May 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Archives
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Recent Posts
- NY Columbia Co.: Alleged excessive nervousness when multiple police cars arrive at a traffic stop doesn’t add to RS
- CA4: Backpack dumped in flight in grandmother’s yard was abandoned
- GA: Virtually all-inclusive list of items to be seized wasn’t overbroad
- CA4: Dist.Ct. erred in applying search incident to arrest to suppress bag when inventory was inevitable
- OR: Even if original served warrant wasn’t the one returned, it doesn’t warrant suppression
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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 -
Latest Slip Opinions:
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Foreign Intell.Surv.Ct.
FDsys, many district courts, other federal courts
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To search Search and Seizure on Lexis.com $ -
Research Links:
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General (many free):
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Westlaw.com $
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www.fd.org
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center Resources
FBI Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (2008) (pdf)
DEA Agents Manual (2002) (download)
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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: Immigration arrests
TNR: Confirmed: ICE Is Arresting American Citizens—and Lying About It
The New Republic: Confirmed: ICE Is Arresting American Citizens—and Lying About It by Harry Litman (“A government that flouts the Fourth Amendment and then lies about it to courts and the people has crossed a moral and legal frontier.”)
404 Media: DHS Gives Local Cops a Facial Recognition App To Find Immigrants
404 Media: DHS Gives Local Cops a Facial Recognition App To Find Immigrants by Joseph Cox:
ProPublica: “I Don’t Feel Safe”: Black Memphis Residents Report Harassment by Trump’s Police Task Force
ProPublica: “I Don’t Feel Safe”: Black Memphis Residents Report Harassment by Trump’s Police Task Force by Wendi C. Thomas & Katherine Burgess (“Trump’s Memphis Safe Task Force promised to focus on violent criminals, but after being stopped for no apparent … Continue reading
techdirt: The Kavanaugh Stop’s Legacy: 50 Days, 170+ Detained Citizens, Zero Answers
techdirt: The Kavanaugh Stop’s Legacy: 50 Days, 170+ Detained Citizens, Zero Answers:
Slate: There’s a New Lawsuit Against “Kavanaugh Stops.” It’s Absolutely Devastating.
Slate: There’s a New Lawsuit Against “Kavanaugh Stops.” It’s Absolutely Devastating. by Dahlia Lithwick & Mark Joseph Stern:
Reason.com: ICE Arrested a U.S. Citizen—Twice—During Alabama Construction Site Raids. Now He’s Suing.
Reason.com: ICE Arrested a U.S. Citizen—Twice—During Alabama Construction Site Raids. Now He’s Suing. by C.J. Ciaramella (“‘I got arrested twice for being a Latino working in construction,’ says Leo Garcia Venegas, the lead plaintiff in a new lawsuit filed by … Continue reading
LAT: The 4th Amendment will no longer protect you
LAT: The 4th Amendment will no longer protect you by Daniel Harawa & Kate Weisburd:
LAT: Veteran U.S. attorney in California insisted Border Patrol follow a court order. Then she was fired.
LAT: Veteran U.S. attorney in California insisted Border Patrol follow a court order. Then she was fired. By Jessica Garrison (“The acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento has said she was fired after telling the Border Patrol chief in charge of … Continue reading
TNR: Brett Kavanaugh’s Shadow Docket Attack on Your Civil Liberties
TNR: Brett Kavanaugh’s Shadow Docket Attack on Your Civil Liberties by Blame Brett (“Whether motivated by animus or naïveté, the justice’s rationale for permitting law enforcement to racially profile suspects has dark implications for democracy.”)
SCOTUSBlog: “Roving patrols,” reasonable suspicion, and Perdomo
SCOTUSBlog: “Roving patrols,” reasonable suspicion, and Perdomo by Rory Little:
NYLJ: Trump’s Court Blesses Racial Profiling
NYLJ: Trump’s Court Blesses Racial Profiling:
Deftechtimes: Financial spy tool yanked from ICE after agents used it to hunt immigrants
Deftechtimes: Financial spy tool yanked from ICE after agents used it to hunt immigrants by Ruta Deshpande (“Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have lost access to a major database that tracked money transfers between the U.S. and Mexico. ICE … Continue reading
techdirt: Federal Judges Are Done Playing Nice: NBC Reports Full-Scale Revolt Against SCOTUS Shadow Docket Bullshit
techdirt: Federal Judges Are Done Playing Nice: NBC Reports Full-Scale Revolt Against SCOTUS Shadow Docket Bullshit by Mike Masnick:
ABAJ: Kavanaugh cites precedent, ‘common sense’ in supporting SCOTUS order allowing immigration stops
ABAJ: Kavanaugh cites precedent, ‘common sense’ in supporting SCOTUS order allowing immigration stops by Debra Cassens Weiss (“Justice Brett Kavanaugh explained his agreement with a U.S. Supreme Court stay on Monday that allowed the federal government to continue making immigration … Continue reading
LAT: You look Latino. You speak Spanish. You work hard. That’s now probable cause.
LAT: You look Latino. You speak Spanish. You work hard. That’s now probable cause. by Dean Florez (“When I was a young UCLA constitutional law major, we learned that the Constitution wasn’t just parchment behind glass: It was a living … Continue reading
The Guardian: US Supreme Court ‘effectively legalized racial profiling’, immigration experts warn
The Guardian: US Supreme Court ‘effectively legalized racial profiling’, immigration experts warn:
NYT: Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions on L.A. Immigration Stops
NYT: Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions on L.A. Immigration Stops by Adam Liptak (“federal judge had ordered agents not to make indiscriminate stops relying on factors like a person’s ethnicity or that they speak Spanish.”) The order is here. Kavanaugh, J., … Continue reading
CA5: Bailing out and running away from open truck at a convenience store was abandonment
Bailing out of a truck on the sidewalk of a convenience store and running away leaving the windows open and it unlocked is an abandonment. United States v. Tsatenawa, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 23079 (5th Cir. Sep. 5, 2025). The … Continue reading
ATL: a “search so obviously unconstitutional that a ‘high school student’ would know it’s illegal”
ATL: Federal Judge Slams The ‘Lawlessness’ Of Trump’s D.C. Takeover by Kathryn Rubino. These guys think they have Art. II license to violate the law?
LAT: The Supreme Court could give immigration agents broad power to stop and question Latinos
LAT: The Supreme Court could give immigration agents broad power to stop and question Latinos by David G. Savage (“This year’s most far-reaching immigration case is likely to decide if immigration agents in Los Angeles are free to stop, question … Continue reading