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- W.D.La.: Israel’s capture of Palestinian cell phone calls was foreign search in case here
- IN: Officer’s interpretation of traffic law wasn’t reasonable so stop was void
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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
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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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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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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)
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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
D.Me.: SW didn’t authorize search of visitor’s cars arriving after search started
The search warrant in this case did not authorize a search of a vehicle that arrived at the premises during the search. There was, however, independent probable cause for a search of the vehicle under the automobile exception. United States … Continue reading
D.R.I.: Delay in getting cell phone SW as attributed to parties’ settlement discussions
The delay in getting a search warrant for defendant’s cell phones was caused in part by the parties’ negotiations over pre-indictment resolution, and it was reasonable. United States v. Boudreau, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 48686 (D. R.I. Mar. 24, 2018).* … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: Malaysian police seizing evidence on execution of an extradition warrant to the U.S. wasn’t a “joint venture” with U.S.
Defendant is a Nigerian who was living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He was arrested on an extradition warrant from the United States for computer hacking of the Georgia Tech computer system. His computers and media were seized at the time … Continue reading
NY1: Cross-exam of police officers’ alleged deficient investigation opened door to CI’s information
Defendant’s cross-examination of officers on the alleged lack of quality of their investigation opened the door to why they were there, the CI’s story. The trial court mitigated the prejudice by a limiting instruction. People v. Brown, 2018 NY Slip … Continue reading
ABAJ: Courts are awarding significant damages to families whose dogs are killed by police
ABAJ: Courts are awarding significant damages to families whose dogs are killed by police by Arin Greenwood:
Cal.1: Subpoena for info on who arranged home rentals didn’t violate SCA and would be enforced
The City sought a subpoena to HomeAway to produce records of people that arrange occasional rentals of their homes or apartments for purposes of collecting sales taxes. HomeAway contends that it merely enables people to connect with each other and … Continue reading
MS: “Catch all” phrase in SW that permitted seizure of that which was found in plain view was merely a restatement of the plain view doctrine
A “catch all” phrase that permitted seizure of that which was found in the course of a valid search was merely a restatement of the plain view doctrine, and that doesn’t justify suppression. Defendant’s other scope of search claim was … Continue reading
CA9: Shell casings in front of house corroborated shooting call police received then def “blatantly lied” about somebody else in house
Police received a call about an emergency at defendant’s house. Once there, defendant came outside and promptly lied about anybody else being inside because they’d seen somebody just enter, and there were shell casings in the front yard corroborating that … Continue reading
OR: The affidavit for warrant described def as “high volume” heroin dealer; in PC determination, whose idea was it to deal at house was important: CI or def? That’s important
A probable isolated heroin sale at a house doesn’t show probable cause to believe that defendant was a “high volume” heroin dealer as alleged in the affidavit. The reference to the prior delivery doesn’t allege whether the choice of location … Continue reading
N.D.N.Y.: Rental inspection code use of may not shall to get admin. warrant not 4A violation
The fact the City of Schenectady’s rental building inspection code says that the inspectors may get a warrant instead of shall doesn’t state a Fourth Amendment violation. There’s no evidence that the city has applied it unconstitutionally yet. Hafez v. … Continue reading
The Intercept: ICE Uses Facebook Data to Find and Track Suspects, Internal Emails Show
The Intercept: ICE Uses Facebook Data to Find and Track Suspects, Internal Emails Show by Lee Fang: ICE, the federal agency tasked with Trump’s program of mass deportation, uses backend Facebook data to locate and track suspects.
NYTimes: Our Increasingly Unenforceable Constitution
NYTimes: Our Increasingly Unenforceable Constitution by Stephen I. Vladeck
AF: Inevitable discovery validated finding CP while looking for text messages with minor
The search authorization was valid for text messages between defendant and a supposed 14-year-old girl. The AFOSI investigator found child pornography in what was thus found to be plain view. Even if, arguendo, the officer was looking for child pornography, … Continue reading
KY: Deploying drug dog at the beginning of the stop without reasonable suspicion unreasonably prolonged the stop in violation of Rodriguez
Defendant was stopped for not using a turn signal. Deploying the drug dog at the beginning of the stop without reasonable suspicion unreasonably prolonged the stop in violation of Rodriguez. Commonwealth v. Smith, 2018 Ky. LEXIS 128 (Mar. 26, 2018):
PA: Reasonableness inquiry always required for warrantless blood draw
Trial court failed to make a reasonableness inquiry of whether the warrantless search of defendant’s blood was objectively reasonable. Reversed and remanded. Commonwealth v. Trahey, 2018 PA Super 72, 2018 Pa. Super. LEXIS 276 (Mar. 26, 2018):
TN: Uncorroborated anonymous tip insufficient
The anonymous tip in this case was not corroborated, and it was insufficient even under the Tennessee Supreme Court’s 2017 adoption of Gates and rejection of Aguilar-Spinelli. State v. Dibrell, 2018 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 224 (Mar. 26, 2018). There … Continue reading
Courthouse News Service: Seventh Circuit Hears Privacy Case Over Smart Meters
Courthouse News Service: Seventh Circuit Hears Privacy Case Over Smart Meters by Lorraine Bailey:
CA5: Attenuation of statement from arrest found: “Suppression of inculpatory evidence is an extraordinary remedy.”
The Fifth Circuit finds defendant’s statement is attenuated from his arrest. The time factor favors defendant but the rest favors the government. “Finally, the purpose and flagrancy factor favors the Government with respect to both the stop and subsequent search. … Continue reading