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- CA6: State officer’s arrest for violation of federal MJ law likely wouldn’t violate 4A
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- VI: Smell of MJ no longer PC in VI since legalization
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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
KS: After suppression and affirmance on appeal, law of the case bars state from relitigating search after recharging
After the state lost a motion to suppress and an interlocutory appeal, it admittedly manipulated a recharging to get a second suppression hearing. The first was law of the case. “The doctrine of law of the case prevents a party … Continue reading
CA6: Social media selfie created RS for parole search
Defendant was on supervision for a prior child pornography offense. Police looked to his social media page and found him taking a naked selfie wearing a Santa hat with a camera phone, a violation of the terms of his release. … Continue reading
AL: 76 year old with prior felonies sentenced to LWOP for 2.2 lbs marijuana
The 76 year old defendant, a prior habitual offender for violent crimes, was sentenced to life without parole for possession of 2.2 pounds of marijuana, the trial court thinking it had no discretion on the sentence. Defense counsel raised a … Continue reading
AZ: A probation or parole search must be reasonable under the totality of circumstances; reasonable suspicion not required
A probation or parole search must be reasonable under the totality of circumstances, and the trial court erred in requiring reasonable suspicion. State v. Adair, 2015 Ariz. App. LEXIS 179 (September 3, 2015):
W.D.Pa.: Def couldn’t show standing for CSLI on this phone, and, even if he could, he’d lose
Reiterating a prior opinion in the case, the defendant did not show standing to challenge CSLI on a phone associated with him, and even if he could, he’d lose on the merits (surveying the cases). United States v. Woodley, 2015 … Continue reading
NYTimes: A Surreptitious Courtroom Video Prompts Changes in a Georgia Town
NYTimes: A Surreptitious Courtroom Video Prompts Changes in a Georgia Town by Sheila Dewan: An explosion of cellphone videos has brought renewed attention to police practices, provoking criticism, indictments and talk of criminal justice overhaul. Courtroom videos of judges in … Continue reading
AJC: Officer, homeowner shot when DeKalb police respond to wrong house
Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Officer, homeowner shot when DeKalb police respond to wrong house by Ben Gray and Alexis Stevens. They entered solely because of an unlocked, not open, door: A DeKalb County police officer was critically injured, a homeowner injured and … Continue reading
ND: Officer who had no authority to move things in car conducted a search, so it wasn’t a valid plain view
The officer only had permission to move defendant’s vehicle. Inside, he moved around something to get a better look at a bag and searched it. The motion to suppress should have been granted because this was not a valid plain … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Some wiretap records are unsealed on request from press
The press sought unsealing of wiretapping related materials, and the parties are asked for their positions. The court orders partial release. United States v. Chow, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114802 (N.D.Cal. August 28, 2015):
ND: State didn’t even attempt to justify inventory; policy was required to be proved
The trial court did not err in finding that the impoundment and inventory was unreasonable. The vehicle was unlicensed, but the officer did not decide to inventory it until he found out defendant gave him a false identification. The state … Continue reading
The Independent: The US government has begun trialling methods to disable and track commercial drones
The Independent: The US government has begun trialling methods to disable and track commercial drones by Doug Bolton: The US government is conducting tests into ways to disable and track drones that may infiltrate sensitive sites.
The Hill: Feds share info on subpoenas against media outlets
The Hill: Feds share info on subpoenas against media outlets by Julian Hattem: The federal government authorized searches against news organizations 10 different times in 2014, the Justice Department said Friday.
PolitiFact: Rand Paul says the Fourth Amendment ‘was what we fought the Revolution over’ (mostly true)
“The Fourth Amendment was what we fought the Revolution over. John Adams said it was the spark that led to our war for independence.” — Rand Paul on Thursday, August 6th, 2015 in a Republican presidential debate in Cleveland PolitiFact: … Continue reading
NPR: A Lawyer’s Advice For Black Men At Traffic Stops: ‘Comply Now, Contest Later’
NPR: A Lawyer’s Advice For Black Men At Traffic Stops: ‘Comply Now, Contest Later’: It’s been nearly a year since a police officer shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American 18-year-old, in Ferguson, Mo. Since then, more deadly police … Continue reading
CO: No REP in a jail call, particularly where there is a recorded warning on the call
Defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his jail calls because he knew that they were recorded. The calls at issue were to “to coerce the victim not to testify” showing consciousness of guilt. People v. Degreat, 2015 COA … Continue reading
WaPo: Opinion: The complexities of traffic stops, from a police officer’s perspective
WaPo: Opinion: The complexities of traffic stops, from a police officer’s perspective by Peter Moskos: Little about policing is ideal. But that’s why we have police officers, to handle non-ideal situations. These often involve people who are lost, mentally ill, … Continue reading
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: So much for the “Ferguson effect”: Killings of cops are down 25 percent for the first half of 2015
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: So much for the “Ferguson effect”: Killings of cops are down 25 percent for the first half of 2015: Through the end of June, the number of officers killed by gunfire has dropped 25 … Continue reading
CNN: What are your rights during a traffic stop?
CNN: What are your rights during a traffic stop? (Video)
The Hill: Capitol Police Search Powers Provoke Constitutional Concerns
The Hill: Capitol Police Search Powers Provoke Constitutional Concerns by Hannah Hess: The trio of congressional officials who have exclusive control over traffic rules on the Capitol grounds are ordering a change that would enhance Capitol Police’s authority to search … Continue reading
Criminal Law 2.0 – Preface to the 44th Annual Review of Criminal Procedure
Criminal Law 2.0 – Preface to the 44th Annual Review of Criminal Procedure by Hon. Alex Kozinski: Although we pretend otherwise, much of what we do in the law is guesswork. For example, we like to boast that our criminal … Continue reading