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- 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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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
CA5: Collective knowledge from narcs applies to justification for traffic stop
The totality of the circumstances did not dictate a finding that a turn-signal violation was too stale to justify stopping defendant’s vehicle. A lack of personalized suspicion on the part of the officer who stopped defendant’s vehicle was immaterial because … Continue reading
OH11: Running away is withdrawal of consent to search, but reasonable suspicion for a patdown
Defendant was stopped and consented to a search of his person. When that started, he was moving like he was trying to hide something, then he ran away. Considering the location was a high crime area, there was at least … Continue reading
W.D.Mo.: Observed drug deals with CI showed reliability and lack of staleness of information
A state court judge issued a tracking warrant for defendant’s car based on a heavily corroborated CI who did drug deals with the defendant while LEOs watched. This “shows that the confidential information was reliable and that the information was … Continue reading
MA: Use of some additional force in arresting def was not “disproportionate” based on what police knew about firearms in car and risk of violence
The use of some additional force in arresting defendant was not “disproportionate” based on information defendant was armed and that his girlfriend, traveling with him, could use violence to “upset” his arrest. Commonwealth v. Widener, 2017 Mass. App. LEXIS 85 … Continue reading
MA: Arrest at door alone didn’t justify protective sweep
Half a dozen officers showed up at defendant’s house with an arrest warrant. He met them at the door, and he was handcuffed and arrested and said “Let’s go.” He was asked whether others were in the house, and he … Continue reading
WaPo: How self-driving cars could determine the future of policing
WaPo: How self-driving cars could determine the future of policing by Orin Kerr
Motherboard: The Supreme Court Phone Location Case Will Decide the Future of Privacy
Motherboard: The Supreme Court Phone Location Case Will Decide the Future of Privacy by Stephen Vladeck: Later this year, the Supreme Court will decide if police can track a person’s cell phone location without a warrant. It’s the most important … Continue reading
Two on waiver of motions to suppress
Where the motion to suppress was filed the Friday before a Monday bench trial, it was within the discretion of the district court to defer the suppression motion ruling until after all the evidence was in. United States v. Hardison, … Continue reading
NE: SW for property includes vehicles found and belonging there
Search warrant for property includes vehicles parked on the property that are connected to the property [as in the owner]. State v. Hidalgo, 296 Neb. 912, 2017 Neb. LEXIS 87 (June 9, 2017). Officers coming upon an assault in progress, … Continue reading
ID: “Right result-wrong theory” will not be applied to relieve the state of defaulting an argument in support of search
“Right result-wrong theory” will not be applied to relieve the state of failing to make an argument to support the search in the trial court. The state defaulted the argument it advances on appeal. State v. Garcia-Rodriguez, 2017 Ida. LEXIS … Continue reading
The Watergate break-in happened 45 years ago today
Almost certainly just before midnight the night of June 16, 1972, burglars entered the Watergate Complex to break into the Democratic National Headquarters. Shortly after midnight, June 17th, security guard Frank Wills discovered tape keeping a door from locking, and … Continue reading
CA9: SW for one CP message board user’s email account led to finding CP for defendant; no 4A violation
A search warrant was obtained for the email account of a user of the Dark Moon messaging board for users of child pornography. After searching that one, officers got permission to use the email account. That did not lead to … Continue reading
WaPo: Third party rights and the Carpenter cell-site case
WaPo: Third party rights and the Carpenter cell-site case by Orin Kerr:
S.D.N.Y.: Govt couldn’t use “all records exception” because of lack of PC support
Securities fraud warrant was way overbroad and can’t be saved by the “all records exception” to search defendant’s business and apartment and seize even personal records. The search was so intrusive it violated the Fourth Amendment because there wasn’t sufficient … Continue reading
D.Guam: CI’s tale insufficiently reliable for PC for arrest
A named CI arrested at the airport gave up defendant. The court finds the CI’s tale insufficient for probable cause for arrest, and the arrest and its fruits are suppressed. United States v. Duenas, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91480 (D. … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Mere refusal to cooperate is not RS, but headlong flight pretty much is
Mere refusal to cooperate is not reasonable suspicion, but headlong flight adds a lot to otherwise legally innocuous yet suggestive facts. United States v. Vance, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87086 (W.D. Ky. June 6, 2017):
OH3: Nine days of pole camera surveillance did not violate the 4A
Nine days of pole camera surveillance did not violate the Fourth Amendment. State v. Duvernay, 2017-Ohio-4219, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 2279 (3d Dist. June 12, 2017). The officer’s briefly talking to the defendant driver and his passenger did not unlawfully … Continue reading