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- LATimes: Ex-L.A. County sheriff’s deputy gets prison time for using search warrant for a private client
- Privacy Daily: Chatrie’s Clarification to Fourth Amendment a Win for Privacy, Experts Say
- D.Alaska: Def’s half hour detention was without RS
- CA9: When the PC for SW dissipates, the search must stop; no GFE
- C.D.Cal.: SW for all software in gambling case was overbroad and no GFE
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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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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)
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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. 
Author Archives: Hall
D.Colo.: Prospective relief against judge-authorized administrative warrants denied
Plaintiff was the subject of an administrative warrant issued by a neutral and detached magistrate. The request for prospective relief is denied, and the complaint is dismissed. Waldrop v. Colo. Dep’t of Agric., 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27532 (D. Colo. … Continue reading
D.Mont.: LPN stop was long but also supported by outstanding warrant and then consent
Defendant’s stop for an inactive LPN was reasonable. The stop, however, was overlong and quickly turned into a drug investigation. There was also a warrant on the passenger. Defendant consented to it, and she was told she could refuse. United … Continue reading
W.D.Tenn.: No standing in GPS locator of car rented by another; also private search
Defendant had no standing to challenge the state’s use of a rental car’s GPS where another person rented the car. It was also private action. United States v. Busby, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27276 (W.D. Tenn. Feb. 10, 2026). This … Continue reading
OH12: Officer’s reasonable mistake on traffic violation didn’t void stop
Did defendant violate the turn signal ordinance by not signaling his turn until already stopped? It doesn’t matter. “Ultimately, though, we need not decide whether Bryant actually violated the turn-signal ordinance. Even if the answer is unclear, Officer Singleton’s stop … Continue reading
The Verge: Amazon Ring’s Super Bowl ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance
The Verge: Amazon Ring’s Super Bowl ad sparks backlash amid fears of mass surveillance by Jennifer Touhy (“A new AI-powered Search Party feature can scan footage from neighborhood cameras to find lost dogs. Critics worry it could be used to … Continue reading
NC: Temporary immobility of a car doesn’t prevent the automobile exception from applying
Temporary immobility of a car doesn’t prevent the automobile exception from applying. (This is after a remand for a probable cause finding. The court also discusses the good faith exception and the court must guard against the exception swallowing the … Continue reading
Kavanaugh stops: Religion News Service: Cardinal Cupich says feds stopped priests, demanded citizenship proof
Religion News Service: Cardinal Cupich says feds stopped priests, demanded citizenship proof by Jack Jenkins & Aleja Hertzler-McCain (“‘I’ve had some priests who are of a different color being targeted and arrested — stopped — because of their color and … Continue reading
OH6: Motion to suppress alleged stop was invalid, but at hearing def switched to lack of PC for search, and that’s waived by lack of notice to state
Defendant’s motion to suppress alleged the impropriety of the stop. At the suppression hearing, however, the defense expanded it to include a lack of probable cause for a car search. The state was not on notice by the motion, and … Continue reading
AL: Trial court erred in finding cell phone SW didn’t provide for seizure and then search
The search warrant for defendant’s cell phone authorized both seizure and search of the phone, and the trial court was clearly erroneous in concluding that it did not permit a search, too. (The officer admitted working off a template cell … Continue reading
Salon: AI is automating injustice in American policing
Salon: AI is automating injustice in American policing by Nicholas Liu (“AI has raised deep concerns about police power and the erosion of rights, finding scapegoats instead of solutions.”):
E.D.Mich.: This is how federal officers treat minor victims?
In executing a sex trafficking warrant in the wintertime (Detroit, 1/14/25), the minor victim they’d pinged for her whereabouts was handcuffed and left outside for a while. It was never apparent until inside the third floor was someone’s separate residence. … Continue reading
E.D.N.C.: Random stop at military base gate validly led to DUI
Military officers working the gate at Fort Bragg had reasonable suspicion defendant was driving under the influence when he was stopped for random inspection before entry into the base. It ripened to probable cause. United States v. Lock, 2026 U.S. … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Opening the oven door during a probation home visit was reasonable, and guns were found
Defendant was under state supervision. Officers conducted a residence check and opened the oven finding three firearms. That search was reasonable. United States v. Hoang, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24056 (M.D. La. Feb. 5, 2026). Defendant was found sleeping in … Continue reading
IN: The fact a drug dog could alert to hemp doesn’t mean an alert isn’t PC
The fact a drug dog can alert to hemp as well as marijuana doesn’t make the dog alert violate the Fourth Amendment. Akins v. State, 2026 Ind. App. LEXIS 39 (Feb. 6, 2026):
D.Neb.: SI valid even though def handcuffed face down
Being handcuffed on the ground doesn’t negate search incident to arrest. United States v. Dominguez, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24803 (D. Neb. Feb. 6, 2026). On arrest on I-235, defendant’s vehicle was subject to being towed and inventoried. The court … Continue reading
OH2: No REP in juvenile detention phone calls
Even in juvenile detention, there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy in jail calls. In re C.C., 2026-Ohio-374, 2026 Ohio App. LEXIS 437 (2d Dist. Feb. 6, 2026). “Tyson, while failing to cite any binding authority in support of his position, … Continue reading
D.N.D.: PC shown for SW for drug trafficker’s car’s GPS
The search warrant for defendant’s vehicle’s GPS system used in his indictment for drug trafficking was based on probable cause. It also tracked the language of his cell phone warrant. United States v. Haymon, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 24462 (D.N.D. … Continue reading
CA11: Jury gets to decide here that stop lacked RS
There’s a dispute for the jury whether there was reasonable suspicion for plaintiff’s continued detention. The stop was based on an anonymous tip, and plaintiff didn’t match it, which the officers had to know. Jarvis v. City of Daytona Beach, … Continue reading
CA6: Stone requires that a habeas petitioner had a method to make 4A claims, not that they would succeed
Petitioner had his opportunity to litigate his Fourth Amendment claim in state court and did, and the outcome doesn’t matter. The fact that he could do so does. CoA denied. Bugno v. Walters, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 3780 (6th Cir. … Continue reading
NY Co.: State showed PC for DNA test for firearm possession
Here, the state showed probable cause and reasonableness to seek DNA from defendant to compare it to alleged touch DNA found on the firearm he’s alleged to have possessed in threatening two ADAs. People v. Hightower, 2026 NY Slip Op … Continue reading