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- S.D.N.Y.: Project Veritas SW unsealed with limited redactions
- D.Ariz.: SW for firearm didn’t go stale
- VA: Reverse keyword search warrant to Google decided on GFE but not merits
- N.D.Ohio: Two dog sniffs didn’t provide PC for vehicle search
- GA reaffirms a constitutional right of privacy in medical records
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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: July 2026
OH1: Even with MJ use being legal, driving under influence isn’t
While small amounts of marijuana are legal in Ohio, driving under the influence is not, so the smell of burnt marijuana in a vehicle is probable cause. Also, a blunt was seen in the ashtray. State v. Sawyer, 2026-Ohio-2913 (1st … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Confrontation clause doesn’t apply in suppression hearings
Hearsay may be relied upon in a suppression hearing, and the confrontation clause doesn’t apply. United States v. Albert, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 168169 (N.D.N.Y. July 29, 2026):
OR: Third-party doctrine doesn’t apply to data a computer user stores in the cloud
The third-party doctrine doesn’t apply to data a computer user stores in the cloud. State v. Klaus, 351 Or. App. 738 (July 29, 2026) (Oregon’s decision page currently unavailable):
Yahoo Tech: Can you be prosecuted for wiping your phone at the border?
Yahoo Tech: Can you be prosecuted for wiping your phone at the border? by Dan Thorp-Lancaster(“An activist is being prosecuted for activating a “duress code” that wiped his phone during an airport interrogation. Here’s what you need to know.”)
LATimes: Immigration agents used racial slurs referring to Latinos in text messages, video obtained by ACLU
LATimes: Immigration agents used racial slurs referring to Latinos in text messages, video obtained by ACLU by Brittny Mejia (immigration stops are seemingly based on racial profiling).
Cal.4: No error not unsealing CI’s identity in SW application
The trial court didn’t err in refusing to unseal part of the search warrant affidavit that disclosed the identity of the CI because the state informer privilege applied. The sealing issue still gets reviewed on appeal where the court of … Continue reading
D.P.R.: A shed on the curtilage was within scope of SW
It was reasonable for officers to search a shed on the curtilage; it was within the scope of the search warrant. United States v. Torres-Benitez, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 165162 (D.P.R. July 24, 2026). The CI said he could get … Continue reading
NY4: Payton does not apply to an arrest in a common area of an apartment building
Payton v. New York does not apply to an arrest in a common area of an apartment building. People v. Kadenhead, 2026 NY Slip Op 04680 (4th Dept. July 24, 2026). There was probable cause for defendant’s arrest on a … Continue reading
FL5: State failed to show justification for delay for dog sniff
This being a warrantless search during a traffic stop with a drug dog, the state bore the burden of proof on justification for detention for the dog sniff, and it failed to show that the stop was lawfully continued. Reversed. … Continue reading
TechCrunch: US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a ‘duress’ password during border search
TechCrunch: US accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a ‘duress’ password during border search by Zack Whittaker:
MI: Possession of MJ that’s only a civil infraction doesn’t justify search of car under automobile exception
Michigan, by ballot initiative, made possession of a small amount of marijuana a civil infraction. The smell of marijuana here only appeared to be a civil infraction and not a crime, so the automobile exception did not justify the search … Continue reading
NY1: 911 call about shooting in apartment building led officers to def’s apartment and exigency justified entry
“The record supports the court’s conclusion that the warrantless entry into defendant’s apartment was justified under the emergency doctrine …. The officers received a 911 call reporting that someone was shot in the building; found a bullet on the floor … Continue reading
UT: Failure to include nighttime search request in SW in violation of rule didn’t require suppression
Officers applied for a search warrant that should have been for a nighttime search but omitted that, and that violated a state rule. If they’d sought permission for a nighttime search they likely would have gotten it. The trial court … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Accessory dwelling unit (ADU) on property is a separate living quarters requiring separate PC and nexus
“The Court agrees with Mr. Newby that the ADU [accessory dwelling unit] was its own residence—not curtilage—and therefore required its own probable cause finding. By authorizing the search of both residences, the warrant was indeed defective. But crucially, law enforcement … Continue reading
D.D.C.: Officer sticking head in car window was a search, and here unreasonable
The officer’s sticking his head in the defendant’s car window was a search. United States v. Smith, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 162708 (D.D.C. July 22, 2026). In this 2255, petitioner claims the officer pulled up next to him, told him … Continue reading
CA6: Defs’ use of Facebook to discuss their crime justified SW to Facebook
Defendants used Facebook to discuss their criminal enterprise, and the warrant for Facebook was not overbroad. United States v. Fordham, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 21811 (6th Cir. July 22, 2026).* A controlled buy arranged through defendant’s cell phone supported the … Continue reading
IA: Passenger’s flight from stop justified handcuffing driver, and the RS developed
Defendant and his passenger were stopped for a traffic offense about midnight. While defendant was cooperative, the passenger fled, and the officer could handcuff defendant until he knew more about what was going on. Then reasonable suspicion developed. Horner v. … Continue reading
M.D.Ga.: No REP against use of ALPR or traffic cameras
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy against use of automated license plate readers or a traffic camera that caught plaintiff speeding. Hancock v. Duffey, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 162153 (M.D. Ga. July 22, 2026).* This one is on a … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: Just because bodycam shows officer on curtilage doesn’t mean it was violated
Plaintiff misunderstands Kyllo and Jardines. Just because the officer’s bodycam showed his house doesn’t mean an illegal entry onto the curtilage occurred. Corbett v. Vargas, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161409 (M.D. Fla. July 20, 2026).* Defendant wasn’t yet seized when … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Supervised release search condition permitted cell phone search
The warrantless search of defendant’s cell phone was reasonable because he was a supervised release. The timing of the search after the seizure of the phone was also reasonable. United States v. Yama, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 160332 (E.D. Cal. … Continue reading