes after a Washington Post investigation, would also limit the federal government’s ability to obtain phone records without a judge’s … Continue reading
CA2: Taking 3-day-old son from mother affected father’s 4A & 14A rights too
Plaintiff stated a claim for relief under the due process clause and Fourth Amendment for the City taking his 3-day-old son from his mother based on actions of her other boyfriends without any court order. He was three years getting … Continue reading
TX14: Affidavit for SW gets deferential standard of review by both the trial court and appellate court
The affidavit for search warrant gets a deferential standard of review by both the trial court and appellate court. Gaither v. State, 2026 Tex. App. LEXIS 4588 (Tex. App. – Houston (14th Dist.) May 19, 2026). “The federal district court … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Just because one officer smelled tobacco in def’s pipe didn’t mean others couldn’t sniff, too
Just because one officer sniffed defendant’s pipe and smelled tobacco, that didn’t mean other officers couldn’t sniff too and come to a different conclusion. United States v. Gearheart, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109593 (E.D. Cal. May 18, 2026).* The odor … Continue reading