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- 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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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
TX14: Private search in Texas not subject to statute exclusionary rule
Defendant’s girlfriend accessed his cell phones: his Android wasn’t password protected but his iPhone was but she knew the password. This was a private search, and the Texas statutory exclusionary rule doesn’t apply. Thomas v. State, 2017 Tex. App. LEXIS … Continue reading
Star and Stripes: Factions forming as Congress attempts to curb US spy power
Star and Stripes: Factions forming as Congress attempts to curb US spy power by Karoun Demurjian of The Washington Post:
New book: “The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement” | “Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how technology is changing American policing.”
Andrew Guthrie Ferguson, The Rise of Big Data Policing: Surveillance, Race, and the Future of Law Enforcement (Kirkus 2017) Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how technology is changing American policing. Review by the publisher:
WaPo: An innocent man lost his spleen after police shot him during a drug raid. The courts and city government say tough luck.
WaPo: An innocent man lost his spleen after police shot him during a drug raid. The courts and city government say tough luck by Radley Balko:
OH Ct.Claims: Ptf prison visitor didn’t prove her strip search was justified or unreasonably conducted
Plaintiff failed to prove her visitor strip search claim against the prison guards involved. The search was based on sufficient particularized suspicion that drugs were coming in through this visitor. The court finds she didn’t remember signing the form about … Continue reading
CA6: Def’s wife saying she was on the cell phone contract was sufficient to create a good faith belief in her apparent authority
Defendant’s wife, who told police defendant was communicating with underage girls on his cell phone, told officers that she paid for the phone and was on the contract. So, viewed most favorably to the government, this was sufficient to establish … Continue reading
EFF: 702 Spying: Backdoor Search
EFF: 702 Spying: Backdoor Search:
NYTimes: Opinion: The End of Privacy
NYTimes: Opinion: The End of Privacy by Andrew Burt and Dan Geer: Given the constant stream of breaches, it can be hard to understand what’s happening to our privacy over time. Two dates – one recent and one long ago … Continue reading
OH12: SW for text messages on cell phone was particular when limited to one person’s messages
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
WaPo: Georgia sheriff, deputies indicted after body searches of 900 high school students
WaPo: Georgia sheriff, deputies indicted after body searches of 900 high school students by Kyle Swenson: The sound system squawked at 8 a.m., just as the school day was revving up at Worth County High School. The campus was now … Continue reading
E.D.Pa.: Leaning in a car window to talk in a high crime area isn’t RS
Somebody leaning in defendant’s car window to greet him and then get in the car, even in a high crime area, is not remotely suspicious. The stop was without reasonable suspicion. United States v. Lynch, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 161717 … Continue reading
E.D.Cal.: Suspicionless parole search of def’s cell phone was reasonable
Defendant was on parole for pimping an underage prostitute out of California, and he had a warrantless search condition on his cell phone. The suspicionless parole search of the phone was reasonable. United States v. Monson, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS … Continue reading
CA11: Ordinance for rental property inspections not unconstitutional on face; has an admin warrant requirement
The City of Lauderhill’s rental property inspection ordinance is not unconstitutional on its face under the Fourth Amendment. It does provide for an administrative warrant if one is required. 2051 Lush Apts., LLC v. City of Lauderhill, 2017 U.S. App. … Continue reading
TX1: Money was lawfully seized by SW from attorney’s bank account as proceeds of theft
The state seized $80,600 from a criminal defense lawyer’s bank account transferred from IOLTA account that was alleged to be the proceeds of crime. The attorney claimed it was earned attorney’s fees under his retainer agreement. “At the hearing, Fisch … Continue reading
ID: Stop was lengthy but still reasonable as stuff developed
The stop was lengthy, but it was still reasonably conducted to pursue legitimate investigative ends as stuff developed during the stop. State v. Fenton, 2017 Ida. App. LEXIS 73 (Sept. 29, 2017). The officers’ encounter with defendant wasn’t a seizure. … Continue reading
NM: “Birchfield does not prohibit the introduction of evidence of, and commentary on, evidence establishing a defendant’s refusal to take a blood test.”
“Birchfield does not prohibit the introduction of evidence of, and commentary on, evidence establishing a defendant’s refusal to take a blood test.” State v. Storey, 2017 N.M. App. LEXIS 75 (Sept. 28, 2017):
NM: Vehicle impoundment does not entirely depend upon there being an arrest of the driver; community caretaking function can justify it
An impoundment does not entirely depend upon there being an arrest of the driver. Usually, it does, but it certainly can if impoundment is required under the community caretaking function for some other reason. Here, defendant was taken to the … Continue reading
Cato: BREAKING: FISA Section 702 Reauthorization Bill Circulated
Cato: BREAKING: FISA Section 702 Reauthorization Bill Circulated by Patrick G. Eddington Earlier this afternoon, the House Judiciary Committee circulated its draft FISA Sec. 702 reauthorization bill. This is a preliminary readout of the major problems I see with this … Continue reading
NE: Oral and written advice of rights to refuse consent attenuated any possible minor illegal police misconduct
The officer’s misconduct, if any, wasn’t flagrant and the later written advisement and waiver of consent was attenuation. State v. Bray, 297 Neb. 916, 2017 Neb. LEXIS 178 (Sept. 29, 2017). Defendant was driving a car carrier, and he was … Continue reading
Idaho rejects Heien mistake of law under state constitution
Idaho rejects Heien mistake of law under state constitution. State v. Pettit, 2017 Ida. App. LEXIS 75 (Sept. 29, 2017):