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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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General (many free):
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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
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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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
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
NBC News: American-born citizen sues sheriff after he was nearly deported to Jamaica
NBC News: American-born citizen sues sheriff after he was nearly deported to Jamaica by Daniella Silva: Peter Sean Brown, who was born in Philadelphia, was detained by Florida authorities and flagged for deportation after a request from ICE, according to … Continue reading
PA: GPS tracker and audio recorder worn by CI for safety reasons not prohibited by Jones or 4A
The CI had a recorder and GPS tracking device placed on him for his safety while he was riding with the defendant. This is not a “tracking device” under state statute or Jones because it wasn’t planted on defendant’s property, … Continue reading
CA11: Supported claim of false testimony to frame ptf satisfied pleading requirement of § 1915A(b)(1)
Pro se inmate’s request to amend his complaint that he was framed with false testimony from an officer to get search warrant, corroborated by action by the state’s attorney, stated enough to get over the pleading hurdle of 28 U.S.C. … Continue reading
Cal.: Jailhouse writings could be seized with SW to prove def’s competence at trial
A search warrant was executed on defendant’s jail cell on the eve of trial and produced writings that refuted defendant’s claim of incompetence to understand the proceedings. They were admissible. People v. Buenrostro, 2018 Cal. LEXIS 9384 (Dec. 3, 2018).* … Continue reading
FL4: SW papers are public records, and due process requires def to see them
Search warrant papers are discoverable to the defense and the unredacted parts are public records that must be disclosed. “The state asks us to prevent the disclosure of information that it had redacted from search warrants and warrant applications related … Continue reading
ABAJ: How retaliatory-arrest claims relate to the First and Fourth Amendments
ABAJ: How retaliatory-arrest claims relate to the First and Fourth Amendments by Erwin Chemerinsky: Maybe the third time will be the charm, and the Supreme Court will finally decide an important issue in civil rights litigation: Does the existence of … Continue reading
Orin Kerr: “At what point is a driver asleep in an electric car that is on autopilot ‘seized’ by the police slowing down and stopping the car by getting in front of it?”
CA4: Unlawfully placing GPS on def’s car was flagrant 4A violation; no attenuation found
The government unlawfully placed a GPS device on defendant’s car and two days later stopped him. It argued in the district court a lack of standing, which prevailed there, and then conceded they were wrong on appeal. The constitutional violation … Continue reading
ID: Seizure of A-C materials from def’s jail cell violated privilege; remanded for remedy and possible recusal of DA
The state searched defendant’s jail cell while he was in pretrial detention and seized attorney-client privileged information. The state has the burden of proving that it did not affect the case against him, and the case is remanded for further … Continue reading
IN: A search waiver condition “without a warrant and without probable cause” still requires RS
A search waiver condition “without a warrant and without probable cause” still requires reasonable suspicion. Jarman v. State, 2018 Ind. App. LEXIS 445 (Nov. 30, 2018). Window tinting that covered the back window brake light was a traffic violation justifying … Continue reading
NE: For Rodriguez purposes, it doesn’t matter that the stop was at a gas station and not on the side of the road
Defendant’s reasonable detention pre-dog sniff was at a gas station and not on the side of the road. That doesn’t change the constitutional calculus. State v. Ferguson, 301 Neb. 697 (Nov. 30, 2018). “Here, the Court finds the warrant described … Continue reading
Paul Ohm, The Many Revolutions of Carpenter
Paul Ohm, The Many Revolutions of Carpenter, 32 Harv. J.L. & Tech. ___ (2O019) (forthcoming). Abstract:
E.D.N.C.: Trial objection was 5A and Miranda; 4A claim waived and can’t be raised post-trial
Defendant’s trial objection was based on Miranda and the Fifth Amendment. No Fourth Amendment claim was made so it is waived and post trial briefing is too late. United States v. Horton, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 201898 (E.D. N.C. Nov. … Continue reading
CA9: Police get a 911 call that def is yelling and threatening somebody in house; exigency based entry justified after talking to him
Police get a 911 call that a man was yelling and screaming at and threatening somebody, and they come to the house. At the door, defendant admits that he was because he was stressed out about “issues.” He also admitted … Continue reading
IN: Female CI doing a controlled buy is allegedly digitally penetrated by def looking for recorder, and he’s charged with rape
No search issue here; just a cautionary tale for police: A female CI came in for a controlled buy on defendant. He feared she was wired and made her strip to her underwear, and she did. Then he told her … Continue reading
CA10: A notice to appear in court is not a seizure for false arrest purposes
Giving plaintiff a notice to appear in court is not a seizure for false arrest purposes. Leon v. Summit County, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 33349 (10th Cir. Nov. 28, 2018). The information from the CI was detailed, down to a … Continue reading
PA: Protective sweep justified by sounds of multiple people inside and delay in answering door
The sound of multiple people inside a house before anybody came to the door then seeing armor piercing ammunition inside the door justified a protective sweep. Commonwealth v. Hall, 2018 PA Super 319, 2018 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1266 (Nov. 28, … Continue reading
wired: Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein Is Still Calling for an Encryption Backdoor
wired: Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein Is Still Calling for an Encryption Backdoor by Lily Hay Newman: TENSION HAS EXISTED for decades between law enforcement and privacy advocates over data encryption. The United States government has consistently lobbied for the creation … Continue reading
CA9: SW for stolen property in def’s house wasn’t stale despite it being a month
Defendant’s thumb print on a beer can found in a burglarized house was a reasonable inference he was involved. The search warrant for his house for stolen property wasn’t stale because it was reasonable to believe he would still be … Continue reading