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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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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
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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)
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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
MS: No REP in calls from police station
Defendant’s calls from the police station after he was arrested admitted the marijuana in this case was his. The calls were admitted at trial, defense counsel challenging authentication. Defendant pro se argued a Fourth Amendment violation, but that is defaulted … Continue reading
D.Conn.: Posting things to Facebook is a waiver of any REP, even in a “friends” setting
By posting to Facebook, even with a friends only setting, defendant waived his reasonable expectation of privacy in his postings. On the merits of the search warrant for Facebook, probable cause was shown. United States v. Westley, 2018 U.S. Dist. … Continue reading
S.D.Ind.: CSLI search two years before Carpenter was valid under GFE
The Seventh Circuit held in dicta in 2014 that CSLI didn’t need a warrant. United States v. Thousand, 558 Fed. Appx. 666, 670 (7th Cir. 2014). The search here was two years before Carpenter. Davis good faith applies, and the … Continue reading
S.D.Tex.: Warrantless search of cell phone six years after border crossing violated 4A
Defendant crossed the border in July 2012, and his phone was seized and somewhat analyzed. On the eve of trial in July 2018, the government did a full search without a warrant. Defendant moves to suppress, and it’s granted. The … Continue reading
PA: Trial court’s deciding to suppress based on an argument not made by def was error
Trial court’s deciding to suppress based on an argument not made by defendant was error. Commonwealth v. Jones, 2018 PA Super 208, 2018 Pa. Super. LEXIS 815 (July 17, 2018). Defendant argues in post-conviction proceedings against the trial court’s ruling … Continue reading
CA9: Nominal damages for 20 min detention supported by evidence
“A jury could reasonably find that the Kovacics suffered no actual damages from an unreasonable search of the home. See George v. City of Long Beach, 973 F.2d 706, 708-09 (9th Cir. 1992). Although Jared Kovacic was detained for 20 … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Govt bore burden of proof on inevitable discovery and failed; weak hearsay not credited
The issue of inevitable discovery was treated as an aside by the government, although it bore the burden of proof on it. It seeks the use of hearsay on inevitable discovery that was hard to credit considering the posture of … Continue reading
N.D.Ohio: Under Franks, materiality of the omitted info to PC is required, not just that it was omitted
“Hill argues Agent Fulmer’s affidavit omitted information previously obtained during the investigation and which was contained in an affidavit submitted with a wiretap application filed in the Eastern District of Michigan in December 2016. Hill, however, does not explain how … Continue reading
CA11: Def’s 4A challenge doesn’t satisfy successor habeas standard; not even habeas standard
“First, Fails argues that his First and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when he was arrested because he was never read his Miranda rights and never signed a card waiving those rights. Second, he argues that his Fourth and Fourteenth … Continue reading
CA6: CI’s past reliability supported reliability here
“Here, the totality of the circumstances reveals enough to get the Government over the goal line, though perhaps not with a lot of breathing room. First, O’Bryan was a known informant. That means that O’Bryan “would [have been] subject to … Continue reading
NY Daily News: A chokehold on justice: The NYPD is right to lose patience with the feds
NY Daily News: A chokehold on justice: The NYPD is right to lose patience with the feds: Four years ago today, Eric Garner tried to raise a few extra dollars by selling individual cigarettes. His day and his life would … Continue reading
CA1: Franks challenge fails to undermine PC; alternative scenario was “implausible”
Defendant posited much information that was omitted from the affidavit for the search warrant, but that would have created an implausible scenario that didn’t even make sense to the appeals court. “Even if we assume that the challenged statements and … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Arrest warrant for wrong name still had PC for def, and his arrest was based on PC
Defendant counsel was not ineffective for not pursuing a Fourth Amendment claim that the name in the arrest warrant was included by mistake. Officers told the magistrate as soon as they discovered it. Defendant’s arrest was still on probable cause. … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: SW for Manafort’s house is upheld
(1) “In sum, the warrant here (i) identified the items to be seized in relation to specific Subject Offenses, (ii) included an illustrative list of records to limit the discretion of executing agents, and (iii) provided a sufficient description of … Continue reading
CA9: Def didn’t have standing in her parents’ house that she used just to store stuff
Defendant kept stuff at her parents’ house, which was searched with a warrant for her stuff. She lacked standing because it was merely a storage place shared with others. The search warrant was narrowed by the district court with partial … Continue reading
Miami Herald: The chief wanted perfect stats, so cops were told to pin crimes on black people, probe found
Miami Herald: The chief wanted perfect stats, so cops were told to pin crimes on black people, probe found by Charles Rabin, Jay Weaver & David Ovalle:
NYTimes: Advocates From Left and Right Ask Supreme Court to Revisit Immunity Defense
NYTimes: Advocates From Left and Right Ask Supreme Court to Revisit Immunity Defense by Alan Feuer:
Gizmodo: Microsoft Asks Congress to Regulate Face Recognition
Gizmodo: Microsoft Asks Congress to Regulate Face Recognition by Sidney Fussell: