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- 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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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
N.D.Iowa: It is proper for court to focus on pre-warrant police activities in deciding GFE question
Focusing on the officer’s pre-warrant activities, the court finds that their conduct in entering defendant’s hotel room was unreasonable and in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Thus, the good faith exception should not apply because it’s not reliance on the … Continue reading
C.D.Ill.: Prior judicial complaints of thin PC from officer go unheeded, but this SW survives GFE anyway
The district court once chided the officer here for a lackadaisical attitude toward showing probable cause with thin facts. The Seventh Circuit concurred but upheld it. And, the officer does it again. Commenting on the past, the court finds it … Continue reading
For those who think the Fourth Amendment is “dead” …
Lexis added 155 search cases to its database in the last 48 hours. It’s going to take a while to get caught up.
FL2: State doesn’t justify entry into motel room on any exigency after suspect’s arrest; standing raised too late
The court declines to remand for more evidence of standing when the state sat on the claim. The state’s protective sweep argument and associated search incident fails for its failure to show exigency for any entry or officer safety. The … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Emergency court order to remove children from home satisfied warrant requirement of 4A
An emergency family court order to take custody of children satisfied the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. “The April 6, 2017 order is equivalent to a warrant satisfying the Fourth Amendment. See Gates v. Tex. Dept. of Prot. & … Continue reading
FL2: Def gets benefit of Byrd where issue raised before it was decided; remanded
Defendant was not listed as an authorized driver of a rental car, and he moved to suppress the search of the rental car. Because his case was in “the pipeline,” he gets the benefit of Byrd and the case is … Continue reading
CA4: Denial of post-trial Franks motion here subject to plain error review
Defendant’s motion for a Franks hearing came post-trial. The court of appeals declines to deny it for lack of timeliness and denies it on the merits. The Franks burden is heavy, and the record is scant. So, he’s relegated to … Continue reading
CA6: Ptf arrested for a police parody Facebook page has much of case survive QI on retaliatory arrest
Plaintiff made a parody Facebook page of the Parma Police Department which ultimately led to his arrest for impeding police operations because the Parma Police had to field 12 minutes of phone calls over which was the real Facebook page. … Continue reading
D.Nev.: Under probation interstate compact, probationer subject to rules of both states
Defendant was placed on probation in Arizona, and he was subject to suspicionless searches there. He transferred probation to Nevada under the Interstate Compact for probationers, but Nevada required reasonable suspicion. He knew he was subject to the probation conditions … Continue reading
CA1: Police chief’s order to officer to turn over cellphone and home phone records not a constitutional violation under third-party doctrine; chief gets qualified immunity
Plaintiff is a police officer, and the chief ordered production of his cell phone and home phone records in an internal investigation. The chief gets qualified immunity because of the third party doctrine. Those records were obtainable by subpoena from … Continue reading
S.D.W.Va.: Computer SW for drugs led to healthcare fraud evidence; second SW needed; exclusionary rule should apply to deter
The government had a search warrant of ESI for drugs. When the search warrant was executed, they found evidence of healthcare billing fraud. A second search warrant was required, citing the government’s own search manual [noted and linked on the … Continue reading
Fix Congress First: Federal Government Seizure of President Trump’s New York State Individual Tax Returns is Most Likely a Violation of the Fourth Amendment
Fix Congress First: Federal Government Seizure of President Trump’s New York State Individual Tax Returns is Most Likely a Violation of the Fourth Amendment by Don Suarez, arguing that Carpenter applies: “We hold only that a warrant is required in … Continue reading
Legal Intelligencer: Commentary: Coming Face-to-Face With Facial Recognition Technology
Legal Intelligencer: Commentary: Coming Face-to-Face With Facial Recognition Technology by Jeffrey N. Rosenthal and Huaou Yan: Facial technology identifies an image of a face by breaking down the depicted face into several characteristics (e.g., the relative position, shape, contours and … Continue reading
OH2: 911 caller whose number is recorded isn’t really anonymous
911 caller whose number was recorded wasn’t truly anonymous, and the information was detailed and first hand. Even if anonymous, it was still reliable enough. State v. Gregory, 2019-Ohio-3000, 2019 Ohio App. LEXIS 3093 (2d Dist. July 26, 2019):
OH2: Def’s case was pending when Carpenter decided, so he gets benefit of it, but there was exigency for ping
Defendant was arrested in 2016 for a murder. He raised a CSLI issue, and he was tried after Carpenter was decided. He gets the benefit of Carpenter because his case was still pending when it came down. Nevertheless, there was … Continue reading
WaPo: A police department is handing out coupons, not tickets, to people who follow the law. Not everyone is thrilled.
WaPo: A police department is handing out coupons, not tickets, to people who follow the law. Not everyone is thrilled. By Antonia Noori Farzan:
WaPo:Analysis: The Trump administration wants to be able to break into your encrypted data. Here’s what you need to know.
WaPo:Analysis: The Trump administration wants to be able to break into your encrypted data. Here’s what you need to know. By Tim Maurer and Garrett Hinck: And so do governments around the world.
IL: Chicago PD’s “investigative alert” arrest is without judicially approved PC and unconstitutional
“Cordell Bass was arrested solely on the authority of what the Chicago Police Department calls an ‘investigative alert.’ Department regulations allow officers to arrest people on the basis of an alert where there is probable cause to believe the suspect … Continue reading
D.Nev.: The fact def’s FIPF prior had a suspended sentence wasn’t material for Franks
A state telephonic search warrant was issued based on allegations that defendant was a felon in possession of a firearm. The fact he got a suspended sentence and it was omitted from the application for the warrant isn’t material. United … Continue reading
W.D.Ark.: The “traffic stop” was actually a PC stop for drugs
This was not even a traffic stop, although it appeared one to the defendant. Actually, it was based on a CI’s information involving drugs and was with probable cause, so the extension of the stop with reasonable suspicion didn’t even … Continue reading