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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 -
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Congressional Research Service:
--Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
--Overview of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (2012)
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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: Exclusionary rule
N.D.Ill.: The exclusionary rule does not apply in a § 1983 suit against police officers
The exclusionary rule does not apply in a § 1983 suit against police officers. Mayo v. Lasalle County, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 117667 (N.D. Ill. July 15, 2019).* The court concludes defendant didn’t just drop his backpack when confronted by … Continue reading
TX14: The exclusionary rule does not apply to drug testing in a termination of parental rights case
The exclusionary rule does not apply to drug testing in a termination of parental rights case. In the Interest of L.C.L., 2019 Tex. App. LEXIS 6018 (Tex. App. – Houston (14th Dist.) July 16, 2019). The smell of marijuana during … Continue reading
D.Ariz.: SW for text messages prior to date of offense suppressed, after date were proper
The issuing magistrate properly issued a search warrant for text messages on defendant’s cell phone for a particular date and thereafter by inference. Prior to that particular date is suppressed for lack of probable cause. United States v. Bowen, 2019 … Continue reading
AZ: Choice of law, exclusionary rule, and GFE
“¶1 Don Jacob Havatone appeals from his convictions and sentences for two counts of aggravated driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor (‘DUI’), one count of aggravated assault, one count of endangerment, and four counts of misdemeanor assault. Because a … Continue reading
M.D.Ala.: “Motions to suppress evidence are appropriate in civil forfeiture proceedings …”
“Motions to suppress evidence are appropriate in civil forfeiture proceedings because the seizure and subsequent civil forfeiture of assets implicates the Fourth Amendment. Plymouth Sedan v. Pennsylvania, 380 U.S. 693, 702 (1965) (holding that the Fourth Amendment is applicable to … Continue reading
KS: DMV can apply exclusionary rule to DL suspensions from bad stop
Petitioner’s stop was without reasonable suspicion, and the DMV can apply the exclusionary rule in the administrative proceeding. Jarvis v. Kansas Dep’t of Revenue, 2019 Kan. App. LEXIS 27 (May 10, 2019). “Regardless of whether defendant made a valid waiver … Continue reading
LA: Failure to show PC for medical records required suppression
“The district court erred in denying defendant’s motion to suppress despite finding that the officers failed to articulate probable cause in their search warrant application to subpoena defendant’s medical records. A search warrant application must contain within its four corners … Continue reading
WA: Reversal for unreasonable search of cell phone was required, not dismissal
The court of appeals erred in dismissing defendant’s case rather than reversing for a new trial after cell phone evidence was suppressed. There was other untainted evidence the state could use to try to convict on a retrial. State v. … Continue reading
Collins v. Virginia on remand: GFE saves the search
Collins v. Virginia on remand: The good faith exception applies to sustain the search because no reasonably well trained officer would have known that automobile exception would apply on the curtilage in the garage. Collins v. Commonwealth, 2019 Va. LEXIS … Continue reading
WI: Exclusionary rule applies to forfeiture actions; remanded for determination of GFE
The exclusionary rule applies to forfeiture actions under 1958 Plymouth Sedan; however, the state gets to argue and develop a record on remand that the good faith exception applies. State v. Scott, 2019 Wisc. App. LEXIS 191 (Apr. 4, 2019). … Continue reading
CA10: 404(b) evidence is subject to 4A exclusion, but harmless error applies
404(b) evidence obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment is subject to suppression. United States v. Hill, 60 F.3d 672, 677 (10th Cir. 1995). Here, however, it was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Dalton, 2019 U.S. App. … Continue reading
CA9: Exclusionary rule applies to tribal officers
The exclusionary rule applies to tribal officers conducting illegal searches or searches off their tribal lands under the Indian Civil Rights Act or the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Cooley, 919 F.3d 1135 (9th Cir. Mar. 21, 2019), reh. en … Continue reading
MA: There were objectively PC and exigency for a warrantless search of def’s hands for DNA from a homicide
There was objective probable cause for a warrantless search of defendant’s hands for potential DNA in a murder case because it was easily destructible. There was also sufficient probable cause for a search warrant for his apartment for further evidence … Continue reading
CA2: Even if SW was unlawful, def’s statement was attenuated
Even if the search warrant was unlawful for failure to specify the apartment to be searched, defendant’s statement was an intervening independent act of free will in disclosing the location of a CD of child pornography. The exclusionary rule would … Continue reading
D.Kan.: Exclusionary rule inapplicable to revo of federal supervised release
The exclusionary rule does not apply to searches leading to revocation of federal supervised release. United States v. Tran, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32836 (D. Kan. Mar. 1, 2019). “Defendant speculates, based on information in a search warrant application, that … Continue reading
N.D.Cal.: Despite 2011 violations of statute on real-time CSLI and trap and trace orders, GFE requires no suppression for isolated negligence
Seven years before Carpenter, Salinas CA police violated statute in getting real-time CSLI and a trap and trace order to find defendant after a robbery. The statutory violation was negligence, but it was isolated and not systemic, and the other … Continue reading
CA9: Injunctive relief against records surreptitiously collected is a possible remedy for a 4A violation
In a wide ranging case against the FBI for conducting covert surveillance in a mosque and targeting Muslims allegedly solely based on their religion, the court holds that injunctive relief to expunge what was seized is a possible remedy for … Continue reading
CA7: State law violation for tracking warrant not a 4A violation
Defendant was tracked by a state issued tracking warrant. A state imposed limitation on the tracking warrant was arguably violated, but that doesn’t by any means mean that the Fourth Amendment was violated when his case was brought in federal … Continue reading
A.F.Ct.Crim.App.: Forced catherization violated MRE 312(f) and exclusionary rule applied
Appellant was a JAG officer under medical treatment taking drugs, but those drugs interacted with alcohol and led to a DUI and a charge of being drunk on duty. A blood sample was obtained by medical personnel. Her urine, however, … Continue reading