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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)
--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: Reasonable expectation of privacy
E.D.Mich.: No REP in a police interrogation room
Defendant had no expectation of privacy in a police interrogation room that had a camera and microphone hidden in its smoke detector. He was overheard talking to his sister admitting that there was a gun linked to the crime. The … Continue reading
LA3: No REP in a jail call to spouse
There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a jail call to defendant’s wife. State v. Ducote, 2018 La. App. LEXIS 2297 (La. App. 3 Cir. Nov. 15, 2018).* No reasonable suspicion for extending a stop for no proof of … Continue reading
AZ: Opaque fence, no trespassing signs, and security cameras might bar entry to curtilage; remanded for more findings
Defendant had an opaque privacy fence and allegedly had no trespassing signs. His mailbox was outside the fence and there were security cameras. The officer passed both to come to the door to knock, and then he could smell marijuana. … Continue reading
E.D.Tex.: Def had no REP in a stolen travel trailer
Defendant had no expectation of privacy in a stolen travel trailer that was found and searched that wasn’t his. United States v. Deckert, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178036 (E.D. Tex. Oct. 10, 2018), adopted, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 178038 (E.D. … Continue reading
WI: No REP in a computer left running online P2P
Wisconsin follows the uniform rule from all other courts and holds that there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in computer files available on eDonkey P2P network under either the Fourth Amendment or the state constitution. State v. Baric, 2018 … Continue reading
N.D.Ga.: No REP in a wiretapped contraband cell phone in a jail
Defendant was on a contraband cell phone in jail that was wiretapped. He had no reasonable expectation of privacy in that phone. United States v. Nava, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155590 (N.D. Ga. Sep. 12, 2018):
OH5: Ptf stated claim for invasion of privacy that private drug tester had to observe genitalia
Plaintiff stated a claim for invasion of privacy that a private drug tester had to observe their genitals in a drug test. Lunsford v. Sterilite of Ohio, 2018-Ohio-3437, 2018 Ohio App. LEXIS 3725 (5th Dist. Aug. 27, 2018). “Failure to … Continue reading
C.D.Ill.: 18 month pole camera surveillance of def’s house didn’t violate REP
18 month pole camera surveillance of defendant’s house didn’t violate his reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Tuggle, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 127333 (C.D. Ill. July 31, 2018):
N.D.N.Y.: Public employer’s prior failure to search work computers under policy didn’t create a REP
Plaintiff did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in her work issued computers under the school computer privacy policy. The fact they’d never looked before doesn’t otherwise create a reasonable expectation of privacy. Rissetto v. Clinton Essex Warren Wash. … Continue reading
MS: No REP in calls from police station
Defendant’s calls from the police station after he was arrested admitted the marijuana in this case was his. The calls were admitted at trial, defense counsel challenging authentication. Defendant pro se argued a Fourth Amendment violation, but that is defaulted … Continue reading
GA: No REP in a police interview room when you’re talking to yourself
Defendant talked to her dead sister she was later accused of killing while sitting alone in a police interview room that was being recorded. She had no reasonable expectation of privacy. She thought it was private, but that’s not enough. … Continue reading
UT: Photographing items for inventory rather than listing them is reasonable
Photographing the things seen in the inventory rather than listing them all is reasonable. Here, defendant also mounted a “vigorous” defense to the validity of the inventory in other respects, but they all fail. His backpack was searched in the … Continue reading
GA: No REP in data in car’s airbag control module
Defendant did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the data from his vehicle’s airbag control module, because, while an outside observer cannot ascertain the information regarding the use and function of a vehicle with the same precision, a … Continue reading
Slate: What’s Next for the Reasonable Expectation of Privacy?
Slate: What’s Next for the Reasonable Expectation of Privacy? by Mike Godwin: The Supreme Court’s ruling in Carpenter raises new questions.
D.D.C.: BOP employee had no REP in BOP owned work cell phone even though personal information was on it
BOP IG issued an administrative subpoena for respondent to produce her BOP owned cell phone, and she refused claiming a reasonable expectation of privacy in it. First, the standard of review is narrow and limited, and the subpoena is enforceable. … Continue reading
FL2: Using an antennae to steal wifi that the police traced back didn’t violate a REP
Police obtained information that child pornography was downloaded via an IP address. They searched the computers there, finding none. They investigated further and found defendant was a neighbor who was using a Yagi antennae to obtain radio access to the … Continue reading
CA3: No REP from police being in a hotel hallway and then having RS for a frisk
The odor of marijuana coming from defendant’s hotel room was reasonable suspicion for his later stop and frisk in the hallway. “Appellant’s brief could also be read to assert that the police lacked reasonable suspicion to patrol the motel hallway. … Continue reading
CA2: There was no heightened expectation of privacy under Collins v. Virginia in a multi-family parking lot
Collins doesn’t provide a heightened expectation of privacy in a multi-family parking lot. “Jones does not dispute that the Dodge Magnum was inherently mobile. … We hold that the officers had probable cause to search the Dodge Magnum and that … Continue reading
PA: Information from CI’s recording in the home not suppressible even though full conversation might be
Recordings made in defendant’s house were not relied upon in issuing the search warrant for his house, so they can’t be a basis of suppression under the wiretap statute. As a Fourth Amendment matter, under Hoffa, the recordings made inside … Continue reading
D.Idaho: Consent irrelevant to a parole search
Defendant was reasonably subjected to a parole search, and withdrawal of his consent was irrelevant. United States v. Perales, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 99191 (D. Idaho June 11, 2018). The officer had reasonable suspicion to detain defendant for being a … Continue reading