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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
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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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Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
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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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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Criminal Appeal (post-conviction) (9th Cir.)
Section 1983 Blog -
"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
ABC News: Utah officer fired for handcuffing, dragging screaming nurse out of hospital
ABC News: Utah officer fired for handcuffing, dragging screaming nurse out of hospital by Karma Allen: The Salt Lake City police officer featured in a widely viewed video aggressively handcuffing a hospital The Salt Lake City police officer featured in … Continue reading
techdirt: Three Energy Bills Look To Increase Fourth Amendment Protections For Americans
techdirt: Three Energy Bills Look To Increase Fourth Amendment Protections For Americans by Tim Cushing:
NC: Make and model of a firearm isn’t required for PC as long as it’s described as similar
That a gun matched the description of defendant’s gun was still probable cause on this record. The police didn’t have to have the make and model of the gun to have probable cause. State v. Messer, 2017 N.C. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
WaPo: Commit a crime? Your Fitbit, key fob or pacemaker could snitch on you.
WaPo: Commit a crime? Your Fitbit, key fob or pacemaker could snitch on you. by Justin Jouvenal: With no witnesses other than Richard, detectives turned to the vast array of data and sensors that increasingly surround us. An important bit … Continue reading
Marianas Variety: AG says random drug tests in GovGuam forbidden, with some exemptions
After seeing at least a half dozen news articles on this, finally I’ll post something while Guam still exists: Marianas Variety: AG says random drug tests in GovGuam forbidden, with some exemptions:
D.Mass.: Being jailed is not an abandonment of property in a storage unit
“The court acknowledges the government’s point that Moran did not retain a key to the storage unit once he was jailed, and that Moran had appeared perfectly amenable to the bags being placed in Alysha’s more heavily-trafficked apartment rather than … Continue reading
CA11: Parolee has no REP where he stays
Officers had cause for a protective sweep as well as consent from defendant’s girlfriend to search her apartment where he often stayed. A shotgun was in plain view. Defendant also had no standing because he was a parolee. United States … Continue reading
CA6: Search incident permitted for arrest on parole absconder warrant
Search incident to arrest is proper on an arrest on parole absconder warrant. Witzke v. Bradley, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 23965 (6th Cir. Dec. 30, 2016). The officer developed reasonable suspicion to continue the stop to bring in the drug … Continue reading
M.D.Pa.: Even though PA requires PC for certain traffic stops, 4A doesn’t
Pennsylvania’s requirement of probable cause for lane violations isn’t binding in federal court under the Fourth Amendment. “Accordingly, even though a Pennsylvania court may have held that Officer Sampere required probable cause to pull Defendant over for a violation of … Continue reading
DE: Warrantless entry into def’s home seeking a man for questioning in a week old murder violated 4A
Police had no warrant to enter defendant’s house looking for another person for questioning in a robbery-homicide, not to arrest him. The alleged need for a security sweep violated the Fourth Amendment because the police were searching for a third … Continue reading
Carpenter oral set for Nov. 29, briefs all in
The oral argument in the cell site location information-third party doctrine case this past week was set for November 29th. ScotusBlog here with links to all the briefs, both parties and amici. Petitioner’s brief Amici: Competitive Enterprise Institute, et al. … Continue reading
CA1: QI for excessive force doesn’t require a case exactly on point; Garner is close enough for a jury to find liability
The district court denied qualified immunity to an officer who shot the victim in the head with an AR-15 without warning for allegedly brandishing a firearm. The victim had been wandering in and out of his house with a gun … Continue reading
OH12: SW for text messages on a cell phone was not overbroad where it was limited to messages from one person
Defendant was a police officer who was suspected of sexual battery of a student ride along. There were text messages, and a search warrant was obtained for his cell phone. The lack of a time frame for the text messages … Continue reading
CA6: Alleged defect in state arrest warrant was irrelevant under the 4A where there was PC
Defendant’s arrest under a purportedly defective Georgia arrest warrant was irrelevant under the Fourth Amendment because there was plenty of probable cause for it. Specifically, defendant contended that the officers needed an incident report or something that showed probable cause … Continue reading
TX14: Def’s gf’s private search of his cell phone finding CP wasn’t unreasonable search
Defendant’s girlfriend had free access to his cell phone because the password on the phone was shared with her and it was the same as the PIN on his debit card which she also used. She conducted a valid private … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Stopping def on the street because he vaguely matched the description of an assailant from three days earlier lacked RS
Defendant was approached on the street as he was walking past the police station because he was the same race as a man who was a suspect in an assault three days later. He gave his first name but kept … Continue reading
WaPo: Editorial: A man was wrongly incarcerated for 77 days. D.C. needs to find out why [he never saw a judge]
WaPo: Editorial: A man was wrongly incarcerated for 77 days. D.C. needs to find out why. INSTANCES OF people illegally imprisoned – without legitimate cause and denied the chance to see a judge or lawyer – may be commonplace in … Continue reading
NPR: Supreme Court Case Asks: How Much Do Partygoers Need To Know About The Party House?
NPR: Supreme Court Case Asks: How Much Do Partygoers Need To Know About The Party House? by Nina Totenberg Supreme Court justices this week looked at whether police can arrest people who they mistakenly believe are trespassing.
WaPo: This surveillance law needs reauthorizing — and tightening, too
WaPo: This surveillance law needs reauthorizing — and tightening, too by the Editorial Board: