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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
- Gizmodo: How You Could End Up in a Government Surveillance Database and Never Know It
- 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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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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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)
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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
LA1: Look in mailbox to confirm def’s address was after they’d confirmed his apartment; not unreasonable
In the course of a homicide investigation, the victim was shown to have last talked to defendant on his cell phone just before his murder. That led to getting his picture to show to a witness who ID’d him as … Continue reading
LA2: Hearsay admissible in suppression hearings; here it was officer’s preliminary hearing testimony which showed exigency
Hearsay is admissible in a suppression hearing. The parties agreed here that the officer’s testimony at the preliminary hearing would be the basis for the suppression hearing, and it shows exigent circumstances for the entry into defendant’s home. State v. … Continue reading
CA8: The challenge to RS isn’t piece by piece; RS on totality
The police surveilled defendant’s garage where he was alleged to sell meth from his home in the early morning or at night when he was home. The totality of circumstances add up to reasonable suspicion, and defendant’s challenge was to … Continue reading
CA10: The GFE question is “whether the affidavit is so facially deficient that reliance on a warrant issued in response to that affidavit cannot have been in good faith”
The question is not just probable cause; it’s whether it was reasonable for the officer to rely on a warrant that is not facially deficient. United States v. Knox, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 4791 (10th Cir. Feb. 27, 2018):
E.D.Mo.: No joint venture shown with Philippines LEOs in seizure of def’s suitcase there
The search in the Philippines was not a joint venture with the United States, so the exclusionary rule doesn’t apply to it. “There is no evidence that the FBI was aware that items from Defendant’s home were in the suitcase. … Continue reading
CA10: “affidavit established a minimally sufficient nexus between the criminal activity and the place to be searched.”
“Deputy Tucker’s affidavit established a minimally sufficient nexus between the criminal activity and the place to be searched.” Therefore, the affidavit shows probable cause. “The warrant was not based on an affidavit that ‘merely states suspicions, beliefs, or conclusions.’ Roach, … Continue reading
WSJ: When Illegally Obtained Evidence Can Be Used Against You
WSJ: When Illegally Obtained Evidence Can Be Used Against You by Joe Palazzolo: The digital age has accelerated carve-outs to a concept that most Americans take for granted: that evidence obtained in violation of the Constitution can’t be used against … Continue reading
CA10: Consent was attenuated from alleged unlawful stop despite def’s real urgency to go pee
The government proved that defendant’s consent was attentuated from the alleged unlawful detention because the paperwork during the stop was given back. The district court considered the fact defendant complained she had to pee really bad. United States v. Ramos, … Continue reading
CA8: Def has burden of showing illegal detention was “but for” cause of finding evidence
Defendant was a known drug dealer, and he was parked with his hood open. He said he was checking the belt on the engine. The officer was not prohibited from approaching the car and looking under the hood, too. Defendant … Continue reading
M.D.Fla.: SW’s particularity had a reference back to “property connected with the above listed crime(s)” and that’s particular
Despite renting a hotel room in a false name, defendant had standing to challenge the search of the room because he rented it and he was sleeping there and had his stuff there. The search warrant was based on an … Continue reading
SCOTUSBlog: Argument analysis: Justices divided over disclosure of overseas emails
SCOTUSBlog: Argument analysis: Justices divided over disclosure of overseas emails by Amy Howe:
Forbes: The Feds Can Now (Probably) Unlock Every iPhone Model In Existence
Forbes: The Feds Can Now (Probably) Unlock Every iPhone Model In Existence by Thomas Fox-Brewster: In what appears to be a major breakthrough for law enforcement, and a possible privacy problem for Apple customers, a major U.S. government contractor claims … Continue reading
Daily Beast: Fitbit Could Prove a Man’s Innocence. Google Could Send Another to Prison for Murder
Daily Beast: Fitbit Could Prove a Man’s Innocence. Google Could Send Another to Prison for Murder by Kate Briquelet: A troubled boyfriend. A hard-drinking felon. And a young mom bludgeoned to death steps from her own home. Now smart technologies … Continue reading
CA7: Circumstances justified inference def’s car was getaway car in a robbery, and that was PC
There was probable cause that a getaway car was involved in a robbery. “Here, in contrast, the Mercedes’s conduct cannot be confused with innocent behavior. While it is true that police did not know the occupants of the Mercedes were … Continue reading
CA9: Ptf refused entry to house on a domestic call, and police broke in and tasered him; grant of QI reversed
Plaintiff refused entry to the police on a domestic call. They broke in and tasered him on the floor. The district court erred in granting qualified immunity to the officers. He refused entry, which was his right, and this case … Continue reading
D.D.C.: There’s a right of public access to old pen register and SCA orders where no ongoing investigation would be compromised
In a 102 page opinion, with the agreement of the USAO, the D.D.C. finds a limited right of access in old sealed pen register orders and SCA orders and unseals those that will not compromise ongoing investigations. There is an … Continue reading
HuffPo: Trump’s Anti-Immigration Machine Is Chipping Away At The Fourth Amendment
HuffPo: Trump’s Anti-Immigration Machine Is Chipping Away At The Fourth Amendment by Cesar Vargas: Now as president with the power to direct actions by the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees our nation’s border and immigration policies, he is exploiting … Continue reading
NY3: Building didn’t appear to be two units; SW for def’s dwelling, he answered door, and then they saw
The search warrant’s describing the dwelling as a single family dwelling when it was really two and defendant lived on the second floor didn’t make it overbroad. It did not appear to be a multi-unit dwelling and defendant answered the … Continue reading
M.D.Ga.: Defs had standing in borrowed car; no RS because defs’ answers were objectively reasonable
Defendants borrowed a car and had standing in the car because it contained personal records being transported. The stop was unreasonably extended by questions about the trip. The officer found them suspicious, but the court does not. The defendants’ answers … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: SW materials can be considered in determining whether to detain
“When considering same together with the Bond Report, the indictment, and police reports and search warrant documents, the Court alternatively finds that the Government established by clear and convincing evidence that Defendant is a danger to the community. See Perry, … Continue reading