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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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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
CSO Online: Cops go into funeral home, attempt to unlock phone with dead man’s fingerprint
Not the first time, and certainly not the last: CSO Online: Cops go into funeral home, attempt to unlock phone with dead man’s fingerprint by Ms. Smith: Even if the cops can’t be legally accused of violating a dead man’s … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Alleged search of a public computer in a library for ptf’s usage didn’t violate any REP
Alleged search of a public computer in a college library for information about plaintiff’s use of it doesn’t violate any reasonable expectation of privacy. Berry v. Yosemite Cmty. College Dist., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64732 (E.D. Cal. Apr. 17, 2018). … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: “Affidavit of personal knowledge” to show standing isn’t satisfied by the officer’s police reports
The Second Circuit requires an affidavit of personal knowledge to establish standing to contest a search. The officer’s report wasn’t enough just because the officer believed that defendant’s residence was the target of the search. United States v. Lewis, 2018 … Continue reading
D.Mass.: Def made his Franks challenge at the suppression hearing; statement was reckless and completely undermined nexus to house
Defendant showed enough to get a Franks hearing. United States v. Roman, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 167167, 2017 WL 4517963 (D. Mass. Oct. 10, 2017). “Following the Franks hearing—which occurred on multiple days spread out between November of 2017 and … Continue reading
IN: Recording a recording off a Facebook account doesn’t violate the federal wiretap law
Defendant was accused of breaking into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and stealing her work iPad and other personal things. She signed on to his Facebook account with a password he’d previously given her. She found a recording there which admitted he … Continue reading
WaPo: Opinion: ‘The Watch’ blog: Lunch links: Louisiana attorney general approves of arresting people who threaten to file police complaints
WaPo: Opinion: ‘The Watch’ blog: Lunch links: Louisiana attorney general approves of arresting people who threaten to file police complaints by Radley Balko:
NJ: DV seizure order and SW issued; dismissal of DV matter doesn’t affect independent SW
Family court DV search warrant was adequate and helped support an additional search warrant by the criminal court. There was probable cause. The ultimate dismissal of the DV petition had no legal effect on the validity of the search warrant. … Continue reading
DE: “The scope of the warrant so far outruns that probable cause finding—and is so lacking in particularity relative to that probable cause finding—that it qualifies as plain error.”
A rare outcome: “The scope of the warrant so far outruns that probable cause finding—and is so lacking in particularity relative to that probable cause finding—that it qualifies as plain error.” Buckham v. State, 2018 Del. LEXIS 166 (Apr. 18, … Continue reading
S.D.Fla.: The fact FL law provides a reasonable expectation of privacy in bank records has nothing to do with an IRS summons
The fact Florida law provides a reasonable expectation of privacy in bank records has nothing to do with an IRS summons for bank records. Presley & Presley P.A. v. United States, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 65421 (S.D. Fla. Apr. 16, … Continue reading
Wired: Why Police Should Monitor Social Media to Prevent Crime
Wired: Why Police Should Monitor Social Media to Prevent Crime by Christopher Raleigh Bousquet (opinion):
CA11: Financial fraud SW permits search of def’s wallet on his person
In a search warrant for financial fraud of defendant’s house, finding defendant there allowed a search of his wallet under the warrant. United States v. Shabazz, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 9774 (11th Cir. Apr. 18, 2018):
CA11: While time wasn’t clearly stated, it was inferred on the totality; therefore, not stale
While the affidavit for the search warrant didn’t clearly specify a time frame, it was inferred, and it was clearly reasonable to conclude on the totality that the defendant would still have the sought after images on his computer. United … Continue reading
CA4: Even if Posse Comitatus Act was violated in investigation, there is no judicial remedy
Defendant argued “the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) violated the Posse Comitatus Act (PCA), 18 U.S.C. § 1385 (2012), by participating in the criminal investigation.” The motion wasn’t timely, and, on the merits, there is no remedy for violation. United … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: “The vast majority of current Fourth Amendment doctrine unfounded, incoherent, and dangerous.”
Gray David, The Fourth Amendment Categorical Imperative, 116 Mich. L. Rev. Online 14 (2017): The vast majority of current Fourth Amendment doctrine unfounded, incoherent, and dangerous.
D.Nev.: Court order for cell phone detail information under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d) requires only RS
A court order for cell phone detail information under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d) requires only reasonable suspicion, following In re Applications of the United States of Am. for an Order Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d), 206 F. Supp. 3d … Continue reading
MA: Affidavit established MJ grow was for sale, not personal use
The affidavit for the search warrant established probable cause that defendant’s marijuana grow was for distribution and not for personal medical use. Commonwealth v. Richardson, 2018 Mass. LEXIS 236 (Apr. 17, 2018). The Franks challenge here was over an internet … Continue reading
MO: Warrantless seizure of black box data from semi violated 4A; automobile exception didn’t apply
After an accident, the information off the data recorder on defendant’s semi was seized and then searched by the police without a search warrant. The trial court suppressed, and the state filed an interlocutory appeal. Only three of its six … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Def’s alternative argument as to what SW affidavit showed doesn’t undermine PC
The defendant’s alternative argument about how the child pornography ended up on defendant’s computer didn’t undermine the probable cause for the search warrant. “The Court has already addressed Defendant’s argument that a single connection between a home computer and a … Continue reading
TN: Argument “the rule” of witness exclusion of Rule 615 at suppression hearing has to be made in trial court
Defendant didn’t preserve for appeal his argument that the suppression hearing court allowed witnesses to sit in the rehearing of the suppression hearing because he didn’t make it to the trial court. At any rate, the transcripts of the hearing … Continue reading