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Recent Posts
- Reason: Miami Sheriff Hired a Private Law Firm To Pursue—and Profit From—Asset Forfeiture Cases
- D.Conn.: Pole camera on def’s house and curtilage didn’t show inside house, so it’s reasonable
- OH12: Officer’s violation of knock-and-announce statute justifies suppression
- Reason: Documents Reveal the Postal Service’s Broad Surveillance of Political Activists
- CA4: Not having child in a booster seat justified stop
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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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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)
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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
S.D.Miss.: Govt plans to file forfeiture so motion for return of cash denied
Claimant business’s motion for return of $895k from its bank account under Rule 41(g) is denied for lack of irreparable harm, based also on the government’s representation it’s going to attempt forfeiture. “Turning to the fourth factor, the Court finds … Continue reading
AL: Drug dog alert on cash without presence of drugs won’t support forfeiture
A drug dog alert on money without the presence of drugs cannot support a forfeiture. Martinez-Camacho v. State, 2019 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 102 (Aug. 2, 2019):
D.D.C.: Post-trial suppression motion denied for lack of showing of merit
An attempt at a post-trial suppression motion in a motion for new trial was denied where the defense couldn’t show any merit to the motion in the first place. United States v. Baylor, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129708 (D.D.C. Aug. … Continue reading
D.P.R.: Being handed a bag for five seconds wasn’t enough to create standing
Analyzing bailments under PR law and First Circuit and SCOTUS cases (particularly Rawlings), defendant’s precipitous five second holding of a bag handed off to him wasn’t sufficient to create a bailment or give him standing in the bag. United States … Continue reading
M.D.La.: Use of word “clear” to describe certain facts wasn’t a Franks violation; removing it still leaves PC anyway
Defendant challenges the use of the word “clear” to describe the facts, which is supported by the facts. “[E]ven if the Court finds that the challenged statement was false and orders it stricken from the affidavit, the Court finds that … Continue reading
CA5: Home visitation and search condition not unreasonable (plain error review)
Defendant challenged his home visitation condition under the Fourth Amendment on appeal without having objected below. It is reviewed for plain error, and it’s certainly not. United States v. Dominguez-Villalobos, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 23184 (5th Cir. Aug. 2, 2019).* … Continue reading
CA1: Standing can’t be based on an untranslated document to put into evidence; even in D.P.R.
Defendant’s claim of standing in the home of another depends upon a Spanish language document [in PR federal court where everyone is bilingual] that was untranslated for the judge [and apparently not for appeal]. Therefore, his standing argument fails. But … Continue reading
CA8: Camper next to house was covered by SW for house
Defendant’s camper was on the curtilage right next to the house and connected by “living debris” [junk?], and “not noticeably separate from the garage, it was covered by the search warrant, whether or not it was a vehicle for Fourth … Continue reading
N.D.Okla.: Court finds Franks burden satisfied that false statement was material to bolster PC
The court finds addition of information into the affidavit for the search warrant was reckless at best and then material to the finding of probable cause. Without it, the affidavit was too thin, and that’s likely the reason the offending … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: On remand of Byrd, GFE applied to standing issue
On the Sixth Circuit’s remand of Byrd v. United States, 138 S.Ct. 1518 (2018), to the District Court, the court finds the good faith exception applies to standing issues arising before it was decided. United States v. Byrd, 2019 U.S. … Continue reading
MD: Daylight strip search on the side of highway was unreasonable
“The non-exigent visual inspection of the genital area of a person suspected of concealing controlled dangerous substances, in daylight, while the person stood between two police cruisers with emergency lights flashing, along the shoulder of an interstate highway, as moderate … Continue reading
M.D.Tenn.: Tennessee’s “must cite” statute for misdemeanants doesn’t govern under 4A
Tennessee has a “must cite” statute, that misdemeanor arrestees are presumptive cited and released. That, however, doesn’t govern the Fourth Amendment under Virginia v. Moore. United States v. Chol, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 129565 (M.D. Tenn. Aug. 2, 2019). The … Continue reading
WSJ (opinion): Have No Fear of Facial Recognition
WSJ (opinion): Have No Fear of Facial Recognition by Andy Kessler: If it is bound by good legal protections, the technology is a boon, not a tool for tyranny.
Courthouse News Service: Journalist’s Phone Data Was Used to Justify Home, Office Raids
Courthouse News Service: Journalist’s Phone Data Was Used to Justify Home, Office Raids by Nicholas Iovino: Police used records of a journalist’s private communications with a confidential source, obtained by a now-quashed search warrant, to secure permission to raid the … Continue reading
CA11: Telling ptf to move his car wasn’t a 4A seizure
Ordering plaintiff off a parking lot because of suspected trespassing wasn’t a Fourth Amendment seizure. Watkins v. Joy, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 22910 (11th Cir. Aug. 1, 2019). X-ray for contraband on an inmate is not a Fourth Amendment claim. … Continue reading
NJ: While first DNA sample violated 4A, second was based on independent source and was valid
The first DNA sample taken from defendant violated the Fourth Amendment. The state, however, got a do over and it used untainted information to get a second which was valid based on independent source. State v. Camey, 2019 N.J. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA4: Tasing ptf twice was reasonable force because of his agitated state with a gun on his person
Tasing plaintiff twice was reasonable force because of his agitated state with a gun on his person. Hogan v. Beaumont, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 22861 (4th Cir. July 31, 2019):
E.D.Mich.: Officers’ efforts to avoid towing vehicle on def’s arrest showed lack of pretext to search it
The government satisfied its burden in showing that the inventory of defendant’s car was reasonable and not for an investigative purpose. Important to that, they attempted to work with defendant to avoid towing the vehicle at all by getting a … Continue reading
CA4: Single click on a CP website’s URL is PC for the clicker’s computer
A single click on a URL on a website devoted to child pornography is probable cause for a search warrant for defendant’s computer. United States v. Bosyk, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 22973 (4th Cir. Aug. 1, 2019):