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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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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
CA11: Supervised release warrantless computer search condition isn’t limited to sex offenses
Defendant was convicted of aggravated child abuse, but not a sex offense, in state court, and that resulted in revocation of supervised release. The new sentence was 24 months confinement and 36 months supervised release. A warrantless computer search condition … Continue reading
CA6: Moving to withdraw plea after three months because “there were technical issues with his arrest warrant” is denied; not a ground for relief
Defendant moved to withdraw his plea three months later because “there were technical issues with his arrest warrant.” “Further, Miller never asserted his innocence, which also weighs against granting the motion. He argued only that he should be permitted to … Continue reading
WaPo: House Intelligence Committee passes spy-bill renewal, but on party lines
WaPo: House Intelligence Committee passes spy-bill renewal, but on party lines by Karoun Demirjian: The House Intelligence Committee passed a bill Friday to restrain the government’s access to data collected under a powerful authority to collect foreign intelligence on U.S. … Continue reading
CA7: Nolo plea after losing suppression hearing is collateral estoppel
A state multiday suppression hearing was denied, and that led to defendant’s nolo plea to the charges. Then he sued in federal court. When collateral estoppel was invoked, he argued that the plea vitiated collateral estoppel. It didn’t. Derrick v. … Continue reading
E.D.Va.: Corrected typo on SW’s execution date was proper and didn’t void warrant
There was a typo on the warrant when created by the Magistrate. It said it had to be executed by “June 13” but it was issued after that and obviously should have said “July 13.” The error was caught by … Continue reading
MD: Def agreed to postpone suppression hearing until trial and then didn’t bring it up; invited error and not preserved
Defendant failed to preserve his Fourth Amendment claims for appeal. You don’t get a hearing just by asking. He didn’t make a proffer in his Franks motion which was enough to deny it. Then, whatever issue was left, the defense … Continue reading
CO: Pre-Riley cell phone search incident not saved by GFE because no prior case on point
Defendant’s cell phone was subjected to a pre-Riley search incident. Defendant preserved the issue, and now he prevails. The state’s reliance on Davis good faith exception fails because the case the state relies on to support good faith reliance on … Continue reading
CA9: Police can enter suspect probationer’s parent’s house where she lived looking for her
Police could enter a commonly used residence to look for a probationer they had probable cause to believe committed a violent crime, over the protests of the primary occupant, her mother. They entered over the mother’s objection but didn’t find … Continue reading
DE: Conclusory motion to suppress summarily denied
Defendant’s conclusory motion to suppress that states no law or fact is denied without a hearing. State v. Dunson, 2017 Del. Super. LEXIS 616 (July 7, 2017):
D.P.R.: Threshold arrest of defendant in his underwear justifies a protective sweep
A threshold arrest of defendant in his underwear justifies a protective sweep because he’d have to get his clothes. United States v. Rodriguez-Madera, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 196636 (D. P.R. Nov. 28, 2017):
The Hill: SCOTUS justices are ready to tackle privacy rights in the digital age
The Hill: SCOTUS justices are ready to tackle privacy rights in the digital age by Alan Butler: This case will not be decided in a vacuum, and it appears that the justices appreciate both the magnitude of the moment and … Continue reading
KUOW: 10,000 warrants in Seattle: Here’s a chance for some to avoid arrest
KUOW: 10,000 warrants in Seattle: Here’s a chance for some to avoid arrest by Patricia Murphy:
Vox: “It’s been complete hell”: how police used a traffic stop to take $91,800 from an innocent man
Vox: “It’s been complete hell”: how police used a traffic stop to take $91,800 from an innocent man by German Lopez: The money was supposed to go toward buying a legendary music studio. Now his dreams are on hold.
The Intercept: NSA Secretly Helped Convict Defendants in U.S. Courts, Classified Documents Reveal
The Intercept: NSA Secretly Helped Convict Defendants in U.S. Courts, Classified Documents Reveal (Part 7) by Trevor Aaronson: By withholding evidence of warrantless spying, the government avoided a court challenge to controversial mass surveillance – which is now before Congress.
WaPo: ‘The Volokh Conspiracy’ Blog: Thoughts on property and positive law after the Carpenter oral argument
WaPo: ‘The Volokh Conspiracy’ Blog: Thoughts on property and positive law after the Carpenter oral argument by Will Baude:
IL: ER blood draw was private search for diagnostic purposes
“The mere filing of a motion [to suppress] is not proof that a search occurred.” Defendant first failed to prove that he was the subject of the search. Second, even if it was assumed, the hospital took the blood draw … Continue reading
MD: With decrim of <10 g. MJ, officer doesn't have to be absolutely sure of quantity to have PC
“Despite the decriminalization of possession of less than ten grams of marijuana, a law enforcement officer who has reason to believe that an individual is in possession of marijuana has probable cause to effectuate an arrest, even if the officer … Continue reading
E.D.Mich.: Rule 41(g) motion denied for failure to show entitlement to seized property
For Rule 41(g) motion to return property: “Flemming has failed to prove that he is a ‘person aggrieved by an unlawful search and seizure.’ In his motion, Flemming does not challenge the legality of the search and seizure in question. … Continue reading