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- Cal.L.Rev.: Your Robotaxi Is Watching You. Does the Fourth Amendment Care?
- D.Alaska: With a SW for a cell phone, officers should ask, not make, def to open the phone with his finger
- CA2: Statement there was CP on computer was PC to seize it for a SW
- S.D.Iowa: Cell phone search for info on drugs and guns didn’t need second warrant when sex offenses stumbled upon
- N.D.N.Y.: DNA by SW in FL in CODIS could be used in NY; defense counsel not IAC for not making def’s argument
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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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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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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. 
Author Archives: Hall
Cal.4: Detention without RS led to finding warrant; attenuated under Strieff
Defendant was seen at 4 am apparently casing cars in San Diego in a neighborhood where people were never on the street at that hour. The stop was based on a mere hunch, but it produced an outstanding warrant. “Although … Continue reading
CA5: The fact more information could have been gathered didn’t make what had been learned false
The fact the affiant officer could have checked other sources to determine the validity of his probable cause didn’t mean that the information in hand was false. Davis v. City of Andrews, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 17845 (5th Cir. June … Continue reading
S.D.Ind. & E.D.La.: New crime during arrest not suppressed
Even crediting defendant’s version of events, the exclusionary rule would not be applied to the video of defendant’s violent resistance during his arrest. United States v. Hill, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111803 (S.D. Ind. June 14, 2021). Defendant’s new crime … Continue reading
VA: “[T]he acquisition of real-time CSLI data to locate a fleeing murder suspect in an exigent circumstance is permissible under Carpenter.”
“[T]he acquisition of real-time CSLI data to locate a fleeing murder suspect in an exigent circumstance is permissible under Carpenter.” Moreno v. Commonwealth, 2021 Va. App. LEXIS 91 (June 15, 2021). The community caretaking exception did not justify officers’ opening … Continue reading
D.C.Cir.: Def’s sole presence after ShotSpotter report led to RS
A ShotSpotter report led to reasonable suspicion for defendant’s stop. “We conclude that the record facts support the findings of the district court. The totality of the information known to Turner when she stopped Jones sufficed to raise a reasonable … Continue reading
Reason: Michigan Cops Raided a Home, Damaged the House, and Held a Family at Gunpoint. It Was the Wrong Address.
Reason: Michigan Cops Raided a Home, Damaged the House, and Held a Family at Gunpoint. It Was the Wrong Address. (“Accountability is unlikely.”)
M.D.Pa.: ISP’s duty to report CP under 18 U.S.C. § 2258A doesn’t make it still not a private search
Kik’s duty to report child pornography on its platform under 18 U.S.C. § 2258A doesn’t make its search still not a private search. United States v. Hart, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111166 (M.D. Pa. June 14, 2021). The trial court … Continue reading
D.Mass.: 14 day delay between seizure and search of cell phone reasonable
This 14 day delay between the seizure of his cell phones and the application of the warrant to seize them is reasonable. In addition, there is no Fourth Amendment right to have a search warrant issued sooner than it was, … Continue reading
N.D.Ind.: Officer’s lack of credibility results in finding of no RS
The court finds the officer’s testimony and credibility completely lacking on the basis for the stop and grants the motion to suppress. United States v. McGibney, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 110826 (N.D. Ind. June 14, 2021).* Execution of a search … Continue reading
CA7: Other officers bringing drug dog didn’t extend the stop
“The district court here found that Cowick detained Gholston only long enough to complete these same procedures, and that the dog alerted before Cowick had finished printing the second ticket. This is not a case in which an officer completes … Continue reading
CA10: Noting circuit split, there was PC here for entry under Payton “reason to believe” standard
There was probable cause to believe defendant was in his travel trailer for an entry under Payton. The court notes a circuit split. United States v. Maley, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 17644 (10th Cir. June 14, 2021):
WaPo: The secret gag orders must stop
WaPo: The secret gag orders must stop by Brad Smith, President of Microsoft (“The past seven days marked another bad week for the collision between technology and democracy. We live in an era when private emails and text messages typically … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Def’s suppression motion loss precludes his § 1983 case on same issue
Plaintiff’s civil rights complaint that OnStar allegedly illegally tracked his vehicle was already decided against him in his criminal case. The issue is precluded here. Lenhart v. Savetski, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109462 (N.D. Ohio June 11, 2021). The collection … Continue reading
Orin S. Kerr, Decryption Originalism: The Lessons of Burr
Orin S. Kerr, Decryption Originalism: The Lessons of Burr, 134 Harv. L. Rev. 905 (2021):
D.Kan.: Geofence warrants have to satisfy the particularity requirement
A geofence warrant has to be narrowly tailored for particularity. Here, the government sought identifying information about what cell phones were in a government building. (The building, crime, and date of the occurrence are not disclosed.) In re Info. That … Continue reading
CA4: “Is there anything illegal in the vehicle” didn’t extend traffic stop
“Is there anything illegal in the vehicle” didn’t extend this traffic stop. United States v. Buzzard, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 17518 (4th Cir. June 11, 2021):
CA3: Questions beyond travel plans may unreasonably extend a stop, but here not
Questions about travel plans aren’t unreasonable during a traffic stop. Followup questions, however, would have been unreasonable, but for there already being reasonable suspicion. United States v. Segovia, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 17479 (3d Cir. June 11, 2021):
AF: Search of house in murder case was reasonable and with PC in attempting to show the relationship between deceased and def
Defendant is an airman convicted at a court martial of premeditated murder of his girlfriend and unborn child. The search of his house was proper because it was reasonable to believe that evidence of their relationship would be found there … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: Post-conviction petitioner has to show he told defense counsel of facts and issues not raised
When challenging defense counsel’s failure to raise an issue in an ineffective assistance of counsel claim, it behooves the defendant to show that defense counsel was told about the issue. Defendant here was aware of the alleged fact he complains … Continue reading
NY3: No REP in pretrial detainees’ jail calls
There was no reasonable expectation of privacy in jail telephone calls for pretrial detainees because the inmates were warned. “To the extent that defendant argues that the admission of the phone calls violated his rights because he was being held … Continue reading