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- CA6: State officer’s arrest for violation of federal MJ law likely wouldn’t violate 4A
- D.N.M.: Shared driveway outside of fence and gate was not curtilage
- CA6: Knowing passcode to cell phone shows common authority over it to consent
- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
- Reason: 3 Charlotte Cops Resign After Group Chat Reveals Competition To Arrest the Most Black People
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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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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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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (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
Reason.com: Prominent Civil Liberties Groups Anticipate Life Under President Donald Trump
Reason.com: Prominent Civil Liberties Groups Anticipate Life Under President Donald Trump by Anthony L. Fisher: If Trump makes good on his many threats to curtail liberty, there will be resistance.
Metro.us: Philly’s sanctuary city status threatened under Trump administration
Metro.us: Philly’s sanctuary city status threatened under Trump administration by Gary Kane: Mayor Jim Kenney says the city will protect citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights.
GA: Search incident of def’s backpack six days after arrest was void
Defense counsel at trial provided ineffective assistance when he failed to seek suppression of evidence recovered from defendant’s backpacks, that were searched six days after defendant’s arrest. The search incident to arrest exception was not applicable to the search that … Continue reading
N.D.Ill.: No general 4A or other privacy right to not share H.S. bathroom with transgender student
“For all these reasons, high school students do not have a fundamental constitutional right not to share restrooms or locker rooms with transgender students whose sex assigned at birth is different than theirs.” There’s no fundamental privacy right to claim … Continue reading
Bill of Rights Defense Comm.: Fourth Amendment Violations Are Now Lucrative Business Oppurtunities
Bill of Rights Defense Comm.: Fourth Amendment Violations Are Now Lucrative Business Oppurtunities by Sarah Nelson:
Cal.3d: Driver admitting no DL permitted search of her purse for ID
Police received reports of erratic driving and an LPN was given. The car wasn’t found at the location given. The address for the LPN was a block away, and the car wasn’t there either. Later in the day, police received … Continue reading
VA: Filing wrong version of affidavit in the return fatal error under statute
The version of the affidavit filed with the clerk after the search was not the one issued by the judge, and this is a fatal error, considering the statute on the subject. The statute being violated, the Fourth Amendment doesn’t … Continue reading
Offline when on the road maybe from the DoS system attacks
First a cert petition due 10/25 and on the road for two CLEs. Back with more tomorrow after the last CLE. My system guy said it worked in Little Rock, but it wasn’t from Atlanta. Now in DC for NACDL’s … Continue reading
KS: Where law changed between 2001 appeal and this one to def’s benefit, harmless error applied
In the second appeal from a 1996 murder, the Fourth Amendment law changed between the first appeal in 2001 and this one by the 2004 decision in Groh v. Ramirez. The court concludes that law of the case doesn’t apply, … Continue reading
WaPo: Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: This week in drug raids: Massachusetts edition
WaPo: Radley Balko’s “The Watch” Blog: This week in drug raids: Massachusetts edition: FBI, local cops stage fruitless raid in Quincy; family of man killed in his own home gets $3.75 million; National Guard troops, helicopters raid grandma over a … Continue reading
Manuel v. City of Joliet argued today: Whether malicious prosecution claim may lie under 4A
Manuel v. City of Joliet argued today: Whether an individual’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizure continues beyond legal process so as to allow a malicious prosecution claim based upon the Fourth Amendment. (SCOTUSBlog) See Reason.com: Supreme … Continue reading
WaPo: The Watch: ‘Do Not Resist’: A chilling look at the normalization of warrior cops
WaPo: The Watch: ‘Do Not Resist’: A chilling look at the normalization of warrior cops by Radley Balko: The haunting thing about the new policing documentary “Do Not Resist” is what it doesn’t show. There are no images of cops … Continue reading
The Atlantic: Trumpism Is the Symptom of a Gravely Ill Constitution
The Atlantic: Trumpism Is the Symptom of a Gravely Ill Constitution by Garrett Epps: No matter what happens in November, the sickness may be terminal.
Trump proposes profiling and stop and frisk based on race, opposes right to fair trial
Trump proposes profiling and suspicionless searches like Isreal, knowing his base will support it because they won’t be the targets. Apparently he only believes in the Second Amendment because we know he hates the First and now the Fourth and … Continue reading
WaPo: The Watch: Your drug raid roundup: Family of 7 terrified by mistaken SWAT raid; Kentucky man who shot cop is out on bond; court tosses lawsuit over flashbang injury to bystander
WaPo: The Watch: Your drug raid roundup: Family of 7 terrified by mistaken SWAT raid; Kentucky man who shot cop is out on bond; court tosses lawsuit over flashbang injury to bystander by Radley Balko: The drug war marches on … Continue reading
Constitution Day
I’m in Idaho for a CLE after an oral argument yesterday in Arkansas.* After 9½ hours in airports and on planes I crash at the hotel at 10 PT. I wake up to emails about Constitution Day, one from a … Continue reading
WaPo: Eleven SWAT officers treated for exposure to fentanyl and heroin in drug raid
WaPo: Eleven SWAT officers treated for exposure to fentanyl and heroin in drug raid by Lindsey Bever and J. Freedom du Lac: Eleven police officers in Hartford, Conn., were taken to a hospital for possible exposure to heroin and fentanyl … Continue reading
SC: ABC license inspection did not violate 4A because it’s a “pervasively regulated industry”
This “alcoholic beverage license inspection did not violate the Fourth Amendment because the ‘pervasively regulated industry’ exception to the warrant requirement applied.” S.C. Dep’t of Revenue v. Meenaxi, Inc., 2016 S.C. App. LEXIS 111 (Sept. 7, 2016). Defendant did not … Continue reading
No cases for two days; initiated act litigation
Initiated act litigation in Arkansas occurs in late August-September every even numbered year. Under Amendment 7 to the Arkansas Constitution, they are original actions in the Arkansas Supreme Court disposed of on super compressed schedules. The first one had the … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Standards for credibility determinations
How the court makes credibility determinations, and these officers are credible. United States v. Brounson, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112352 (N.D. Ga. May 23, 2016), adopted 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112278 (N.D. Ga. Aug. 23, 2016):