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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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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. 
Author Archives: Hall
W.D.N.C.: Motion to suppress that denied all connection to car was denied for lack of standing
Defendant’s motion to suppress goes to the extreme of denying any connection to the vehicle searched in an apparent effort to not be linked at trial, and that means no standing. United States v. Littlejohn, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 214718 … Continue reading
Lawfare: Fourth Amendment Reasonableness After Carpenter v. United States
Lawfare: Fourth Amendment Reasonableness After Carpenter v. United States by Alan Z. Rozenshtein.
OH9: No 4A right that RS is needed to run a license plate number
There is no Fourth Amendment right for the officer to have reasonable suspicion to run one’s license plate because there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in it. State v. Moore, 2018-Ohio-5223, 2018 Ohio App. LEXIS 5527 (9th Dist. Dec. … Continue reading
E.D.Ky.: The affidavit for a search warrant does not need to allege a specific statute was violated
The affidavit for a search warrant does not need to allege a specific statute was violated as long as the issuing magistrate can conclude that a criminal offense likely occurred. The facts alleged determine the scope of search. United States … Continue reading
D.Minn.: The use of electronic devices in a fraud case essentially establishes nexus to def’s home
Nexus to the home in a fraud case was shown. “The affidavit averred that: the unauthorized accesses at the Postal Service were linked to a Dell computer bought on eBay by a user whose recovery email and phone number matched … Continue reading
NYTimes: When the Police Become Prosecutors
NYTimes: When the Police Become Prosecutors by Alexandra Natapoff Officers quietly wield a lot of unchecked prosecutorial power.
W.D.N.Y.: Alleged state procedural errors in issuing SW is irrelevant under 4A in federal court
“As a threshold matter, defendant Nelson’s objection that the search warrant was per se invalid because no verbatim record of the informant’s testimony as required by N.Y.C.P.L. § 690.36 was preserved is mistaken. Whether the search warrant for the defendant’s … Continue reading
CA2: Anonymous 911 call of man waving a gun satisfied Navarette
This anonymous 911 call of a menacing man with a weapon was reliable enough for a stop. The caller stayed on the phone after asking it not be recorded but told all 911 calls are, there was detail about the … Continue reading
MN: Independent source doctrine obviated need to decide private search
Defendant appeals his sexual assault conviction. His victim came to his house to bum a cigarette, and she stayed to drink with defendant and his girlfriend. She fell asleep and awoke in the morning, fully clothed, with defendant’s girlfriend yelling … Continue reading
TN: Implied consent law doesn’t violate right to a warrant under religious liberty
Defendant’s sovereign citizen claim the state DUI implied consent violated his religious liberty without a warrant and right to travel is rejected. How does religion figure into it? State v. Simmons, 2018 Tenn. App. LEXIS 755 (Dec. 21, 2018).* Sovereign … Continue reading
The Hill: Are the Chinese and Russians listening to your phone calls?
The Hill: Are the Chinese and Russians listening to your phone calls? by Julian Gehman with cell site simulators? I’m not worried about them listening to mine because I only bitch about Russians and I’m 1,000 miles away, but too … Continue reading
CA3: Municipal officers may execute federal PV warrants
Defendant was ID’d as a likely suspect in a bank robbery, and a federal probation violation warrant was issued. Municipal officers may execute federal probation violation warrants. “See, e.g., United States v. Polito, 583 F.2d 48, 51 (2d Cir. 1978); … Continue reading
NY3: When trial court sustains search on two grounds, both have to be challenged on appeal or no error
Defendant challenged the search of his BAC which was obtained by consent and a search warrant. Challenging only the search warrant doesn’t matter because consent remains. People v. Guzy, 2018 NY Slip Op 08714, 2018 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8665 … Continue reading
Tech Advocate: Can Schools Search Students’ Personal Devices
Tech Advocate: Can Schools Search Students’ Personal Devices by Matthew Lynch:
CA3: Legality of arrest on an ICE warrant for overstaying visa irrelevant to removal
“Matos first argues that local law enforcement violated his Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable seizures by arresting him pursuant to the purported ICE warrant. Matos protests that he never waived this right when he entered … Continue reading
Reason: Kansas Supreme Court Says Cops Can Search Your Home Without a Warrant If They Claim It Smells Like Pot
Reason: Kansas Supreme Court Says Cops Can Search Your Home Without a Warrant If They Claim It Smells Like Pot by Jacob Sullum: Cops supposedly smelled 25 grams of pot inside a plastic container inside a safe inside a closet … Continue reading
CA9: Seizure of a vehicle for 30 days for no DL without alternatives was unreasonable
Plaintiffs get summary judgment on their damages claim against the County and officers for impounding vehicles if the driver never had a valid DL rather than letting others take the vehicle. It was an unreasonable seizure. The state has a … Continue reading
OH11: When def’s ID showed he wasn’t subject to an order of protection, questions about drugs unreasonably extended stop
Defendant was stopped and the officer asked for his ID to determine whether defendant was subject to an order of protection. He wasn’t. Then the officer started asking about drugs, and he didn’t like the form of defendant’s answer. That … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: SW for CP permitted search of entire dwelling; it wasn’t apparent to officers def had a roommate
Defendant’s email and IP address connected him to receipt of child pornography. The search warrant for his entire home for child pornography was valid even though defendant had a roommate. There’s no constitutional requirement for police to go to great … Continue reading
IA: No conflict in motion to suppress where def counsel was law partner of issuing magistrate
Defense counsel was the law partner of the issuing magistrate. On post-conviction, defendant did not show that defense counsel was operating under a conflict of interest because defense counsel filed and vigorously litigated a motion to suppress. Kensett v. State, … Continue reading