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- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
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Feedspot’s Best Legal Blogs and Websites 2023-2026,
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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. 
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Ars Technica: Man in jail 2 years for refusing to decrypt drives. Will he ever get out?
Ars Technica: Man in jail 2 years for refusing to decrypt drives. Will he ever get out? by David Kravets:
CA8: No QI immunity for arrest for obstruction of man video recording arrest of wife from his doorway
Plaintiff awoke to hear a commotion in his front yard, and he saw officers with guns drawn on his handicapped wife. He stood in his doorway and questioned what they were doing and why, and he video recorded them. They … Continue reading
TN: Cell phone warrantless search led to SW for phone; it was all unreasonable, yet harmless from other overwhelming proof
In a homicide case with plenty of other proof of motive, defendants’ cell phones were illegally searched, and then the decision was made by the police to get a warrant. The search was unreasonable. “It was only after the confirmatory … Continue reading
We already know the Executive Branch doesn’t respect the Fourth Amendment, but …
A serial violator of the Fourth Amendment is called a “great American patriot” by a President who recently encouraged police to use excessive force. And the SCOTUS hates the exclusionary rule, and Congress won’t update any privacy laws. Who will … Continue reading
44 years ago today I got the bar results
Saturday, August 25th, 12:20 pm, sent by Western Union telegram to the City Desk of the Arkansas Gazette from Hot Springs arriving shortly afternoon. Telegram …. Faxes didn’t exist yet.
Getting caught up after a jury trial
VI: Report of gun pointed from a particular car is RS
A report that a gun had been pointed from a car was reasonable suspicion to stop the car. When three of the four doors of the car flung open on the stop, it was reasonable to order everyone to the … Continue reading
Reason: Federal Judge Rules Unlicensed Dogs Aren’t Protected By Fourth Amendment
Reason: Federal Judge Rules Unlicensed Dogs Aren’t Protected By Fourth Amendment by C.J. Ciaramella: Nikita Smith sued the Detroit police after they shot her three dogs on a pot raid. A judge ruled the dogs were “contraband.”
Federal “war on drugs” started “80 Years Ago Today: President Signs First Federal Anti-Marijuana Law”
NORML Blog: 80 Years Ago Today: President Signs First Federal Anti-Marijuana Law by Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director:
WaPo: Former Ariz. sheriff Joe Arpaio, who took extreme stance on immigration, is convicted of criminal contempt [including 4A violations, with opinion link]
WaPo: Former Ariz. sheriff Joe Arpaio, who took extreme stance on immigration, is convicted of criminal contempt by Matt Zapotosky. Opinion link below. Arpaio was also found to have violated the Fourth Amendment rights of detainees: Courthouse News Service: Judge … Continue reading
Overseizure? I’m sure the floormat wasn’t mentioned in the search warrant
Since I have one at my house … I used to have one at my office. I let a client have it, and he was arrested after a search of his house two weeks later.
IA declines to abandon automobile exception just because of availability of electronic warrants
Iowa declines to abandon the automobile exception just because technological advances make it possible to apply for telephone or email warrants from the scene of a search. Other states attempted that and reverted back to the automobile exception. State v. … Continue reading
The New Yorker: The Bootlegger, the Wiretap, and the Beginning of Privacy
The New Yorker: The Bootlegger, the Wiretap, and the Beginning of Privacy by Karen Abbott
WaPo: Number of fatal shootings by police is nearly identical to last year
WaPo: Number of fatal shootings by police is nearly identical to last year by John Sullivan, Reis Thebault, Julie Tate and Jennifer Jenkins: Police nationwide shot and killed 492 people in the first six months of this year, a number … Continue reading
Book on sale through Friday midnight
Click here.
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
D.P.R.: Parents lacked apparent authority to consent to adult child’s room
The government failed to prove common authority by the consenter, defendant’s mother, for a search of the adult defendant’s separate bedroom. Common authority is far more readily found when the child is a minor, but not when the child is … Continue reading
The last of the files left in the hacks are gone
Our server service took us down for 48 hours to cleanup files left during the hacks. Regretfully, there were phishing attacks coming from here because of implanted files. You remove what they point out, and then others appear, triggered maybe … Continue reading
Hacked again
WordPress has been updated, and it’s acting a little funny. But at least it’s working again. Getting phishing reports that tell us of the hacks. We do this whole operation on a shoestring since there is no income from it, … Continue reading
techdirt: Appeals Court Pretty Sure DOJ Use-Of-Force Guidelines Don’t Violate Police Officers’ 2nd And 4th Amendment Rights
techdirt: Appeals Court Pretty Sure DOJ Use-Of-Force Guidelines Don’t Violate Police Officers’ 2nd And 4th Amendment Rights by Tim Cushing: