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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 / The Book
www.johnwesleyhall.com -
© 2003-25,
online since Feb. 24, 2003 Approx. 500,000 visits (non-robot) since 2012 Approx. 47,000 posts since 2003 (30,000+ on WordPress as of 12/31/24) -
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Fourth Amendment cases,
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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) -
“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] -
“You know, most men would get discouraged by now. Fortunately for you, I am not most men!”
---Pepé Le Pew -
"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)
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Category Archives: Warrant papers
W.D.Wis.: 4A doesn’t require filing SW and application before service
Filing a search warrant and application before it is served isn’t a constitutional requirement. [And even if it was, where’s the prejudice?] United States v. Robinson, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130063 (W.D. Wis. July 8, 2025):
TX4: State can’t rely on community caretaking function where it didn’t make a record below
The state couldn’t rely on the community caretaking function exception on appeal where it didn’t develop the record for it below. State v. Young, 2025 Tex. App. LEXIS 4196 (Tex. App. – San Antonio June 18, 2025). Defendant can’t make … Continue reading
OH5: Obvious typo in SW paperwork can be overlooked
Obvious typographical error in search warrant papers can be overlooked. State v. Crisp, 2025-Ohio-1718, 2025 Ohio App. LEXIS 1690 (5th Dist. May 13, 2025). Walking away from a police encounter is permitted, but here the officers had reasonable suspicion based … Continue reading
FL5: Traffic stops can be based on RS, not PC
Traffic stops can be based on reasonable suspicion, not just probable cause. State v. Howard, 2025 Fla. App. LEXIS 3618 (Fla. 5th DCA May 9, 2025). A light bar on a three wheel off road vehicle was reasonable suspicion for … Continue reading
AF: Military search authorization orally supplemented was subject to GFE
There were multiple military search authorizations, and the request here was orally supplemented before issuance expanding the particularity. Also, the good faith exception applies. United States v. Johnson, 2025 CCA LEXIS 193 (A.F. Ct. Crim. App. May 2, 2025). A … Continue reading
CA4: SW affidavit not required to name an offender
A search warrant is about whether evidence would be found in the place to be searched, not whether there’s an offender. United States v. Johnson, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 10138 (4th Cir. Apr. 28, 2025). 2255 petitioner’s Franks ineffective assistance … Continue reading
S.D.N.Y.: NY Times gets access to Eric Adams SW materials
The New York Times is granted access to the search warrant materials in the Eric Adams case. It satisfied the standards for common law access. Some limited redactions are permitted. United States v. Adams, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79178 (S.D.N.Y. … Continue reading
W.D.Pa.: Def doesn’t overcome common law presumption SW records are public records
Defendant objects to the search warrant materials being unsealed on the docket. He has not overcome the common law presumption of open access. The First Amendment right of public access is even broader. These papers are unsealed. United States v. … Continue reading
KS: In responding to SW, out-of-state social media company’s authentication statement substantially complied with state law
In responding to a search warrant request, the social media company provided Rule 901 authentication for that state “under penalty of perjury,” but under the law of the United States not the State of Kansas. It was under penalty of … Continue reading
W.D.Ky.: Police battering ram to door and shots fired inside is a seizure
In the Brianna Taylor civil rights prosecution, the battering ram to the door of the apartment with shots being fired was a seizure of the occupants. United States v. Hankison, 2025 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29347 (W.D. Ky. Feb. 19, 2025).* … Continue reading
CA9: 4A does not require the recording of telephonic oaths
The Fourth Amendment does not require the recording of telephonic oaths. United States v. Larkins, 2025 U.S. App. LEXIS 3513 (9th Cir. Feb. 14, 2025). The officer’s conduct was not reckless or deliberate to avoid the good faith exception. United … Continue reading
AR: “[T]he exclusionary rule—absent a showing of bad faith—does not apply in a revocation hearing.”
“[T]he exclusionary rule—absent a showing of bad faith—does not apply in a revocation hearing.” Wallace v. State, 2025 Ark. App. 19 (Jan. 15, 2025). An officer on patrol in a motel parking lot saw defendant’s car. They drove past each … Continue reading
CA1: SW was in good faith where affidavit was accidentally not filed with court
The Postal Inspector here prepared the search warrant affidavit, and the affidavit was to be incorporated with the warrant. The warrant was filed, however, by the USAO without the affidavit attached. The good faith exception applies. The officer did nothing … Continue reading
S.D.Ala.: Failure to timely make SW return under state law not a 4A issue
The fact the search warrant paperwork wasn’t returned on time which made it void under state law isn’t relevant under the Fourth Amendment in federal court. Jackson v. United States, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 235912 (S.D. Ala. Dec. 4, 2024), … Continue reading
W.D.N.Y.: Incorrect AUSA assertion about which phone was searched had to be promptly clarified, not when he or she felt like it
Here, the AUSA was apparently confused in pleadings as to which cell phone was searched, a white or black one. When the AUSA learned that the wrong one was spoken of, he or she had a duty to promptly clarify–not … Continue reading
NV: No suppression for a delayed return of SW
State law says that the product of search warrants can be suppressed when they were wrongfully executed. That says nothing about a delayed return, and the search won’t be suppressed for that reason. Alvarez v. State, 2024 Nev. LEXIS 69 … Continue reading
NY3: No REP in SHU surveillance
Defendant was in a special housing unit in a NY state prison. He knew he was under constant surveillance. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy in admissions he made caught on video. People v. Ashcroft, 2024 NY Slip Op … Continue reading