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- VA: Search incident between def’s shorts and underwear was reasonable
- Reason: Border Cops Seize Nurse’s Phone Filled With Psychiatric Patient Information
- MI: Handcuffing uncooperative def at scene of accident wasn’t unreasonable
- S.D.Ga.: Def’s car in driveway next to sidewalk was not on curtilage
- S.D.Ind.: Post search database search of occupants of a place didn’t show SW affidavit was false at time it issued
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
also, firm website Top 90 Criminal Law Blogs 2026 -
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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: October 2026
CA10: No standing in real property defs attempted to buy but didn’t and then wouldn’t leave
Defendants lacked standing in the real property they were attempting to buy but the deal fell through. They knew they had to leave and hadn’t yet. They essentially were trespassers, not tenants. United States v. Wahhaj, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA11: Wrong-house raid suit barred by FTCA
Supposedly relying on a personal GPS device, the FBI SWAT team raided the wrong house, three houses from the target location and on a different street. The FTCA suit is barred under the discretionary function exception to the Federal Tort … Continue reading
The Record: Oklahoma judge’s Flock ruling shows the power of Supreme Court’s digital evidence decision
The Record: Oklahoma judge’s Flock ruling shows the power of Supreme Court’s digital evidence decision by Suzanne Smalley:
N.D.Tex.: Drone flyover approved by SW led to SW for residence
In a dog fighting investigation, Dallas PD [showing great respect for the rights of a homeowner] got a drone fly over warrant for residential property. Seeing dogs chained up in a dog fighting training configuration, officers obtained a search warrant … Continue reading
CNS: Colorado woman wrongfully cited for theft files class action against Flock [and the police “relying” on it]
CNS: Colorado woman wrongfully cited for theft files class action against Flock by Amanda Pampuro (“Columbine Valley Police pursued theft charges against a Colorado woman based on footage captured on Flock cameras around her hometown.”). Too much reliance on surveillance … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: Rule 41(g) petition for return of property granted; original seizure in NYC and Louisiana investigation hasn’t concluded
This is a Rule 41(g) petition for return of electronics seized by HSI in NYC on a Louisiana warrant for a Louisiana investigation, but no charges yet. HSI doesn’t support the basis for the seizure and hasn’t produced the warrant … Continue reading
VA: NC tracking warrant validly led to conviction in VA
North Carolina officers put a warrant approved tracker on defendant’s vehicle. That out-of-state warrant led to defendant’s conviction in Virginia. The out-of-state warrant was issued on probable cause, and it didn’t violate the Fourth Amendment tracking him in Virginia. A … Continue reading
GA: Inverse condemnation suit stated claim v. state’s “police power” in drug interdiction
Blue 42 operates a licensed hemp farm registered with state and federal agriculture departments. The Georgia DPS conducted drug suppression operation using low-flying aircraft, and they destroyed two rows of Blue 42’s crops valued at $37,000. Trial court dismissed inverse … Continue reading
MI: Stop was initiated on roadway but ended in driveway; stop on curtilage here was reasonable
Defendant was not improperly stopped in his curtilage. The officer was suspicious of defendant’s driving having followed him, and the officer tried to initiate the stop on the roadway. People v. Madden, 2026 Mich. App. LEXIS 8402 (Oct. 2, 2026):
Malwarebytes: Your car’s app could be telling Big Tech who you are and where you go
Malwarebytes: Your car’s app could be telling Big Tech who you are and where you go by Pieter Arntz (“A study testing 21 cars from 19 brands and 30 companion apps found connections to advertising and tracking companies, and evidence … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Govt can’t raise new 4A exception in motion to reconsider
While executing a search warrant, officers compelled defendant to provide the passcode to the safe. The court suppressed the contents of the safe because it was not a valid consent. The government doesn’t get to argue inevitable discovery on a … Continue reading
NY4: Def was missing and police couldn’t find him; entry into backyard and then house were reasonable under Mitchell and Brigham City
Applying Mitchell (1976) and Brigham City (2006), it was reasonable for the officer to enter defendant’s fenced back yard after going there on a welfare check first reported by a person claiming defendant was apparently missing. His and his girlfriend’s … Continue reading
FL5: Only matching description of anonymous caller’s burglary report wasn’t RS; nothing about def suggested he was a burglar
“In conclusion, the officers in this case corroborated nothing more than the innocent details of identification that matched Holliday’s appearance (other than the two snakes [wrapped around his neck], which the caller did not mention). The officers were entitled to … Continue reading
CA2: Car not named in SW could be seized and searched incident to forfeiture
The warrant here was for defendant’s house and grounds. No vehicles were mentioned even though officers had knowledge defendant dealt drugs at least from one. On executing the warrant, they found the vehicle and seized it for forfeiture. Searching it … Continue reading
CA2: Cell phone search reasonable at the border
At the border, defendant’s cell phone was first manually searched and then forensically searched. Neither was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Robinson, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 30035 (2d Cir. Oct. 1, 2026), following United States v. Alisigwe, … Continue reading
Reason: Border Agents Nabbed Their Phones. These Two Floridians Are Fighting Back.
Reason: Border Agents Nabbed Their Phones. These Two Floridians Are Fighting Back. by Matthew Petti (“Jalal ‘Jay’ Shehadeh had no reason to believe he was under suspicion from the government. A former assistant state attorney in Florida, he traveled frequently … Continue reading
FL3: Exclusion of evidence is a separate question from whether 4A was violated
The question of exclusion of the evidence is always separate from whether the Fourth Amendment was violated. Mercado v. State, 2026 Fla. App. LEXIS 7697 (Fla. 3d DCA Oct. 1, 2026). Defendant’s guilty plea waived his search claim in his … Continue reading
ABAJ: Could the use of AI upend privacy and security expectations in court?
ABAJ: Could the use of AI upend privacy and security expectations in court? by Amanda Robert:
404 Media: USPS To Put Cameras in Trucks That Scan Roads for ‘Community Safety’
404 Media: USPS To Put Cameras in Trucks That Scan Roads for ‘Community Safety’ by Joseph Cox (“USPS says the cameras, put on USPS truck dashboards, will scan roads, signs, and more.”) Roving Flock or pole cameras or both?
D.N.M.: Checking VIN number during traffic stop is reasonable
During a traffic stop, asking for identification and about travel plans and checking the VIN is reasonable under N.Y. v. Class. United States v. Sanchez, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 223586 (D.N.M. Sep. 30, 2026). Defendant was a passenger in a … Continue reading