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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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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
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General (many free):
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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)
ACLU on privacy
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NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
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Section 1983 Blog -
"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
Texas Lawyer: Talk to the Hand: Defense Seeks to Dismiss Lawsuit Alleging Recording of Attorney-Client Jailhouse Phone Calls
Texas Lawyer: Talk to the Hand: Defense Seeks to Dismiss Lawsuit Alleging Recording of Attorney-Client Jailhouse Phone Calls by Angela Morris: “The plaintiffs who are lawyers claiming to represent inmates in the Travis County detention facilities lack standing to assert … Continue reading
NLJ: Shutting NSA ‘Backdoor’ Access to User Data
NLJ: Shutting NSA ‘Backdoor’ Access to User Data by Andrew Ramonas Backed by Google Inc. and other technology organizations, the House on Friday sent to the Senate legislation that would restrict National Security Agency ‘backdoor’ access to user data gathered … Continue reading
WaPo: Rand Paul’s drug war talk in Iowa was important, but not for the reason you think
WaPo: Rand Paul’s drug war talk in Iowa was important, but not for the reason you think by Radley Balko: Iowa leads the country in racially disproportionate pot arrests.
The Atlantic: How Neuroscience Reinforces Racist Drug Policy
The Atlantic: How Neuroscience Reinforces Racist Drug Policy by Nathan Greenslit: A recent neuroscience study from Harvard Medical School claims to have discovered brain differences between people who smoke marijuana and people who do not. Such well-intentioned and seemingly objective … Continue reading
New law review article: Katz Has Only One Step: The Irrelevance of Subjective Expectations
Katz Has Only One Step: The Irrelevance of Subjective Expectations, Orin S. Kerr, University of Chicago Law Review, Forthcoming. Abstract: This Article argues that the “subjective expectation of privacy” test is a phantom doctrine. The test exists on paper but … Continue reading
In Waco, asking for a public defender could bring a sheriff’s investigator to your house
Waco Tribune: Investigator making dent in county’s indigent defense costs by Stephanie Butts: The presence of a new McLennan County indigent defense investigator has substantially reduced the number of requests for court-appointed, county-funded attorneys. McLennan County Indigent Defense Coordinator Cathy … Continue reading
NYT: Microsoft Protests Order to Disclose Email Stored Abroad
NYT: Microsoft Protests Order to Disclose Email Stored Abroad by Steven Lohr: Microsoft is challenging the authority of federal prosecutors to force the giant technology company to hand over a customer’s email stored in a data center in Ireland.
NYT: War Gear Flows to Police Departments
NYT: War Gear Flows to Police Departments by Matt Apuzzo: NEENAH, Wis. — Inside the municipal garage of this small lakefront city, parked next to the hefty orange snowplow, sits an even larger truck, this one painted in desert khaki. … Continue reading
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: Morning Links: NYPD conducts mass sweep of public housing
WaPo: Radley Balko’s ‘The Watch’ Blog: Morning Links: NYPD conducts mass sweep of public housing: ● In what seems to be a brazen, shameless action to avoid transparency, U.S. marshals have apparently seized the records kept by Florida police agencies … Continue reading
Legal Intelligencer: Dougherty Wants Federal Judge to Order Affidavit Resealed
Legal Intelligencer: Dougherty Wants Federal Judge to Order Affidavit Resealed: Labor union leader John Dougherty has asked a federal judge to order a state court to reseal an FBI affidavit of probable cause related to a search of Dougherty’s home … Continue reading
WaPo: Anatomy of a pot bust
WaPo: Anatomy of a pot bust by Radley Balko I’m not even going to summarize it. Just read it: our “War on Drugs” because of overtime pay.
Treatise 15% off at Lexis Bookstore through 6/8
Search and Seizure (5th ed.) is 15% off at the Lexis Bookstore through 6/8.
Trial starts today
I’m in a drug conspiracy case with FIPF and use of a firearm in a drug trafficking crime starting today and ending Friday(?), Monday(?). Snitch heavy case: Government can’t prove much of anything without jury believing all three (who all … Continue reading
New Law Review Article: The Evolution of the Right to Exclude — More than a Property Right, a Privacy Right
The Evolution of the Right to Exclude — More than a Property Right, a Privacy Right, Jace C. Gatewood, 32 Miss. C. L. Rev. 447 (2014). Abstract: More than two hundred years ago, William Blackstone defined the right of property … Continue reading
NYT: Final Word on U.S. Law Isn’t: Supreme Court Keeps Editing
NYT: Final Word on U.S. Law Isn’t: Supreme Court Keeps Editing by Adam Liptak: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has been quietly revising its decisions years after they were issued, altering the law of the land without public notice. The … Continue reading
In trial
You’ve likely noticed posts are behind. I’ve been in trial prep and have a week and a half drug, gun, and shooting conspiracy trial starting Tuesday. Today, we had to exchange and turn in exhibits and witness lists, and we … Continue reading
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center
NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center: NACDL’s Domestic Drone Information Center aims to be a one-stop source of cutting-edge information on the proliferation of drones inside the United States. It collects news from leading publications across the nation; features a comprehensive … Continue reading
ChicagoTribune: NSA data-gathering may run into California roadblock
ChicagoTribune: NSA data-gathering may run into California roadblock by Sharon Bernstein, Reuters: SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) – The federal government would need a warrant from a judge if it wants the cooperation of California officials in searching residents’ cellphone and computer … Continue reading
Boston Globel: How privacy became an American value
Boston Globe: How privacy became an American value by Ted Widmer: The Fourth Amendment grew from a showdown in Boston’s North End
The Atlantic: What If U.S. Cities Just Stopped Participating in the War on Drugs?
The Atlantic: What If U.S. Cities Just Stopped Participating in the War on Drugs? by Jake Cole: As gridlock has become the norm in Washington, U.S. cities are increasingly going it alone in the search for solutions to the country’s … Continue reading